Latest news with #prisonreform
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Prisoners' Phone Calls Will Soon Be Free in New York State
New York will make phone calls free for incarcerated people starting next month, lifting a financial burden for the loved ones of the state's more than 30,000 prisoners. It will join five other states and New York City, all of which have moved in recent years to adopt similar policies. But the change by New York State is not being accomplished legislatively; instead, it is a result of negotiations between the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and its telecom provider. Beginning August 1, the department will pay the provider, Securus Technologies, 1.5 cents per minute for the calls, which the agency described as one of the lowest rates in the country, and spend $9 million on the initiative this year. Currently, the state's prisoners receive up to three free calls per week, each lasting up to 15 minutes. Calls beyond that cost 2.4 cents per minute plus service fees, which the state does not now cover. Daniel F. Martuscello III, the agency's commissioner, said phone calls created a safer environment in prisons and prepared incarcerated people for life on the outside. 'We have to provide them with services that return them to society as productive members, as mothers, fathers, husbands, wives,' he said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Zawya
2 days ago
- General
- Zawya
United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)-supported vocational training for prisoners builds hope for a better future
It's a good day at the Kuajok prison—a baby has been born, and this tiny little life is emblematic of the positive impact prison reforms, particularly vocational training, has been having on the lives of inmates. As a visiting team from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) traversed the prison corridors, male prisoners are singing popular songs. In a few minutes, they'll be heading to a class in accounting. Their female counterparts are engaged in tailoring lessons. The Deputy Director of the prison, Joseph Akol Lual, says that these trainings, which were funded by the UN Peacekeeping mission in 2023, have greatly helped build morale and motivation among inmates. 'Our main purpose as a prison facility is to ensure that those incarcerated are treated with dignity and they have an opportunity to become productive members of society upon completion of their sentences,' he explains. 'By learning new skills, prisoners are becoming more confident in their ability to make a living once they are released. This feeling of being economically empowered fuels them every day.' Mr Lual's words resonate with those participating in this skills programme. 'I love designing clothes and making them. So, I pay great attention to my tailoring classes here. When I finish my time in prison, I'm confident that I can start my own small business and make women feel beautiful in my creations,' said a female inmate who prefers not to be named. Women serving time in the Kuajok prison have been supported by the UN Peacekeeping mission in other ways as well, particularly through the construction of a perimeter wall separating male and female prison quarters. 'We were approached by prison authorities to help ensure that women inmates were not at risk of sexual violence and we funded the construction of a perimeter wall to give female prisoners privacy and safety through our Quick Impact Projects programme. We also trained women prisoners to contribute to the building of their own space,' says Precious Chinamasa, an UNMISS Corrections Officer, who facilitated the project. Today, the women and men detained at this prison have compounds that are characterized by spaciousness and safety. Weather permitting, they also cultivate basic crops in case local vendors are unable to deliver essential food items, a common situation, especially during the rainy season. Such sustainable steps to reform prisons go a long way to ensure that when it's time for their release, prisoners can look forward to reintegrating fully into their families and communities. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
CNN
5 days ago
- CNN
This former crime reporter uses writing to help people in prison transform their lives
Debra Des Vignes spent more than a decade as an on-air news reporter in small markets across the US. For most of that time, she covered crime. It wasn't until later that she realized she didn't know the full story of the people she was covering. 'We only had what law enforcement told us. I always wondered, but it was such a fast-paced environment,' Des Vignes said. 'It's not that I didn't care, but we didn't have time to learn more about his or her background.' Des Vignes had always wanted to volunteer at a prison to better understand the people behind the stories she covered. The opportunity came in 2017 when she met a co-worker whose husband worked for the local prison. Des Vignes volunteered to teach a victim impact class, which is intended to help offenders see the consequences of their crimes from the victim's perspective. 'I think society has that image of TV and movies and what that represents, and how a criminal is supposed to act or behave with a chip on their shoulder or angry,' Des Vignes said. 'I found the exact opposite.' During the course, Des Vignes decided to stray from the curriculum and have the inmates write a letter to their victim. Des Vignes said she witnessed these men open up in ways they hadn't before and write some very impactful letters. 'There was a lot of raw talent in that room,' she said. That class inspired Des Vignes to start her own nonprofit to focus on writing with incarcerated individuals. In 2018, the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop was born. Des Vignes' 12-week creative writing program originated in one Indiana prison and has since expanded to eight correctional institutions across Indiana, Alabama, and Illinois. For Des Vignes, spending time with prisoners has humanized the crime stories she once covered. 'With this work, learning their stories and where they come from, puts it all into perspective,' she said. 'It doesn't make me feel bad about my reporting back then, but I realize the humanity of living.' The curriculum, developed by Des Vignes and her all-volunteer team, provides incarcerated students with a foundation in creative writing through weekly prompts and introduces fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and playwriting. For Des Vignes, the goal is to create a sacred space where they can write and openly share. 'Some may want to make sense of their past, some may want to spend the hour and a half in a positive environment,' Des Vignes said. 'And some may just want to be heard and felt seen and welcomed.' For Jordan Dabbs, who is serving a 10-year sentence at Putnamville Correctional Facility for drug-related charges, this weekly class is a space to work through his troubled past after the loss of his mother, father, sister, and brother. '[I] came to a crossroads and had to make a decision whether I was going to use that as a crutch and let that hinder my growth or use that as fuel to do better and get myself out of the situation I was in,' Dabbs said. For students like Dabbs, this class offers them an outlet to work through trauma in a group setting. Participants share their work with the class, which allows them to not only get feedback from classmates and instructors but also to create bonds. 'I look forward to my Friday afternoons more than most days,' Dabbs said. 'For two hours a day, everyone can just truly be themselves. We're like a little small-knit family here.' The impact of the program comes from more than just writing. For Chris Lewis, who was formerly incarcerated, this course helped him find compassion in prison. 'One of the hardest things to hold onto is your humanity, and then somebody looks right down the middle and says, 'Man, that's a human being.' That means the world to you,' Lewis said. 'When Deb came in, she just [saw] us as human beings.' To date, more than 250 incarcerated people have completed the program, Des Vignes said. While this work is having a positive impact inside prisons, Des Vignes has also seen it spread far beyond prison walls. 'One prisoner said he was able to write more personal stories to his son to rekindle that father-son relationship that had been lost because he had the courage to write and express,' Des Vignes said. For Des Vignes, who is a single parent with a full-time job, running this program is a labor of love that she hopes to keep growing. 'It's given my life meaning, purpose,' she said. 'It's like a calling, and I don't want to waste a second doing it.' Want to get involved? Check out the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop website and see how to help. To donate to Indiana Prison Writers Workshop via Pledge, click here
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Telegraph
Violent prisoners taught philosophy
Prisoners have been taught the philosophy of stoicism under schemes that have reduced violence and conflict behind bars. Watchdogs at Wayland Prison in Thetford, Norfolk, have revealed the inmates have been undergoing classes based on the works of Socrates and Zeno of Citium. The theories behind stoicism were developed by Socrates, the Greek philosopher, while Zeno is credited with having developed the concept and founded the stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Stoicism, which was taken on by the Romans, teaches individuals to focus on what they can control – their thoughts and actions – and to accept what they cannot, such as external events and outcomes. Stoics strive to develop virtues such as wisdom, courage, justice and temperance to achieve a life of tranquillity and virtue. The classes at the category C prison are said by its watchdog, independent monitoring board (IMB), to have been so popular that they have been scheduled throughout the year to meet demand. The IMB said the innovative approach was proving an effective remedy to combat drug use at the jail and contributing to a decline in the amount of violence. Data published by the watchdogs showed that assaults on staff and other prisoners had decreased. 'It is this sort of effort, which distances itself from both punitive and simply educative approaches and, instead, seeks to increase a prisoner's inner resilience, which we would encourage and were recommending in our commentary on the 2024 prisoner attitude survey,' said the watchdogs. 'We therefore recommend to the governor that the prison takes the success of this course and examines how additional resilience and prevention training could be introduced as an expanded weapon in its war on the evils of drugs and the rehabilitation chances of its prisoners.' The move follows research by Manchester Met University into the impact of regular sessions on Descartes, Aristotle, Plato and other thinkers on prisoner's ability to trust and cooperate with other inmates, including some of the most dangerous Category A prisoners. Dr Kirstine Szifris, a researcher in the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, said the initial interactions were characterised by 'bravado, one-upmanship and competition' with the men not having any respect for any of their criminal counterparts. She led the prisoners through a series of philosophical problems to illustrate ideas such as Plato's ideal society, the Stoic philosophy of the Greeks and Romans, and the Socratic method of inquiry. One scenario led them to imagine they were shipwrecked on a desert island with other survivors and asked how they would organise their new society. She found that through an emphasis on philosophical conversation, the inmates began to appreciate the importance of listening to each other. 'They learned that working together to understand what Kant, Descartes or Plato were saying was more fruitful than trying to outdo each other,' she said.
The Independent
14-07-2025
- The Independent
‘We're Britain's dirty little secret': After 17 years under an indefinite jail term for a teenage crime, Tony is finally free
For the first time in his adult life, Tony Betteridge is free. He was 18 when he was jailed for drunkenly setting fire to a blanket in the store cupboard of an empty building. It was his first time in prison, having grown up in foster care and with his grandparents due to his parents' drug abuse. He believed he would serve his minimum term of one year and 203 days for the blaze in Redcar, Yorkshire, in 2008, which caused £6,500 of damage and left nobody hurt. However, the seemingly short sentence turned into a 17-year struggle under an indefinite jail term, which the United Nations now condemns as 'psychological torture'. On Tuesday, now aged 35 after more than 6,000 days serving his sentence, he learned his punishment for the teenage crime was finally over as his licence was terminated under reforms brought in last year. 'It took the best part of my life,' he told The Independent. 'Now I just want to live a bit and be happy. Life's a beautiful gift, and I'm ready to enjoy it. Let me be free.' Mr Betteridge was one of 8,711 people handed an open-ended jail term called an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence for the seven years they were in use by British courts. They were eventually outlawed due to human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands in prison with no release date. 'It was my first time in custody, and at the time I didn't know what an IPP sentence was,' he said. 'I thought I was just sentenced to one year and 203 days, so I didn't appeal. I was brand new to everything. 'I think it took about six and a half months until a friend on the wing asked me 'what did you get sentenced to'. I said one year and 203 days IPP – not bad eh? He said 'you do know what you have been given, don't you?' 'I just broke down in the middle of the wing. No one had explained to me what it was – not even the duty solicitor that was representing me.' He would go on to spend almost seven years in prison after the Parole Board repeatedly refused to free him, claiming he was not mature enough to be let out. He was finally released in 2014, aged 24, only to spend the next decade in and out of prison after he was recalled three times under the strict licence conditions of his IPP sentence, despite being convicted of no further crimes. Each time he served around another year, sometimes longer, until the Parole Board once again agreed to let him go. He was returned to jail on one further occasion for burglary, which he says he deeply regrets. In total, he spent more than 11 years in custody for the blaze. While he languished, his mother died, his sister was brutally murdered by her abusive partner, and his brother died of an overdose. 'It [the IPP sentence] just ruined me,' he said. 'Before I went in, I had a full family – I have got one sister left now, everyone's gone. It's just damaged me. 'You just carry it – it ruins your head, your heart, your everything. It feels like you are walking on eggshells constantly.' Despite calls for action from the cross-party justice committee, the UN and Amnesty International, the government has refused to resentence more than 2,500 prisoners still incarcerated under the abolished jail term, including almost 700 who are at least ten years over their minimum tariff. Injustices highlighted The Independent include that of Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for stealing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; James Lawrence, 38, who is still in prison 18 years after he was handed an eight-month jail term; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery. At least 94 people have taken their own lives in custody as they lose hope of being freed. Many are still serving the sentence in the community and find themselves in a devastating cycle of recall, where they can be hauled back to prison indefinitely for minor infringements of licence conditions. However, changes to the licence period, reducing it from ten years to three, were passed under the outgoing Conservative government last year. These have finally allowed Mr Betteridge to successfully apply for his licence to be terminated. He called the day it was granted a 'dream come true' and now hopes to travel abroad for the first time in his life for a fresh start with his partner in Portugal. 'I am lucky to be one of the ones who have got through it,' he said, 'I just want my life back now.' Railing against the injustice of the jail term, which he compared to the Post Office scandal, he added: 'We are just Britain's dirty little secret. People on the street don't know what an IPP is. 'It's just torture. At some point, I wasn't even getting a parole panel, just a letter through the cell door saying you will get another two years. 'They call the IPPs the forgotten. At one point, I started to self harm… I just gave up, and they used that to knock me back for parole and said you are showing mental instability. 'I just think that's shocking. I have many people inside who I know who have killed themselves over this sentence and I can understand why, which I think is sad in itself.' On one occasion, he was recalled after his sister, by then his last remaining sibling, was attacked by an abuser with a kitchen knife. He intervened, and both men suffered stab wounds in the altercation. He spent three days in hospital recovering from his injuries and was not charged with any further offence, yet he served another year and nine months in prison. He explained: 'They tried to say I had put myself in a risky situation and that situation could have escalated, but I am not going to watch my sister get stabbed up.' He called for the government to urgently intervene to end the harm caused by the IPP sentence, which the UN special rapporteur Dr Alice Gill Edwards has called 'simply inhumane' and warned the government is 'very likely' to be breaching their human rights by international standards. 'It's taken half of my life away from me – moments I will never get back again,' he said. 'Family, I will never see again. I am just riddled with mental health issues, I can't sleep, I keep getting flashbacks from all the brutal things I have seen in jail. 'It's horrible living life – at any moment it can be smashed away and you're locked away again. 'You can't lock a man in a room for years and expect him to walk out like a perfectly balanced, sane individual. He's going to be hurt. But they are not releasing them because he's hurt. It just goes on and on.' He implored the Labour government to take action to help those still serving the jail terms before it's too late, adding: 'All the sorry in the world is not going to give your life back but it could make a difference now and give people a chance.' The government is considering new proposals from the Howard League for Penal Reform to give remaining IPP prisoners a release date within two years of their next parole hearing and limit those being recalled to prison for minor breaches of licence conditions.
