Think Justice Blog
SubscribeSeries: Target 2020
A Monumental Missed Opportunity for Criminal Justice
Vera President, Nick Turner, reflects on fifth round of debates.
Twenty-five years past the 1994 crime bill, we are ready to talk about a new paradigm to address harm and wrongdoing that seeks to provide safety for all communities, does not peddle in fear and racism, and does not mistake excessive punitiveness for accountability. For the people, as we say. We note that the criminal legal system is 90 percent sta...
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Nicholas Turner
All Posts
Study Links Solitary Confinement to Increased Risk of Death After Release
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published a study finding that people placed in restrictive housing (also known as solitary confinement) are more likely than their peers to die or be re-incarcerated in the first year after their...
Christian Henrichson
Vera’s Incarceration Trends State Fact Sheets
This week we released Incarceration Trends in Local Jails and State Prisons fact sheets for each state.
Alex Frank
Ryan Shanahan
Anchoring Reform in Community Partnership
Although men of color are disproportionately impacted by the prison system, they’re the least likely to be in leadership positions driving justice reform. As part of Restoring Promise—an initiative to radically transform the living and working conditions insid...
Voters in Battleground States Favor Restoring Pell Grants for People in Prison
For years, Vera and many of our partners from across the corrections, higher education, and criminal justice spectrum have been calling for the reinstatement of Pell Grant eligibility for students in prison. And for good reason. The Pell ban is a relic of the...
Colin Hernandez
We Need More Data to Understand the Impact of Mass Incarceration on Latinx Communities
Latinx Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 through October 15, is a time to celebrate the history, achievements, contributions, and heritage of Latinx people in the United States. September 15 is the day when five Latin American countries—Costa Rica,...
Closing Rikers Island
On October 17, the New York City Council will consider a historic vote to approve the construction of four new jails to replace the decrepit, decaying facilities that currently exist in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. This is a critical step for t...
Jamila Hodge
Governors Should Embrace—Not Hinder—Reform-Minded Prosecutors
Two weeks ago, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued a letter directing state Attorney General Brian Frosh to begin prosecuting more violent crime cases from the city of Baltimore. This directive—which was made to supersede the authority of the city State’s Att...
Nicholas Turner
A New View
I’m writing this having pulled my laptop out of the boxes piled up around my new desk in Vera’s new headquarters. Over my shoulder, you can see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. We’ve moved, and today is day one. After almost two decades of working nea...
Hayne Yoon
Back to School: A Common-Sense Strategy to Lower Recidivism
The United States makes up just 5 percent of the global population but is home to 20 percent of the world’s incarcerated people. More than 95 percent of the 1.5 million people in U.S. prisons will eventually be released, regardless of whether they are ready to...
Margaret diZerega
Kindred Motes
“I Can’t Imagine Babies Being Kept from Their Mom”
Editors’ note: Edited and abridged for clarity Last month, the WNBA All-Star and Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner accompanied Vera project director Margaret diZerega and digital strategy director Kindred Motes on a tour of the Estrella Jail—a women’s-o...
Leah Pope
Karina Schroeder
Bringing Back Mental Institutions Won't Stop Mass Shootings
Last month—following horrific mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio—President Donald Trump made statements supporting an increase in institutionalization for people with mental illness as a means of reducing gun violence. This equation of gun vio...
Dan Slepian
A Producer's Notebook: The story behind 'Justice For All'
Editor's note: Last year, Vera led a group of corrections leaders, government officials, activists, and others on a tour of prisons in Germany and Norway, to see what a criminal justice system rooted in human dignity looks like. Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepi...
Blog Series
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Target 2020: Justice Solutions for a New Decade -
Dispatches from T.R.U.E. -
Dispatches from W.O.R.T.H. -
Dispatches from Germany -
Addressing the Overuse of Segregation in U.S. Prisons and Jails -
Beyond Innocence -
Breaking Point: New York's Mental Health Crisis -
Gender and Justice in America -
It Takes a Village -
Justice in Katrina's Wake -
My Brother's Keeper -
Police Perspectives: Building Community Trust -
Unlocking Potential: Perspectives on Education in Prison -
Two Societies: The Haunting Relevance of the Kerner Commission’s Report -
Eliminating Money Injustice in New Orleans