Let’s say you are new in town. A bus drops you off near the city. You are given $40, two weeks’ worth of your medication, and a change of clothes. Good luck. Now you are on your own. It doesn’t sound ideal, does it? How are you going to get around? Find a place to…

By Christopher Zoukis There’s been much talk about prison reform in this country, but to date not a lot has changed. While prisoner education programs and other reforms are slowly making ground, the U.S. still has the world’s highest prison population, with nearly a half million more in the prison system than China, which ranks…

Soft skills are essential to social integration. These are skills such as communication, empathy, organization and cognitive reasoning that enable people to interact more positively with each other. They’re non-academic skills that also help people become more accountable for their actions, and to pause and think before acting irrationally. While much focus is put on…

The U.S. may have the worst recidivism rate in the world at 76.6 percent, but that doesn’t mean the system has failed every prisoner. There are a handful of inspiring stories about some that went to jail and used their time to turn their lives around, got out, and made lasting differences in their communities.…

It is often said that has the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Is that true? Yes. Statistics from sources like the World Prison Brief, an online database providing a look into prison systems around the world, show that America houses more than two million inmates — nearly 500,000 more than China, which…

America is known for its overcrowded prisons and harsh penitentiary conditions, but how does it rank compared to some of the other prison systems around the world? America – the Supermax: How not to treat mentally ill patients One of the most notorious jails in America is the ADX. The Administrative Maximum Facility, aka the ADX Supermax in Colorado was…

By Christopher Zoukis

It’s a slow shift, but the criminal justice system moving its focus more toward rehabilitation and corrections, and away from a philosophy of punishment and incarceration. Critics of this shift say it’s a soft-on-crime approach, but research backs the effectiveness of the approach in reducing recidivism and the costs of re-incarceration.

By Christopher Zoukis

Major changes are afoot in Utah’s criminal justice system as part of the state’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative.

Approved in March 2015, the initiative is part of a series of changes approved by Gov. Gary Herbert to reduce incarceration and recidivism rates, save taxpayer dollars and provide solutions to the current system of incarceration, aiming not just to lock up offenders, but to change the lives of those who are incarcerated.

Proposed reforms to the Florida DOC include reducing harsh penalties on youth offenders. By Christopher Zoukis Following the launch of a new goal plan for the Florida Department of Corrections, big changes should be arriving in the beleaguered system, with several new pieces of legislation introduced and new budgetary items requested. All of the proposed…

By Christopher Zoukis For five years, inmates haven’t even had the opportunity to obtain high school equivalency diplomas at the Lackawanna County Prison in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The GED program was scrapped during a county budgeting crisis in 2012 and has yet to be reinstated. Still, positive changes are on the horizon at the facility, with…

Posts Tagged ‘rehabilitation’

Prison Education Continues with Released Prisoners

We Know What Works: The Key to Prison Reform

Soft-Skills Programming a Success in County Jail

Not So Hard Time: How Some Inmates Find Success Post-release

U.S. Prisoners Among Least Rehabilitated in World

Not the worst, but not Norway: US prisons vs. other models

New UK Super Prison A Model of Reform Over Punishment

New Utah Prison Opening in 2020 Will Emphasize Rehabilitation

Florida's Troubled Prison, Juvenile Justice Systems Gearing Up For Overhaul