A recently posted article by The Marshall Project provides an overview of the findings of the Boston Reentry Study, which tracks the lives of 135 men and women who left state prison in Massachusetts for communities in the Boston area in 2012-2013. The study seeks to explore the impact of incarceration on families and communities.
March 26th – Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform
On March 26th in Washington D.C., Americans from all political backgrounds will come together for the first Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform to discuss the #cut50 initiative. #cut50 seeks to reduce America’s incarcerated population “by 50 percent over the next 10 years by convening unlikely allies, elevating proven solutions, and communicating a powerful new narrative.”
NYU Launches Prison Education Program
The New York University Prison Education Program has received a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to begin offering credit-bearing, university courses to incarcerated individuals at the Wallkill Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in New York State’s Ulster County, which will enable students to earn an Associate of Arts (AA) degree from the university.
March 6th – “Dying while Black & Brown” Dance Performance
Join us Friday March 6th from 6-8pm for Dying While Black & Brown, a dance performance about capital punishment performed by the Zaccho Dance Theatre from San Francisco. A post-performance discussion will feature Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. First commissioned by the San Francisco Equal Justice Society, Dying While Black and Brown focuses on capital punishment and the disproportionate numbers of incarcerated people of color. The piece was created by Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joanna Haigood in collaboration with renowned jazz composer Marcus Shelby. It was created in response to the Equal Justice Society’s campaign to restore 14th Amendment protections for victims of discrimination, including those on death row.
Report by Brennan Center: What Caused the Crime Decline?
On February 12, 2015 the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law recently released a report entitled What Caused the Crime Decline? The report centers on two central questions: Why has crime fallen? And to what degree is incarceration, or other criminal justice policy, responsible? The findings reveal that decreasing rates of crime over the past two decades in America was not due to harsher criminal punishment policies or increased incarceration.