A Difficult Gift to Give and to Receive

April 24, 2019, 12:46 pm Saturday night in our Restorative Justice club meeting we discussed forgiveness. This illusive concept incites deeply held feelings from those of us who long so desperately for our victims and victims’ families to

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Mass Incarceration Meets The Surveillance State: EM and First Step Act

December 19, 2018, 6:32 am This piece I wrote for Truthout contains my reflections on where this often confusing legislation known as the First Step Act is taking us in terms of electronic monitoring. I stress that we

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How to Be Part of the Thirty-Three

National studies have shown that the average recidivism rates (re-offense rates) for citizens returning from prison is sixty-seven percent.That’s an alarmingly high number and clear evidence that the industrial prison complex’s methods of rehabilitation do not work. If

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Best-Laid Plans or Pipe Dreams?

Several months ago, a young man who had left prison from our unit on parole returned to prison again. When he went home, he had little to return to, and the allure of his drug addiction pulled him

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Proven Innocent

February 26, 2019, 2:39 pm In the ’90s and throughout the 2000s, television schedules exploded with new police and criminal justice shows. Law and Order (and its many offshoots), NYPD Blues, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Cops, and dozens

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Definition of “Juvenile” Gets a New Look by the Courts

Who hasn’t done something stupid as a child, only to regret it later? I think it’s pretty safe to say that nearly everyone has at least one story of a regretful decision born of the immaturity of youth.

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Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave!

Perhaps you have heard the colloquialism, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.” It may be a pithy saying, but it has teeth in prison. Some prison relationships are built on

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Separating Children from Their Parents is Not a New Phenomenon

Recently, news stories have dominated the media regarding the tragic separation of children from their parents who entered the United States illegally. I would guess that most people, regardless of political affiliation, find these stories heartbreaking and feel

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Learning How to Relax in a Muddle of Noise

“Ticket-free field house!” the unit officer called out over the loudspeaker. I stepped into the hallway, joining the crowd streaming from the dayroom and bathroom where they had congregated, anticipating the call. We merged into a tentatively shuffling

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Forgiveness is Hard, But is it Ever Deserved?

Forgiveness is hard. Shoot, it’s hard enough when the offense is personal but no lasting harm has been done. I think it’s just human nature to find forgiveness difficult. First, we want the offender to be sorry, but

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Symbolic Imprisonment, Grief, and Coping Theory, April 2019

SPEAKER: Dr. Avon Hart-Johnson;President and co-founder of DC Project Connect Dr. Hart-Johnson speaks about her studies on the loved ones of incarcerated individuals and how this situation creates a pseudo imprisonment for the un-incarcerated ones in these relationships. 

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