To access the Prison Policy Initiative website, please click here. Data Source: See the Methodology section of State of Phone Justice: Local jails, state prisons and private phone providers for complete data sourcing. (Graph: Peter Wagner and Alexi Jones, 2019) This graph originally appeared in State of Phone Justice: Local jails, state prisons and private phone providers . As of November 2018, in more than half of states, the highest in-state 15 minute call costs more than $10, and in 15...

Sable Elyse Smith’s “Backbend” (2019) on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. MAURICE CHAMMAH/THE MARSHALL PROJECT By Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project, August 12, 2023 At first glance, the “Federal Prison Inmate Activity Book” looks like something a child might get at a fast food restaurant. But then you see that the word search puzzle includes terms like “larceny” and “embezzle.” On another page, above drawings of a panda and a one-eyed snake,...

Successful health equity strategies must be inclusive, and focus on all marginalized and minoritized persons and their communities. Any lesser view will continue to yield a faulty health equity equation.

(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...

About the Trans in Custody project Please click here: https://www.pointofpride.org/trans-in-custody Point of Pride has developed a series of resource guides designed to help trans people who are incarcerated access gender-affirming chest binders by empowering themselves and the people in their lives to advocate and effect positive change. Today, we've released our first guide to provide support to counselors in correctional facilities who work directly with trans folks. In the coming days,...

Noelle Hanrahan and Mumia Abu-Jamal on February 25, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL & NOEL HANRAHAN, SCI MAHANOY To read more of Sonali Kolhatkar's article, please click here. More than 30 years ago, Noelle Hanrahan launched a journalism project called Prison Radio built on a simple idea: Give incarcerated people a media platform to tell their own stories. Hanrahan, who made a name for herself producing radio commentaries by the well-known political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal ,...

Chefalo Consulting, a leading provider of trauma-informed change solutions, and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), Ohio’s prison system dedicated to reducing recidivism and crime in Ohio, have successfully launched trauma-informed training for agency staff across the state. After recognizing the residual effects of trauma on staff and incarcerated individuals, ODRC sought to establish a comprehensive and trauma-aware culture within its organization. Chefalo...

Credit: Roger Utting / Shutterstock To read more of MaryLou Costa's article, please click here. “Hi, I’m sorry that I can’t respond to your email. I’m currently in a prison, recruiting more amazing colleagues for our business.” That’s a standard out-of-office reply for Darren Burns, who, as director of diversity and inclusion for well-known UK service retailer Timpson, spends a lot of time interviewing candidates from within prisons. CEO James Timpson made his first prison visit in 2002,...

A watchtower at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton on Feb. 5, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters To read more of Byrhonda Lyon's article, please click here. As Gov. Gavin Newsom retools the state’s prison system to emphasize rehabilitation, his administration has little evidence that a privately run program for parolees costing taxpayers $100 million a year works to prevent future crime. The state does not collect data on whether parolees who participate in the program have...

Photo Credit: Walt Stoneburner, Flickr Creative Commons By Michelle Crouch, The Charlotte Ledger, July 5, 2023 -- With foster homes in short supply, more than 55 children over the past year have spent at least one night sleeping on an air mattress in a Mecklenburg government conference room; “It’s as bad as it’s ever been.” Dozens of children have been forced to sleep on the floor of Mecklenburg County offices over the past year because of a severe shortage of foster homes and crisis beds,...

Photo by UncleVinny (CC BY 3.0) To read more of Hollie Garrett's article, please click here. In 2011, a 20-year prison sentence turned my life completely upside down. This was not my first time being incarcerated, but it was the longest sentence I had ever received. This new reality was hard to accept. Twenty years was enough time to lose the people I cared about and damage the relationships I hoped to maintain. My biggest fear centered around my relationship with my three sons. I worried we...

Emancipation Day, Richmond, Virginia, circa 1905 (Photo source: Library of Congress) To read more of Antwann Lamont Johnson's article, please click here. We use the holiday to reflect on the resilience of our Black ancestors. I didn’t learn about Juneteenth until after I came to prison. Being incarcerated made me want to learn more about the history of slavery in this country. Most of what I’ve learned is sad, but it’s helping me understand the present better. Juneteenth celebrates the...