Think Justice Blog

Politics, Ambition, and the Hard Work of Making the Closure of Rikers Island a Reality

Last month, Mayor de Blasio released “Smaller, Safer, Fairer: A Roadmap to Closing Rikers Island,” a report that laid out several concrete steps on the path to closure of the ten jails on the Island. In the preface to the report, the mayor acknowledged that th...

Helping People with Prior Convictions Access NYC Public Housing

Finding housing is hard for people with conviction histories, especially in public housing. Most housing authorities in the country have policies that temporarily or permanently bar people with conviction histories, even though studies have shown that when peo...

Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.

My Old Friends

This post was written by Michael, a mentor in the T.R.U.E. unit at Cheshire Correctional Institution. T.R.U.E unit mentors are people serving life without parole sentences at the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Through a competitive application process,...

Series: Addressing the Overuse of Segregation in U.S. Prisons and Jails

Mental Health Units as Alternatives to Segregation

“For [the already mentally ill], placing them in [segregation] is the mental equivalent of putting an asthmatic in a place with little air to breathe.” —Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson, Madrid v Gomez, 1995 Since Madrid v Gomez in 1995, the plac...

Understanding Jail Growth in Rural America

National public discourse has turned to the problem of mass incarceration in recent years, and certain places tend to capture most of the headlines, bubbling up to the forefront: overcrowded state prison systems, private facilities run by profit-seeking corpor...

Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.

Working Together Toward Community, Connection, and Comradeship in T.R.U.E.

Our vision for the T.R.U.E. program is to revolutionize how rehabilitation in corrections is accomplished in America. Through its success, the T.R.U.E. program will become the benchmark for youth rehabilitation first throughout Connecticut then beyond. The T.R...

With Public Support, States Continue to Embrace Drug Reform—and Save Lives

New reporting from the New York Times yesterday estimates that more than 59,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2016—the largest annual jump ever recorded in U.S. history.  With drug overdoses now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, the conse...

Dignity, Justice, and the Webbys

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 21st Annual Webby Awards because Vera’s new online home won “Best Website” in the associations category. The Webbys are perhaps best described as the Oscars of the Internet, and it was an honor to be selected by t...

The Sessions Memo: Back to the Past?

U.S Justice Department tradition over the last 37 years generally includes the new Attorney General issuing his or her own charging and sentencing policy—a fundamental part of the DOJ's criminal justice program. This administration is no exception.  On May 10t...

Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.

Looking Back Toward a Better Future

This post was written by James, a mentor in the T.R.U.E. unit at Cheshire Correctional Institution. T.R.U.E unit mentors are people serving life without parole sentences at the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Through a competitive application process, 1...

Alabama Restores Voting Rights for Thousands with Felony Convictions

UPDATE: Governor Kay Ivey's office reported Thursday, May 25th that the Governor had signed the act into law, extending the right to vote to 'thousands' of people with felony charges. In criminal justice reform, it’s been a good week for the South.  As noted ...

We Already Tried a War on Drugs. It Failed.

We’re in the middle of a public health crisis: overdose deaths have overtaken motor-vehicle accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in our country.  Research shows that a public health response is in order—something that’s already successfully p...