Media Clips

The Vera Institute of Justice and the MILPA Collective announced recently an expansion of Restoring Promise, a program that aims to shine a light on our nation’s jails and prisons and change them for the better.

Nationally, Missouri ranks eighth highest in prison population, according to 2018 Prison Policy Initiative data. Among Missouri state prisons, local jails, juvenile centers, involuntary commitment and federal prisons, over 51,000 people filled the facilities in 2018.

The Judge Ed Emmett Mental Health Diversion Center allows people with mental illness who commit non-violent offenses to skip jail. They are offered space in the 28-bed diversion center, counseling, and case workers to prevent the person arrested from cycling in and out of jail.

I imagine the vulnerable strangers who I will meet in church basements. Over the years I have built some powerful relationships with colleagues—writers, editors, producers—but if I don’t prioritize relationships in recovery when I get out, those other relationships won’t matter in the end.

A new study published in the journal BMC Public Health reports that children who were physically or sexually abused, neglected or otherwise treated badly, are at higher risk of showing delinquent behavior or offending the law, as they grow into their teens and later into young adults.

Each person coming in to the jail is screened for drug use and withdrawal symptoms. They're asked if they've been prescribed medication and if they want it. About half say they're addicted to heroin.

It took five years of effort in federal court, but my organization, The Fortune Society just won a precedent-setting settlement of a landmark civil rights case that shows how advocacy groups can bring lawsuits against private landlords who impose blanket bans on renting apartments to people with criminal records.