prison-reform

A voting sign in Philadelphia

‘We’re in a moment’: Is it time to expand voting rights for incarcerated Pennsylvanians?

BY: - May 28, 2023

'When I was told I could vote, it was an amazing feeling,” Jessie Tate said. “It felt so good. They gave you an ‘I voted’ sticker, and I was walking around with that sticker on all day long.”  

As New Jersey’s prison population grays, calls grow for ‘geriatric parole’

BY: - May 23, 2023

1 in 5 people behind bars in the Garden State's state prisons are older than 50. The cost of their care is soaring.

Report: Pa. ranks 13th nationwide for mass punishment | Friday Morning Coffee

BY: - May 19, 2023

The new data comes as policymakers are set to try again on probation reform.

Pa. House bill could return vote to people serving time for felonies | Wednesday Morning Coffee

BY: - May 10, 2023

'That piece of humanization can ensure we have a fully participatory democracy,' Rep. Rick Krajewski, D-Philadelphia, said.

Bill to end medical co-pays for incarcerated Pennsylvanians to be reintroduced

BY: - February 15, 2023

Brown sponsored the same bill in the 2021-22 legislative session. It died in the House Judiciary Committee without coming to a vote.

Costs of incarceration rise as inflation squeezes inmates, families

BY: - October 16, 2022

Advocates, prisoners, and families are pushing for policy changes to bring commissary prices down. Lawmakers are starting to listen.

Report: Black people far more likely to be wrongly convicted than whites | Friday Morning Coffee

BY: - October 7, 2022

More than 3,200 people have been exonerated since 1989. More than half of them are Black, according to a new study.

Thirteen men died after going to the Allegheny County Jail. Here are their stories

BY: - March 15, 2022

Families reported a lack of notification and communication from jail administrators, according to a 2-year investigation

COMMENTARY

Three years in solitary confinement: An open letter from the Allegheny Co. Jail | Opinion

BY: - November 19, 2021

Those who endure solitary confinement have long been buried, nameless and voiceless, in the dark heart of the Allegheny County Jail

COMMENTARY

Bills that fill jails are Harrisburg’s version of bipartisanship. We can do without it | Opinion

BY: - November 16, 2021

Our constituents sent us to Harrisburg to be part of the work of fixing a broken system, not upholding and expanding its cruelties.

Bipartisan bill aims to allow Pa. lifers a chance at parole

BY: - November 15, 2021

'We are stronger communities with our elders and grandparents home,' an advocate argued.

Philly City Council urges Congress to end forced labor in prisons

BY: - September 25, 2021

'We can’t decarcerate our country unless we eliminate the financial incentive to keep Black and brown, working class and poor people in prison,' Councilmember Kendra Brooks said.