Tagged With "Prison Sustainability Program"
Blog Post
Thoughts on creating ‘restorative justice’ (modbee.com)
(Image Credit: shellyduffer.com) Restorative justice, which has been in the news lately , includes some interesting concepts about bringing criminals face to face with their victims to show them the impact of their crimes. The theory is that meeting those victims and hearing what they have suffered can lead to conciliation – or a coming to terms about what happened. When it works, restorative justice helps the offender take responsibility for his or her actions, possibly out of remorse or an...
Blog Post
TIC: News and Notes for the Week of October 21, 2019 [dhs.wisconsin.gov]
ACEs, Adversity's Impact There is only one boat: The myth of normalcy by Dr. Gabor Mate Understanding historical trauma to strengthen community Childhood trauma linked to early, premarital childbirth and poor health for women Early life racial discrimination linked to depression, accelerated aging When mothers are killed by their partners, children often become 'forgotten' victims. It's time they were given a voice Children's language skills may be harmed by social hardship Does racism...
Blog Post
Toxic stress from El Paso, Dayton, Gilroy shootings addressed in Thursday Community Resilience Model Webinar
An ACEs Connection webinar will offer helpful self-regulation tools to those rocked by recent shootings in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX , and Dayton, OH. The Building Resilient Communities webinar is offered by ACEs Connection this Thursday, August 9, at 10:00 AM PDT / 1 :00 PM E D and will last approximately 1 hour. Elaine Miller-Karas will teach her Community Resilienc y Mode l. Find registration details below. This webinar is free and open to the public. It serves professionals and community...
Blog Post
Treat Historic Trauma to Rehabilitate Prisoners, Psychologists Say [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
By Tess de la Mare, Belfast Telegraph Digital, January 2, 2020 The traumatic histories of offenders stuck in the prison system should be treated as a public health issue to break cycles of offending, psychologists working with inmates have said. But despite the often complex histories of violent offenders, in the UK’s squeezed prison system there are limited resources available for rehabilitation. Forensic psychologist Dr Naomi Murphy runs a five-year intensive psychotherapy programme for...
Blog Post
Turning Gold into Lead: Understanding the Role of ACEs to Our Work as Judges
Dr. Vincent Felitti studied the connection between ACEs and health. Unexpectedly, he uncovered for the courts and our community partners a path past our litigants’ “past.” By applying science to what we do every day and responding appropriately to ACEs, we have a chance to change the trajectory of each life we touch. We have an opportunity to change the world if we see it through a trauma lens.
Blog Post
Virginia Suburb Shows That Diversion, Victim-centered Agreements Work [jjie.org]
Over the last several years, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (JDRDC) of Fairfax County, Va., has been working on transformative efforts around juvenile justice in an effort to keep low-risk youth from entering the system and address disparities for youth of color. One large area targeted by these efforts was the diversion programming and Juvenile Intake Office. In Virginia, intake officers are decision-makers. It is their responsibility to review charges from petitioners...
Blog Post
Walker announces intention to run for district attorney [Daily News]
By Julie Zeeb, Daily News Red Bluff >> Carolyn Walker , an attorney and legal program manager for the Red Bluff non-profit Alternatives to Violence , announced Friday from the steps of the former Tehama County Courthouse her intention to run in the June elections for Tehama County District Attorney. “ I’ve worked to break the cycle of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse to give hope to our children’s generation ,” Walker said. “I’ve helped establish the Tehama County...
Blog Post
Webinar: The Human Impact of Climate Change
The Community Resiliency Model Disaster Relief Program Climate change emergencies are real and the human toll during and in the aftermath impact children, teens and adults. This webinar will hear from Kelly Doty, a survivor, who lost her home in Paradise and is working in a community-based program to help the children and their parents in the aftermath. Elaine Miller-Karas, the key developer of the Community Resiliency Model Disaster Relief Program, will explain the program and how it helps...
Blog Post
Yoga Behind Bars has offered yoga classes to prisoners for a while. Now it’s teaching inmates at the women’s prison near Gig Harbor how to lead classes themselves. (seattletimes.com)
“The people who know best what tools are needed to serve incarcerated people are those who are incarcerated themselves,” says Program Director Jess Frank. “Not only will it give them incredible tools while they’re incarcerated, it’s also a way for them to have … a part-time job” upon release. But teaching yoga in prisons requires special skills, and “trauma-informed” teaching is a central philosophy of the program. The curriculum for the day I attended included sessions on the impact of...
Blog Post
Yoga helping inmates transcend jail cells [KEYT - Santa Barbara]
An ancient spiritual practice is helping rehabilitate men and women at the Santa Barbara County Jail. Prison Yoga Santa Barbara (PYSB) invites inmates to practice yoga, meditation and mindfulness during incarceration at no cost to taxpayers. Ginny Kuhn is the force behind the non-profit staffed by volunteers. The program is modeled after The Prison Yoga Project which was started yogi James Fox at California’s San Quentin State Prison 15 years ago. Kuhn's motto for PYSB is 'Working Freedom...
Ask the Community
2 generation approaches for re-entry
Hi everyone, I've been doing some research looking for trauma informed two generation approaches to helping formerly incarcerated parents re-enter, develop and share strategies for coping with trauma, and develop skills and strategies to reconnect...
Comment
Re: Trauma Informed Education in Juvenile Justice
Here is the powerpoint I delivered. The presentation when well. Lots of interest. I am working with a professional development organization called PESI. They are a non-profit corporation that delivers a lot of professional development. I have my original course on supporting and educating traumatized students submitted to them and it should be available in less than two weeks
Comment
Re: Policy
Hi Margaret, I'm assuming you're looking for Trauma-Informed policies as it relates to Criminal Justice. There have been some Crim. Jus. posts in the ACEsConnection.com/Blog, that I've seen,which may have links in the Blog to the story post, such as the Trauma-Informed programming in the Hawaii Women's Prison. The California [Men's] Honor Prison in Los Angeles utilized Trauma-Informed programming, while it was operational. I don't know if it still is. Prisoners there, voluntarily renounce...
Comment
Re: 7.25+
HI Zachary- thank you for the post and sharing the video. SO POWERFUL and hopeful. We need to change the systems that incarcerate rather than, as you say address what happened to them (and moving upstream, be asking kids this BEFORE they get into the system. (Note, this is the third time today that someone shared this video!)
Comment
Re: 7.25+
Zachary, Thank you for sharing your work, this numbers you offer are critical for understanding the connection. You were on target in sharing the powerful video that we can pass along.
Comment
Re: 7.25+
Thank you Zachary, Yes, I too saw this video posted on facebook last week. As a substitute teacher (nowhere near retired), I see my ability to use trauma informed practices is directly enhanced by my learning to address White Supremacy Culture. I'm happy my state education association recently publicly named that. I'm learning that all the many people who've been directly impacted by incarceration have so many practical solutions! Those of us nearer the decision-making (traditionally-- with...
Comment
Re: Without access to credit, ex-cons may return to lives of crime [thehill.com]
I too am an ex-offender and when I got out of prison...I cleaned up my credit, bought a home, started a non-profit, finished school, received a Masters and 2 State of WA, Dept of Health licenses to provide Therapist guidance in Mental Health & Addiction. I also started this journey after I swallowed a 1/4 ounce of crack cocaine and called on God to save me, after 9 days out of Prison. Here is a Link to the story they wrote about me: https://www.seattlepi.com/loca...n-s-list-1206233.php I...
Comment
Re: Without access to credit, ex-cons may return to lives of crime [thehill.com]
Alfred, thank you for sharing a glimpse into your life. You have so much to teach all of us! Please consider sharing parts of your story on our home page. Our hope is that members of ACEs Connection feel safe and supported enough to share how the adverse childhood experiences they experienced impacts or impacted their life. Your road to recovery is a riveting story just waiting to be shared! No pressure at all, just a nudge. Karen
Reply
Re: Use of ACE test in County Jails
I'm also interested in the topic and look forward to replies. Extending this inquiry a bit, I am also interested as to whether effective treatment approaches have been developed using a wellness model for incarcerated clients and released clients. I run a domestic violence offender's program - the standard 26-week Duluth (Power and Control) model. I've complemented the model with a wellness curriculum teaching subjects such as mindfulness practice, neuroplasticity and processing (talking in...
Comment
Re: Putting Their Prison Pasts Behind Them (nationswell.com)
While awaiting 'Job Offer Approval', I received an unexpected visit from a 'few folks-one of whom was the State Program director for VISTA [domestic 'Peace Corps']--who informed me that in spite of 'my incarceration', I'd passed an FBI/NCIC Record Check (I'd been 'Adjudicated' a 'Youthful Offender', supposedly 'No Criminal Record') and he'd flown up to to the prison from N.Y. City to let me know that I could 'serve my country' as a VISTA Volunteer-with the agency the other two 'visitors'...
Comment
Re: #MeToo Doesn’t Always Have to Mean Prison (nytimes.com)
Thank you! This sounds like a model program!
![Best Practices: Sacramento County Probation Department's Training Center Partnership [3 min - CSACCounties]](https://www.pacesconnection.com/g/aces-in-criminal-justice/fileSendAction/fcType/5/fcOid/465321300814942728/primaryPicture/true/fodoid/465321300814942733/imageType/LARGE_SQUARE_THUMBNAIL/inlineImage/true/thumbnail.jpg "Best Practices: Sacramento County Probation Department's Training Center Partnership [3 min - CSACCounties]")
Comment
Re: A Trauma-informed, Resiliency-based Community of Practice for Prison Educators
How has/is ACES used in the prisons?
Comment
Re: Inmates can't afford to communicate with their children or families - Another example of an unjust justice system
Hello Leisa, I just read your article on the cost of phone calls for inmates. Yes, it is outrageous. This is one of the time where following the money is important. Who profits from these phone calls? They are not going to give up these funds easily. Carolyn On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 5:07 AM, ACEsConnection < communitymanager@acesconnection.com> wrote:
Blog Post
"How to talk policy and influence people": a Law and Justice interview with Fritzi Horstman
In this "How to talk policy and influence people" interview with Fritzi Horstman, founder and CEO of the Compassion Prison Project (see http://compassionprisonproject.org/), we discuss childhood trauma, the significance of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science, offending behaviour, addiction, violence and the fact that the men and women who end up in prisons are often among the most traumatized members of any society. We talk about the power of the "Step Inside the Circle"...
Comment
Re: "How to talk policy and influence people": a Law and Justice interview with Fritzi Horstman
Can you provide a link to the interview. This links to the trailer for the project. Thanks!
Blog Post
ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
Blog Post
Mass Decarceration, COVID-19, and Justice in America [ssir.org]
(Free to be collage by Ekua Holmes/www.ekuaholmes.com) By Deanna Van Buren & F. Javier Torres-Campos, Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 9, 2020 With the highest incarceration rate in the world, US prisons and jails are drivers for the catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19. Because of dense living conditions, limited soap and hand sanitizer, poor access to quality healthcare, and an increasingly elderly population, the outbreaks we’ve seen so far may be just the beginning. It’s no...
Blog Post
Proposition 47 and Racial Disparities in California [ppic.org]
From Public Policy Institute of California, June 16, 2020 About the Program While the COVID-19 pandemic has required changes to law enforcement and correctional policies, widespread protests over the police-involved deaths of African Americans have intensified concern about racial and ethnic disparities in our criminal justice system. In recent years, California has implemented significant reforms that, while not motivated by racial disparities, are narrowing them. PPIC researcher Brandon...
Blog Post
Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails
The Stepping Up initiative recently celebrated 500 counties joining the national movement to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails. Four years ago, The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center , the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APA Foundation) launche d Stepping Up in response to a public health crisis: the disproportionate number of people in jail who have mental illnesses. The human toll of this...
Blog Post
New episode of Transforming Trauma! Compassion Prison Project: Bringing Trauma-informed Care into the Prison System with Fritzi Horstman
Transforming Trauma Episode 017: Compassion Prison Project: Bringing Trauma-informed Care into the Prison System with Fritzi Horstman In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Sarah Buino is joined by Fritzi Horstman, Founder and Executive Director of the Compassion Prison Project . Through her work, Fritzi aims to bring trauma-informed care to a population in high need of trauma healing and not likely to receive it: men and women in prison. Sarah and Fritzi discuss Adverse Childhood...
Blog Post
Newsom to release 8,000 prisoners in California by August amid coronavirus outbreaks [sfchronicle.com]
By Jason Fagone, Megan Cassidy, and Alexei Koseff, San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2020 Gov. Gavin Newsom will release approximately 8,000 people incarcerated inside California’s prison system by August, in a move that comes amid devastating coronavirus outbreaks at several facilities and pressure from lawmakers and advocates. The releases, which were announced just before noon Friday, will come on a rolling basis, and they’ll include both people who were scheduled to be freed soon as well...
Blog Post
California reaches milestone with ACEs initiatives pulsing in all 58 counties. Next: All CA cities.
Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything. Karen Clemmer “Jane helped us see a bigger world,” says Clemmer. “She came with a much wider lens. She didn’t look only at Sonoma County, she...
Blog Post
Police Reform Should Include Implementing ACEs Science
When I first learned about ACEs science, I was working for the local police department as the Director of a crime prevention program. This program was aimed at reducing drug related and violent crime by strengthening community partnerships. Our efforts yielded 19 crime prevention programs implemented by 35 community agencies. Together we reduced crime by 40% in one neighborhood, and pioneered a first probation program of its kind in Tennessee to reduce recidivism. At the end of the grant in...
Ask the Community
Articles on ACEs in the criminal justice system
Hi, My name is Jónína and Im new to the ACE community, I am finishing my first semester in my master program in clinical psychology at Reykjavik University in Iceland. I stumbled upon this site and thought it might be a good idea to start a small discussion where we could share knowledge about ACEs in the criminal justice system. For my masters thesis I am going to write about ACEs in prison population in Iceland and look into quality of life and substance use. I am just starting to dig into...
Blog Post
UC to Launch Its First Bachelor's Program in Prison [kqed.org]
By Vanessa Rancano, KQED, December 15, 2020 UC Irvine and the state prison system have reached a deal to create the first University of California bachelor’s degree program behind bars. Since California opened the door for community colleges to teach in prisons in 2014, some 2,000 incarcerated men and women across the state have earned associate degrees, said Brant Choate, director of rehabilitative programs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But opportunities...
Comment
Re: Trauma-Informed Prisons: Dr. Stephanie Covington and CPP's Fritzi Horstman
This is wonderful! Two great trauma informed champions teaming up to bring healing and dignity to those in the justice system. Go Stephanie and Fritzi!
Comment
Re: Trauma-Informed Prisons: Dr. Stephanie Covington and CPP's Fritzi Horstman
Fritzi, I just love your heart. You are indeed my sister! When I feel defeated and discouraged, I always seem to seek you out somewhere so just know your love and compassion for our incarcerated beloveds is contagious and we are grateful for all of us that are leaning in and pressing in hard for change. There's something about God's beautiful beloveds who have a score of seven on the ACE test (you and I are a lot alike; seven is perfection!). We're extra special because we understand our own...
Blog Post
What I Learned From Presenting a Trauma-informed Class to Police Chiefs
I'm pretty sure I learned as much or more about trauma-informed policing while presenting the class as did the police chiefs who attended. After not presenting at all during 2020, I was excited to be invited to present a block of instruction on Trauma-Informed Leadership for Police Chiefs at the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police 2021 Winter Conference. There were about 50 chiefs in attendance on January 14, 2021, and while we all had to deal with the COVID precautions, it was good...
Blog Post
Oregon law to decriminalize all drugs goes into effect, offering addicts rehab instead of prison (msn.com)
In prison six years later, Gullickson was contemplating joining an intensive recovery program when a “striking, magnetic gorgeous Black woman walked in the room, held up a mug shot and started talking about being in the very chairs where we were sitting,” Gullickson remembers. There was life on the other side of addiction and prison, the woman said. But you have to fight for it. Gullickson believed her. “I remember thinking, I may not be able to do all that, be what she was, but maybe I...
Blog Post
Now Available Online! Transforming Correctional Design for Justice Reform!
Did you miss our talk on Transforming Correctional Design for Justice Reform? Based in the irrefutable facts of the biological effects of trauma, this talk is now available for you to stream!