rehabilitation

COMMENTARY
Prisoners walking behind a fence

A better way to run prisons

BY: - June 8, 2023

In recent years, the global conversation surrounding the purpose and effectiveness of prisons has undergone a significant shift. Rather than focusing solely on punishment and isolation, countries like Germany and Norway have pioneered a more therapeutic approach to incarceration. By prioritizing restoration, human dignity, substance use, and mental health treatment, as well as practicing the […]

a prisoner grips the bars on their cell

No lifer-parole bill this session, but some non-lifer prisoners support it

BY: - June 7, 2023

Uri Small isn’t serving a life sentence, but he might as well be. He’s been in prison for 25 years, since he was 19 years old. He doesn’t expect to get out until he is 67. When he dies, he likely will have spent more of his life in prison than free. And yet, as […]

Two men serving life sentences lobby lawmakers to expand parole eligibility

BY: - August 12, 2022

"People with no reason to change will not change.” Phillip Vance Smith II first met Craig Wissink in 2004, toward the beginning of the life sentences the men were serving for separate murders. Smith thought Wissink was a friendly guy, the type who was always trying to make those around him laugh. The pair lost touch for about 10 years, a gap in a friendship common among imprisoned men subjected to unanticipated transfers to other correctional facilities.