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Legal Orientation Program — Evaluation and performance and outcome measurement report, phase II
The Legal Orientation Program (LOP) seeks to educate detained persons in removal (deportation) proceedings so they can make more informed decisions, thus increasing efficiencies in the immigration court and detention processes. Vera’s analysis—a combination of...
Statement on Supporting Immigrant Communities and Denouncing ICE Raids
The threat of massive ICE raids is a promise to rip apart more families and is stoking fear throughout the nation’s immigrant communities. These egregious acts are justified to our nation as a way to deter people from unlawfully entering this country, however,...
No Amount of Time, Resources, or Lawyers Can Make MPP Work
This week, the Vera Institute of Justice learned that the Biden administration wants to expand certain legal orientation programs and legal services it administers via government contracts to assist people who will be expelled by the reinstated Migrant Protect...
Vera Institute of Justice Releases Report on the Criminalization of Poverty in Kentucky — The report explains how economic restructuring, a punitive criminal legal system, and flawed reforms led to an incarceration boom in the state.
August 9, 2023 Contact: Nico MacDonald, media@vera.org [Frankfort, KY] In recent decades, the commonwealth of Kentucky’s carceral system has exploded in size, fueled by policies that criminalize poverty and substance use while prioritizing punishment over publ...
Hawai`i Is So Close to Ending the Incarceration of Young Girls — The state had two months with no young people in the girls’ unit of its only long-term placement facility. It’s reason to celebrate, but the work isn’t over.
Image courtesy of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF). This summer, Hawai`i made headlines for a milestone achievement several years in the making. Finally—and for the first time—there were no girls being held in the state’s only long-term juvenile p...
5 Black Heroes Who Took on the Fight Against Mass Incarceration
Photo credits: W Haywood Burns image: National Lawyers Guild, Jane Bolin: Library of Congress, Bruce M Wright: African American Registry, Eddie Ellis: Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice and Healing, and Kenneth Thompson: Associated Press. Illustration by...
Redefining Public Safety
Daniela Gilbert Knows Community Is Central to Addressing Gun Violence
Daniela Gilbert is the director of Vera’s Redefining Public Safety program. The recent rise in gun violence has encouraged leaders and activists to amplify solutions like community violence intervention (CVI) programs. These strategies work to reduce homicides...
Keeping Incarcerated People From Their Families Is Cruel
Rashaad Porter couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There, in a prison in South Carolina, incarcerated people were doing the “Electric Slide” alongside family members and corrections staff. “For a minute, I’m like, ‘You know that person you’re dancing next to...
Staffing and managing legal teams
Staff recruitment should reflect an organizational commitment to universal representation Centering the commitment to universal representation when hiring can help prepare new employees to transition most effectively to the model and get a sense of organizati...