Launched as part of Prison Visiting Week for Vera’s Reimagining Prison initiative, this explainer video focuses on alternative approaches to incarceration in use by countries such as Germany. Comparatively, “tough on crime” practices in the U.S. have been ineffective. We spend $80 billion on incarceration per year, yet more than half the people who ...
A Report of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons
The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons—a national group of civic leaders, corrections administrators, scholars, advocates, police officers, religious community members, and former prisoners—authored this report following a year-long study of jail and prison conditions in the U.S. The Commission, finding high volumes of violence and ...
Vera’s Chief Advocacy Officer, Ellen Flenniken, explains why being serious about public safety requires moving beyond failed “tough-on-crime” policies.
Public safety is rarely measured by crime statistics alone: it is defined by how people actually feel about their communities and the country as a whole. To address public concerns effectively, we must first understand how perceptions—and misperceptions—of crime are formed. Vera’s Chief Advocacy Officer Ellen Flenniken and Senior Writer Alex Pareen ...