Vera works with government and community partners across the country to advance research, analyze policy, pilot programs, and implement solutions on the ground. Working on nearly 60 projects in 40 states, Vera is committed to developing solutions to the most pressing injustices of our day. This page encompasses all of Vera’s work in Colorado, and any related news coverage.
Profiles of the Foreign-Born Population, by Jurisdiction & Nationwide
Compiled from publicly-available data, these infographics present a “Profile of the foreign-born population” for each of the jurisdictions in the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network—a diverse group of localities dedicated to providing publicly-funded representation for people facing deportation. The data presented here reveals the criti ...
See our updated report, "People in Jail and Prison in 2020," here. Researchers from the Vera Institute of Justice, with support from Google.org Fellows, collected data on the number of people in local jails at midyear in both 2018 and 2019 to provide timely information on how incarceration is changing in the United States. This report fills a gap u ...
State Financial Aid for Incarcerated Students
Postsecondary education in prison puts people on a path toward a brighter future by disrupting the cycle of poverty and incarceration. But it has not been offered at scale due to the numerous barriers—including the 1994 ban on Pell Grants to people in prison—that prevent students and postsecondary institutions from accessing state and federal fundi ...
The SAFE Network is a diverse group of local jurisdictions dedicated to providing publicly funded representation for people facing deportation. This short video describes the need for and impact of SAFE from the perspective of network members and those directly impacted—local government leaders, attorneys, and clients.
The Immigration Court Helpdesk (ICH) program educates non-detained respondents in removal (deportation) proceedings about the court process. The goal of ICH is to help individuals make informed decisions about their legal cases and, in doing so, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of immigration court proceedings. Vera works with thirteen nonp ...
Providing zealous, independent, person-centered representation to immigrants with mental health conditions
The National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) provides appointed legal representation for immigrants who are detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), unrepresented by counsel, and who have been found by an Immigration Judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to be incompetent to represent themselves in their immigration ...
Implications for the United States
The U.S. prison population has increased 700 percent in the last 40 years, and state corrections expenditures reached $53.5 billion in 2012. Despite this massive investment in incarceration, the national recidivism rate remains at a stubborn 40 percent—meaning that four in 10 incarcerated people will return to prison within three years of release. ...
The Legal Orientation Program (LOP) educates detained immigrants about their rights and the immigration court process so that they can make informed decisions about their legal cases. Vera works with 18 nonprofit legal service providers to offer orientations about defenses against removal (deportation) and the court process, as well as to assist in ...