Eliminating Crack / Cocaine Sentencing Disparity
In July, the House Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly passed, 36 to 5, the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, which would finally eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Sentencing Project dives deeper into this topic in a news article here: https://www.sentencingproject.org/news/race-justice-news-senate-hearing-crack-cocaine-sentencing-disparity/ For a deeper history of sentencing […]
Stanford Social Innovation Review asks, “What Really Makes Us Safe?”
An excerpt from the book Rich Thanks to Racism addresses shifting investments in mass criminalization to multidisciplinary systems of care. “For example, in the early 1970s our public investment in the criminal justice system was only about one-fifth of what it is now, and our incarcerated population was 85 percent lower than it is currently. […]
Racial and Ethnic Disparities Drag Down Youth Justice Reform
This is shared directly from The Sentencing Project. Please save and review this deeply important research and resource: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Profound racial and ethnic disparities in youth incarceration define the American juvenile justice system. New publications released today by The Sentencing Project detail the scope of the problem and should raise alarms among policymakers and […]
A New Lease on Life – People Convicted of Violent Crimes Are Rarely Rearrested for New Violent Crimes
Analysis from a new report by the Sentencing Project, released June 30, 2021, show most state-level studies show that people who are released from life sentences are imprisoned for new offenses at a rate of less than 5%. For more information on these statistics, the history of racism and criminal punishment, and America’s exceptionalism in […]
The First Ever Research Study of Trauma-Informed Yoga for PTSD, Psychosis, and Schizophrenia
We’re so excited to be hosting the project leaders and facilitators of the first ever study of Trauma-Informed Yoga for PTSD, Psychosis, and Schizophrenia. You can RSVP for this event here: https://community.prisonyoga.org/?post_type=tribe_events&p=12873&preview=true For additional reading about this amazing program you can read their most recent article here: https://www.hv.se/en/news-archive/first-in-the-world-to-evaluate-trauma-informed-yoga-in-forensic-psychiatry/ Listen to the research and training team […]
The Landscape of Youth Incarceration
This summer, PYP will turn our attention to a series of webinars focused on youth yoga programming, as we anticipate a return inside soon to in-person programs. I will be the guest for the first webinar to share my experiences as an educator and a current yoga facilitator for youth incarcerated at the juvenile detention […]
Research Roundup: Incarceration can cause lasting damage to mental health
Thanks to the Prison Policy Institute for this article with links to all the supporting research. We often think of incarceration as something people live through and from which they can ultimately be released. But the reality is that time spent in prisons and jails can create a host of collateral consequences that haunt individuals even […]
“Incarcerated and Infected: How the Virus Tore Through the U.S. Prison System” – NYT
This article from the New York Times is an excellent piece of journalism. It provides a high-level perspective, as well as a heartbreakingly intimate look at the experience of the pandemic for people incarcerated in the U.S. A must-read. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/10/us/covid-prison-outbreak.html
Empathy training for parole officers reduces recidivism by 13%
Heavy caseloads, job stress and biases can strain relations between parole and probation officers and their clients, upping offenders’ likelihood of landing back behind bars. On a more hopeful note, a new UC Berkeley study suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-appointed supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients and, arguably, better able […]