Tagged With "Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina"
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Action steps using ACEs and trauma-informed care: a resilience model (link.springer.com)
The prison system is an example of the ways undigested trauma from early childhood experiences can join with the conditions of harshness and violence in many of our U.S. prisons and contribute to reinforcing a cycle of reactivity in both Correction Officers and prisoners. The correctional system is rife with challenges to the health and well being of Correction Officers (COs) as well as prisoners. Suicide rates of COs are more than double that of police officers as well as for the national...
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Addressing Social Justice with Compassion (dailygood.org)
Professor Rhonda Magee is a faculty member at the University of San Francisco law school, an expert in contemplative pedagogy, the President of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Minds in Society, and a teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions for lawyers and law students. She has spent her career exploring the interrelationship between law, philosophy, and notions of justice and humanity. Having grown up in a segregated North Carolina, Magee developed an early...
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At Least 61,000 Nationwide Are in Prison for Minor Parole Violations [TheMarshallProject.org]
Among the millions of people incarcerated in the United States, a significant portion have long been thought to be parole violators, those who were returned to prison not for committing a crime but for failing to follow rules: missing an appointment with a parole officer, failing a urine test, or staying out past curfew. But their actual number has been elusive, in part because they are held for relatively short stints, from a few months to a year, not long enough for record keepers to get a...
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Bill would require more mental health screening for some state convicts (pressdemocrat.com)
A state legislative bill that would require judges in certain cases to consider a defendant’s mental health during sentencing was approved by the Legislature this week and is headed for Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. The bill, AB 154, would require judges to make a recommendation to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that a convicted felon receive a mental health evaluation if mental illness played a role in the crime. North Coast Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael,...
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North Dakota’s Norway Experiment (motherjones.com)
Late one night in October 2015, North Dakota prisons chief Leann Bertsch met Karianne Jackson, one of her deputies, for a drink in a hotel bar in Oslo, Norway. They had just spent an exhausting day touring Halden, the maximum-security facility Time has dubbed " the world's most humane prison", yet neither of them could sleep. Halden is situated in a remote forest of birch, pine, and spruce with an understory of blueberry shrubs. The prison is surrounded by a single wall. It has no barbed...
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Now Is the Time to Transform the Criminal Justice System (aspeninstitute.org)
There is a sense of renewed urgency among criminal justice reform advocates in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. As COVID-19 cases rise in jails, prisons, and detention centers, efforts have been made to release young people, older and vulnerable adults, and undocumented migrants. Advocates have encouraged policymakers to consider clemency and approve medical furloughs for those with health challenges. Among many other recommendations, they have called for the immediate release of people...
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Presentation to Philadelphia Defenders Association
On October 17th I gave a presentation to 70 + attorneys from the Defenders Association. Several members of this group assisted me by sending me great information about ACEs and the criminal justice system for which I am grateful. The 3...
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Reducing Harm for People in the Corrections System [Trauma Informed Oregon]
When I entered Framingham State Prison for the first time at age 19, I was placed in a cold, dark holding cell with 9 other women. Most of us were in bad shape, experiencing withdrawal symptoms, bruised from domestic violence, and simply scared to death of what we would experience after entering our designated cellblocks. After almost an entire day of being crammed in that cell, I was finally moved and asked to remove my clothes in front of an intimidating, angry-looking woman and then to...
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Restrictive housing is associated with increased risk of death after release from prison
By Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Ph.D., in the UNC department of social medicine, finds that people who were held in restrictive housing while serving time in prison face a substantial increased risk of death after their release. Oct 4, 2019 for UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – October 4, 2019 – A new study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that being held in restrictive housing ( i.e., solitary confinement ) is...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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How Incarcerated Parents Are Losing Their Children Forever [themarshallproject.org]
Lori Lynn Adams was a mother of four living in poverty when Hurricane Floyd struck eastern North Carolina in 1999, flooding her trailer home and destroying her children’s pageant trophies and baby pictures. No stranger to money-making scams, Adams was convicted of filing a fraudulent disaster-relief claim with FEMA for a property she did not own. She also passed dozens of worthless checks to get by. Adams served two year-long prison stints for these “blue-collar white-collar crimes,” as she...
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Incarceration, Addiction & Homelessness: The Problem with the U.S. Foster Care System
I was recently asked to be on the Incarcerate US podcast that is hosted by Dante Nottingham, an inmate who has been locked up since the age of 17. As you may know, incarceration in the US is at extreme levels and touches a wide variety of social issues, topics and dilemmas. At Incarcerate US, they believe that the solutions to our incarceration problems reside within the minds and hearts of the people. So the aim of our Incarcerate U.S. podcast is to interview a wide array of people across...
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‘Survivor strong’: Resilience follows trauma [Recordnet.com]
STOCKTON — Life goes on and you can have a positive impact on the world after a traumatic loss. That’s the message many survivors and family members of violent crime victims shared Monday at the Stockton waterfront as they walked or ran a 5-kilometer course to remember a loved one lost to homicide. Roshan Campos never misses the opportunity to support victims and family members. The mother of Carlitha Villalobos, who was 19 when she was shot to death with two other young people in north...
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The Most Successful Prison System in the World is Also the Most Radically Humane (wake-upworld.com)
“Every inmate in a Norwegian prison is going back to the society. Do you want people who are angry — or people who are rehabilitated?” ~ Are Hoidel, Director of Norway’s Halden Prison. A Revolutionary Model While the typical prison in the U.S. relies heavily on concrete, coils of razor wire, barren land free of any trees or plant life and lethal electric fences, along with towers manned by snipers, a maximum security correctional facility two hours north of Oslo, Norway has stunned...
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The Unfinished Business of Juvenile Justice [JJIE.org]
Lawmakers in New York, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas are currently debating proposals that would move 16- or 17-year-olds (or both) out of the adult criminal justice system and into the juvenile court. This development comes after seven states raised their age of jurisdiction over the past decade. In those states, as a result, half the number of youth who were previously automatically sent to adult courts now appear before a juvenile court judge — an outcome that increases the...
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Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice (wired.com)
AMY BACH WAS Â researching her book about the US court system when she met a woman named Sharon in Quitman County, Mississippi. One July day in 2001, Sharon said, her boyfriend took her under a bridge and beat her senseless with a tire iron. Sharon passed out numerous times before her niece intervened and stopped the man from killing her. In photos from the emergency room after the attack, Sharon's brown, almond-shaped eyes are swollen shut. She reported the crime to the police, who wrote up...
Ask the Community
Help our public radio station with a story: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
KQED is the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco, CA. We’d like to hear from adults (18+) who were separated from their parents when they were children. Perhaps the separation was due to economic reasons, war and conflict, incarceration, foster care, or something else. How did that period of separation impact you in the long-run? How has it impacted your connection to others and how you build relationships? If you're a parent, how does it influence how you parent? We’re...
Comment
Re: How Clearing Criminal Records Puts People to Work [CityLab.com]
Lori, that website is very interesting, thank you for sharing! I am glad that more information about expungement is being shared; the one thing that worries me about this, is that an expungement is not an easy, quick, or cheap process, nor does it totally erase your record. I'm worried that people look at expungements as a be-all-end-all solution when they are far from it. In North Carolina, the filing fee for an expungement is $175 (this does not consider any attorney fees). In the county...
Reply
Re: Help our public radio station with a story: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
I like this story, but it's just not a Bay Area problem... it's systemic my Dad ran to the Bay Area from Seattle and we still have not healed this relationship. He is still caught up in he's my Dad...which he is not! He never raised me to play with me nor attended me when I am in need. Seattle Alfred
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Virginia inmates start Black Lives Matter chapter (Virginia Times Dispatch)
By Frank Green, July 16, 2020, Virginia Times Dispatch. Courtney Henson knows the spot outside Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis where George Floyd's life ended under the knee of a police officer on May 25. Three decades ago Henson, then a teenager and now a resident of Virginia's River North Correctional Center, lived with his mother across the street from the store where Floyd allegedly passed a counterfeit $20 bill prompting a call to the police. [ Please click here to read more. ]
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A year without visits: COVID-19’s impact on children with incarcerated parents (North Carolina Health News)
By Hannah Critchfield, July 16, 2020, NC Health News. Correctional facilities throughout the state have shut down in-person visitations to help quell the spread of COVID-19, creating one more roadblock for kids trying to navigate the criminal justice system to stay connected with a parent. In any other year, on Father’s Day, 11-year-old Marley Bennett and her grandmother would pack up their pre-made lunches and drive to Orange Correctional Center for a visit with Marley’s father. They’d sit...
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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...
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SC inmates use art to heal from sexual assault trauma, domestic violence (The Post and Courier)
By Sara Coello, December 7, 2020, Post and Courier. At two women’s prisons in South Carolina, butterfly wings spread out across the walls. The murals, at Leath and Camille Graham correctional institutions, are the first stage of a project focused on healing for inmates who have survived sexual and domestic violence. Artist Cathy Salser guided 32 inmates, each of whom decorated one of the 16 panels that make up a butterfly. They painted scenes and scrawled poetry that reminded them of their...
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...
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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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Abolitionist Politics: The Case for a World without Prisons (nonprofitquarterly.org)
What is often called police and prison reform does not and has never worked for Black people. Measures to stem police violence and other acts of harm toward Black people, like hiring more Black police officers, community policing, modernized surveillance techniques, placing police outposts in under-serviced and marginalized neighborhoods, and starting sports camps run by police, among other programs, fail by their very nature because each is meant to further cement the position policing...
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Rochelle Honey-Arcement
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Cora Pfitzer
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Co-responding model takes shape as a new alternative for crisis response [newschannel5.com]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro Nashville Police officers will soon share a squad car with mental health professionals, as they co-respond to the scene of a mental health crisis. Sixteen officers between the North and Hermitage precincts volunteered for this new training. That includes six clinicians from the Mental Health Cooperative. Inspector David Imhof of Metro Nashville’s Office of Alternative Policing Strategies joined Chief John Drake to explain how these teams will work in tandem. [...
Member
John Philome
Blog Post
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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Historical Trauma Specialist Certification Level-1
HEAL HISTORICAL TRAUMA & Iya Affo PRESENT: The Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- Level 1 is a comprehensive understanding of Historical Trauma from a multicultural lens. The training is designed for participants serving, leading, advocating and working with people of color. It is the perfect training for people in a variety of disciplines as well as multicultural families and for anyone with the desire to understand the impact of slavery, genocide and colonization. The course...
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The Launch of Heal Trauma Global: Culturally Attuned Trauma Training
Being Trauma-Informed means that we are Culturally Attuned. Heal Trauma Global is a sister company to Heal Historical Trauma and was cultivated to fill a wide gap in stress science & trauma training. The trauma-informed movement is beautiful! It's wonderful that as a society we are moving in a direction that honors an individual's past as part of the driving force behind current behaviors. Yet, time and time again, I have attended trainings that are labeled as Trauma-Informed only 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,...
Calendar Event
Breaking the Cycle of ACEs (Institute for Public Strategies)
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John Legend wants to transform the criminal justice system, one DA at a time (npr.org)
John Legend is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award-winning entertainer, who recently kicked off a Las Vegas residency and just released a new single. But he's also a well-known activist and advocate for criminal justice reform and voting rights who has supported a number of Democratic candidates over the years. He's also throwing his support behind a number of progressive prosecutors who are running on a promise to reform a criminal justice system that they say is outdated and that...
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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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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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Podcast: Neurodecolonization with Indigenous Incarcerated Youth with Dr. Michael Yellow Bird (PrisonMindfulness,podbeam.com)_
To listen to the podcast, please click HERE. In this episode, Michael Yellow Bird speaks with cohost Fleet Maull on his experiences working with indigenous youth, and his research focused on "Neurodecolonization". The systemic impacts of Colonization and abolishing indigenous sacred meditative practices “Neurodecolonization” The conceptual mindfulness framework and healing trauma in incarcerated, indigenous groups Building cognitive resilience in indigenous youth MICHAEL YELLOW BIRD Michael...
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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...