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Higher ed expands in prisons as students prepare for life on the outside

Mar 6, 2024
Schools are seeking government approval to start degree programs after financial aid for incarcerated students was fully reinstated.
Brandon Warren, who runs the reentry program at Lee College Huntsville Center, created educational resources for people in prison.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

Hundreds of food brands linked to hidden prisoner workforce, AP reports

The Associated Press uncovered a workforce of prisoners producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products and goods by popular food brands.
Nationwide, U.S. prisoners produce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products and goods sold on the open market, AP reporters found. Above, a man walks through part of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison with its own farm.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images

Transforming the post-incarceration experience

Jan 3, 2024
Sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller discusses the “moral worlds” of people who’ve been convicted of violent crimes
A sign pleading for help hangs in a window at the Cook County jail complex on April 09, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Prison training program teaches women to code

Jun 27, 2023
Finding meaningful work that pays a decent wage can be especially hard for people coming out of prison. The Last Mile is hoping to change that.
Tanika Stewart had taken other classes in prison, but The Last Mile appealed to her because of "how they train you, how upon your release they help you find a job."
Alisa Roth

A new law aims to make prison calls affordable. The FCC must decide what that means.

May 31, 2023
The agency has more authority to regulate the cost of those calls, which could mean significant savings for families of the incarcerated.
While Congress gave the FCC authority to cap the cost of prison calls in 2014, that didn't apply to roughly 80% of calls made within states. Above, a bank of telephones at a detention facility in Virginia.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

For incarcerated women with newborns, an Indiana prison unit offers a chance to bond

Dec 27, 2022
The women learn child care skills and are paid prison wages to take care of their babies.
Jessica Adams and her son Dawson will live on a maternal unit at the Indiana Women’s Prison until she is released.
Alisa Roth

Will a tight labor market make it easier for formerly incarcerated people to get hired?

"Second-chance hiring" is on the rise, but those with criminal records still face significant barriers to employment.
"Second-chance hiring" is on the rise, but those with criminal records still face significant barriers to employment.
Tim Boyle/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Program helps formerly incarcerated women launch tech careers

Dec 10, 2021
The goal is to help women find jobs that pay more than a minimum wage salary, with benefits.
Patricia Manning and the other nine women help each other out with rides to class, study groups and moral support. "I tell them all the time: We're going to get this," she said. "I say: We pray enough, we believe in each other, we believe in ourselves. I say: 'We got this.'"
Keren Carrión/KERA News

The struggle to treat kids at a juvenile justice facility

Dec 8, 2021
Conditions at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake in Wisconsin were so bad that now, a federally appointed monitor oversees the facilities. As the number of kids there has declined, costs have gone up.
The Copper Lake and Lincoln Hills schools in Wisconsin house kids who have been sentenced to live there by a judge.
Courtesy of Wisconsin Department of Corrections

Could we be doing more to help people on parole?

A former New Orleans parole officer reflects on what could be done better to help parolees stay out of jail and build new lives.
A truck is parked in front of a home in the historic Fauborg Marigny neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Mario Tama/Getty Image