Tagged With "Judge Andrew Heath, executive director"
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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...
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Equal Justice Initiative 2020 Report [eji.org]
From Executive Director Bryan Stevenson: Dear Friends: This has been a challenging and eventful year where we have alll witnessed much loss, fear and uncertainty. The legacy of our nation's history of racial injustice has been painfully evident in a series of disturbing incidents of police violence and racial profiling. People in jails and prisons have experienced devastation, disease and high rates of death as the COVID crisis has been especially challenging for the incarcerated. To read...
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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...
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NDRN Applauds Ending Contracts with Private Prison Companies
NDRN Applauds Ending Contracts with Private Prison Companies - https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndrn-applauds-ending-contracts-with-private-prison-companies/ On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, the Biden Administration announced that the Department of Justice will not renew any existing contracts for private prison operators in the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). There are currently 12 privately-run prisons in the BOP, several of which had already been shut down or are pending transfer to government...
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North Carolina to infuse ACEs science into state judiciary system
Plans to integrate practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences in North Carolina’s 4,000-person,100-county statewide judiciary were announced today. Jon David, district attorney for North Carolina’s 15th District, District Court Judge Quintin McGee of the same district, and Amelia Thorn, of Duke University’s Bolch Judicial Institute, revealed plans to work with North Carolina Chief Justice Paul Newby and Administrative Office of the Courts Director Andrew...
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A Farm in North Carolina Offers a Women's Reentry Program Unlike Any Other [dailyyonder.com]
By Olivia Weeks, The Daily Yonder, March 11, 2021 In recent decades, the number of women incarcerated in North Carolina has skyrocketed. In 2017, the state’s female prison population totaled 2,634, almost six times its 1978 number. In the early aughts, programming for women reentering society lagged behind growing incarceration rates, said Benevolence Farm Executive Director Kristen Powers in a phone interview. In 2008, social worker and Benevolence Farm founder Tanya Jisa put together a...
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The pandemic is changing how we think about domestic violence, new survey shows (centerforhealthjournalism.org)
Amid a pandemic that shined a harsh light on domestic violence , Californians are increasingly viewing these abuses as a pressing social issue, according to a new survey of nearly 2,000 adults. Two-thirds of Californians consider domestic violence a public issue rather than private family matter, and 91% of participants said domestic violence is a serious societal issue, the survey found. “This info has given some validation to things folks have been talking about for a long time...
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Mississippi judiciary trains on the power of hope, inspiring Youth Courts judges and staff
Dr. Chan Hellman, leading researcher in the power of hope to improve lives of impoverished children and families who have experienced abuse and neglect, Justice Dawn Beam, and Christopher Freeze, co-chair of Mississippi ACEs Connection , on day three of presentations by Hellman to judges and staff members of Mississippi's Youth Courts. “Hope is a better predictor of college success than the ACT or the SAT score” was one of the startling comments made by Chan Hellman, Ph.D., in the first of...
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Best Practices, Internationally Respected Experts Featured at ACEs Central Florida Conference. Registration Closes Monday!
Donna Jackson Nakazawa ( photo by Marshall Clarke ), award winning science journalist and author of Angel and the Assassin , will join Dr. Mimi Graham , director of Florida State University's Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy , Andrea Darr , creator of Handle With Care, Captain Lovetta Quinn-Henry , from the Orlando Police Department and many more featured at the conference. Help your community move the needle toward a trauma-informed, resilient community by learning from...
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We Don’t Need Prisons to Make Us Safer (yesmagazine.org)
The United States now has 2.3 million people behind bars of some form or another. These are not 2.3 million isolated individuals—their imprisonment sends reverberations into their families and communities. On any given day, 2.7 million children have a parent in prison. Incarcerating that parent removes a source of financial and emotional support for both children and adult family members. For families who are already in economically precarious situations, removing a parent can plunge them...
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Formerly Incarcerated People in West Virginia Find Community Support (yesmagazine.org)
Amber Bjornsson says she had a “true heart change” while serving a two-year prison sentence for the years of fines and felonies she previously collected. Once her sentence was complete, Bjornsson moved into a recovery home. As Bjornsson returned to life outside of incarceration, she started to see the full picture of the obstacles in front of her. She took a job that paid minimum wage at a restaurant within walking distance of her transitional housing. Then, she faced the substantial court...
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Planting a Life—and a Future—After Prison (yesmagazine.org)
n February 2017, when Keia Blount was preparing to be released after serving a five-year prison term at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, she had no idea where to go. “Family was not an option to go back to,” she says. “There was nowhere for me to go except for a shelter.” At the last minute, she found Benevolence Farm in Graham, North Carolina, a transitional residential and employment program on an organic farm. She applied, a few members of the staff came to visit her...
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Examples of Current Trauma-Informed Judicial Systems
Please join us for a new series entitled: Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice. This monthly virtual Zoom series will feature conversations facilitated by Porter Jennings-McGarity, PACEs Connection’s criminal justice consultant, with special guests to discuss the need for trauma-informed criminal justice system reform. Using a PACEs-science lens, this series will examine the relationship between trauma and the criminal justice system, what needs changing, and strategies being used in this area...
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Oregon's Drug Decriminalization Initiative Has Created $300 Million In Funding For Treatment And Services [marijuanamoment.net]
By Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, November 9, 2021 In the year since Oregon decriminalized possession of all state-banned drugs , hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been redirected to funding community treatment and harm reduction services. Measure 110 ended arrests and jail time for possession of small amounts, replacing those penalties with a civil fine. The fine is waived if the person attends a substance use disorder assessment. “A year ago, Oregonians voted yes on Measure 110 to...
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The Intersection of Sustainable Farming and Decarceration [Podcast episode from The Takeaway at wyncstudios.org]
Produced by Deborah Goldstein ; Hosted by Melissa V. Harris-Perry, Produced by GBH , PRX and WNYC Studios Of the 52,000 farms in North Carolina, one farm stands out as doing more than growing produce and raising livestock. GrowingChange , a non-profit organization that converts decommissioned rural prisons into farms and education centers where local, at-risk young people learn about animal husbandry and sustainable agriculture. Noran Sanford, Executive Director and Founder of GrowingChange,...
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Juvenile Court Judge Katherine Lucero Now Leads California’s Historic Migration from Punishment to Healing [imprintnews.org]
By Julie Reynolds Martinez and Jeremy Loudenback, Photo: Josie Lepe, The Imprint, March 9, 2022 Katherine Lucero — a daughter of farmworkers and longtime juvenile court judge who calls for compassion and support rather than jail and foster care — is now leading the most populous state toward a once-unimaginable goal: a future without youth prisons. In a historic shift aimed at reversing decades of poor outcomes for youth offenders and public safety, California is closing its Division of...
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Re: Putting Their Prison Pasts Behind Them (nationswell.com)
I first attended a 'leadership academy' at Postprandial Toastmasters (Club # 3259) - where I could also 'polish' my communication skills. The international by-laws were changed as a result of an initiative taken by a club member who was also a board member on the International board, so I was able to apply for membership, and have my application voted on by the club. All the members of that club at the time were aware that I'd been in prison (Adjudicated as a "Youthful Offender" [not...
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New study reveals a quiet revolution of repurposed prisons [npr.org]
By Michael Martin, Photo: Unsplash in site, National Public Radio, August 20, 2022 NPR's Michel Martin speaks with The Sentencing Project's Senior Director of Advocacy Nicole D. Porter about her new study on states repurposing closed correctional facilities. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Defund the police - that phrase has become a rallying cry for some and a political hammer to swing at opponents for others, depending, of course, on your view of the movement to move resources away from traditional...
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How to Help Survivors of Extreme Climate Events (psychologytoday.com)
By Elaine Miller-Karas MSW, LCSW Building Resiliency to Trauma Psychology Today, September 30, 2022 Mental health can suffer after extreme climate events. KEY POINTS Mental health conditions exacerbated by natural disasters include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. After a disaster, the number of people needing assistance from the mental health systems strains or exceeds community capacity. There are simple strategies helpers can use to help survivors restore...
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Philanthropy Must Challenge Our Punishment Paradigm—and End Solitary Confinement (nonprofitquarterly.org)
Image Credit: Jimmy Chan on pexels.com Author: To read Andrea Fionda and Scott Moyer's article, please click here. Fifty percent of prison suicides are carried out by individuals in solitary confinement. This disturbing statistic begs the question: When a criminal “justice” policy drives half of those subject to it to end their lives, what purpose is it serving? Whose safety is it ensuring? Solitary confinement is by no means implemented as a last resort. Incarcerated people are placed in...
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Pathways to Resilience Learning Network Session: How Trauma-Informed Courts Can Promote Healing and Resilience
Join Pathways to Resilience on Thursday, December 15 at 3 PM ET to hear about how courts in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee have implemented trauma-informed policies and programs to better support children and families. Many individuals who interact with the justice system have experienced significant trauma. To mitigate the impact of adverse childhood experiences and improve long-term outcomes, some courts have developed programs and policies that train court personnel on the effects...
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California Set to Become First State in Nation to Expand Medicaid Services for Justice-Involved Individuals (DHCS)
SACRAMENTO – California today became the first state in the nation to offer a targeted set of Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) services to youth and adults in state prisons, county jails, and youth correctional facilities for up to 90 days prior to release. Currently, Medi-Cal services are generally available only after release from incarceration. Through a federal Medicaid 1115 demonstration waiver, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will establish a coordinated community...
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North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
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North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
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The Campaign on Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice 2022 Trauma-Informed Policy Development Highlights. Join Wednesday's CAN Call for analysis!
By Whitney Marris, Trauma Therapist and CTIPP's Director of Practice & System Transformation 2022 marked a successful advocacy year for the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice’s (CTIPP) network. Federal and state leaders proposed and supported legislation to prevent and address trauma and create more long-term health, equity, and resilience in more significant numbers than in past years. There is no doubt that the continued commitment and efforts of advocates around the...
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How much would the NAS poverty reduction packages reduce referrals to CPS and foster care placements? Would they reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare? (nasonline.org).
Because of a collaboration with Columbia University and UW-Madison, we have answers to these questions. By Peter Peter Pecora, Casey Family Programs, March 17, 2023 - Overview The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently released a “ roadmap ” to reduce child poverty by as much as half through the implementation of a series of social policy packages. The aim of this study was to simulate the reductions in Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and foster care placements that are...
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Register Now for Inaugural Statewide Summit: Leveraging North Carolina’s Assets to Prevent Childhood Trauma — Virtually & In Raleigh April 27-28!
Information from Summit Brochure and registration site available here . North Carolina’s first Statewide Trauma Summit – a virtual and in-person summit – will beheld Thursday and Friday, April 27-28, in Raleigh, at The McKimmon Conference and Training Center, Summit leaders announced recently. “Momentum is growing in NC for building trauma-informed systems that strengthen resilience and weed out systemic and often intergenerational sources of child trauma. To advance this work, it is...
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Washington State Department of Corrections is Providing Trauma-Informed Training
Community Resilience Initiative (CRI), the inspiration behind the Paper Tigers documentary, is partnering with the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC). For more than a decade, CRI has been providing trauma and resilience training to thousands of organizations across the country. What caught DOC’s eye, however, is CRI’s adherence to emerging neuroscience, specifically the focus on inclusive interactions. “Prisons are inherently stressful environments for both incarcerated...
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The 2023 Creating Resilient Communities Accelerator Program is now Open For Registration
PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program.
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Interrupting Cycles of Harm, Inside and Outside Prison Walls (yesmagazine.org)
The connection between trauma and incarceration runs deep. ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH BISHOP/GETTY IMAGES To read more of Allen Arthur's article, please click here. Shawanna Vaughn fights prisons with equal amounts of forgiveness and fury. The forgiveness she offers is one that she hopes everyone will embrace — one that sees people who have committed harm as wounded, not evil, and that can become the basis for prioritizing healing over punishment. She even extends forgiveness to the man who...
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The 2023 Creating Resilient Communities Summer Curriculum is Now Open for Registration
PACEs Connection is excited to roll out our summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum dates. Members who complete the CRC will qualify for a fall 2023 fellowship program.
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Bailing Out Black Mamas: From Healing to Power (nonprofitquarterly.org)
Image Credit: Aidi Tanndy from pexels.com To read more of Isaiah Thompson's article, please click here. This past Mother’s Day, a group of activists, most of them women, gathered outside the Alameda Courthouse in Oakland, Ca. to “call attention to the harm of mass incarceration on generations of Black women, families, and communities,” according to a press release by the California nonprofit Essie Justice Group, which organized the rally. “The justice group is a loving and powerful community...
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“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
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“Going Way Upstream” - Panelists at Resilient Pender County Conference report on current trauma prevention and healing efforts; look to future
Amy Read of Coastal Horizons introduces the panel following a viewing of "Resilience: The Biology of Stress, The Science of Hope", at the Pender Resiliency Task Force Mini Conference Thursday, June 8 ,at Heide Trask High School in Rocky Point. A "dream team" of subject-matter expert panelists (L-R) were Ryan Estes of Coastal Horizons, Ben David, district attorney for Pender and New Hanover counties, Judge J. H. Corpening, district court judge for New Hanover and Pender counties, Taylor...
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“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
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Clinics Offering Child Care Help Parents Clear Arrest Warrants (reasonstobecheerful.world)
Credit: Freya Lowy Clark for The 19th To read more of Barbara Rodriquez' article, please click here. Cierra walked into the Bowens Senior Center with trepidation, but also hope. The promotional flier that brought the mother of three to this community center a few miles outside of Detroit offered to help people eliminate any active warrants for their arrest — people like her, who had a warrant for a years-old traffic violation. But something else on the flier also caught her attention: Along...
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With nowhere else to go, kids needing foster care sleep on the floor in county offices (northcarolinahealthnews.org)
Photo Credit: Walt Stoneburner, Flickr Creative Commons By Michelle Crouch, The Charlotte Ledger, July 5, 2023 -- With foster homes in short supply, more than 55 children over the past year have spent at least one night sleeping on an air mattress in a Mecklenburg government conference room; “It’s as bad as it’s ever been.” Dozens of children have been forced to sleep on the floor of Mecklenburg County offices over the past year because of a severe shortage of foster homes and crisis beds,...
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The UK Retailer That Recruits Its Employees from Prisons (reasonstobecheerful.world)
Credit: Roger Utting / Shutterstock To read more of MaryLou Costa's article, please click here. “Hi, I’m sorry that I can’t respond to your email. I’m currently in a prison, recruiting more amazing colleagues for our business.” That’s a standard out-of-office reply for Darren Burns, who, as director of diversity and inclusion for well-known UK service retailer Timpson, spends a lot of time interviewing candidates from within prisons. CEO James Timpson made his first prison visit in 2002,...
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Announcing the Trans in Custody Project (pointofpride.org)
About the Trans in Custody project Please click here: https://www.pointofpride.org/trans-in-custody Point of Pride has developed a series of resource guides designed to help trans people who are incarcerated access gender-affirming chest binders by empowering themselves and the people in their lives to advocate and effect positive change. Today, we've released our first guide to provide support to counselors in correctional facilities who work directly with trans folks. In the coming days,...
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Review of “First 60 Days” booklet: Leveraging author’s work and movement could spark revolution to prevent and heal trauma, one precious baby, child, and caregiver at a time.
(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...
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Call to Action & Toolkit: Urge Congress to Support Trauma-Informed Legislation
It’s time to take action and make our voices heard to build healthy, resilient communities! The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) is organizing trauma-informed advocates, activists, and stakeholders to urge their U.S. Senators and Representatives to support two bipartisan, bicameral bills that would significantly help prevent, address, and mitigate the negative impacts of trauma through community-based/led initiatives.
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Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties
Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...
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The Prison-to-Hollywood Pipeline Is the Stuff of Cinematic Dreams (reasonstobecheerful.world)
Credit: ManifestWorks To read more of Michaela Hass' article, please click here. Four years ago, Leslie was on the edge of homelessness. “Everything was going wrong. I was sleeping on the floor of relatives’ living rooms with my two kids,” she remembers. Then, Hollywood called. It wasn’t a talent scout or a casting director that brought her into the industry. It was ManifestWorks , a unique program that guides people from homelessness, incarceration and foster care directly into entry-level...
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Building Resilience is a Team Effort that Starts Early
“YES!” was the response of Gaile Osborne, executive director of Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina (FFANC), when asked for input on a new program to help foster and kinship care families learn how to support the brain development of young children. “I love these Brain Insights materials. How soon can we start?” said Osborne upon receiving the "The First 60 Days ” booklet on myths about newborns and their caregivers and the eight “ Neuro-Nurturing ” ringed books. The materials delivered...
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Plans afoot to bring stability to PACEs Connection
To all of you, who, like me, love this website and want to see it and its communities flourish as we work to prevent and heal trauma; build resiliency: please know there is a move afoot by a small group of strategic partners to find a suitable host for PACEs Connection. More will be announced in the coming days. In the meantime, friends, we are figuring out email addresses and other communications logistics and opportunities. PEACE! Carey Sipp, former director of strategic partnerships ...