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Reentry News

  • 'I think I am going to die.’ Inside a coronavirus outbreak at a N.J. federal prison.

    There were no cases at the prison less than three weeks ago, according to the BOP. Now, eight staff members and at least 59 inmates have tested positive for the virus at the prison, which houses more than 2,700 inmates. This situation is not unlike state prisons around the country. Many are wrestling to contain the virus, while the number of positive cases is rapidly climbing.

  • Fair Shake Members Lose Free Email Accounts

    Fair Shake recommends using Mozilla's Thunderbird.
    On July 20, 2020 the Fair Shake website was hacked. Fair Shake withstood two previous hacks, but is now forced to eliminate free email from our services. The next best free email account is available through Thunderbird; the a free and open source email, newsfeed, chat, and calendaring client, that’s easy to set up and customize. (link in headline) The other account tools will remain available.

  • The ‘Surreal’ Moment After Release From Prison

    For these former inmates in Texas, the rush of emotions that accompany freedom play out at a Greyhound bus station. (11 min. film)
    1700+ people are released from prison each day.

  • What Is the Spirit of Ubuntu? How Can We Have It in Our Lives?

    We all have a lot to learn from this beautiful southern African philosophy.
    Ubuntu. It speaks to the fact that we are all connected and that one can only grow and progress through the growth and progression of others. The Rev. Desmond Tutu reminds us that “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world."

  • Sent to Prison by a Software Program’s Secret Algorithms

    The report in Mr. Loomis’s case was produced by a product called Compas, sold by Northpointe Inc. It included a series of bar charts that assessed the risk that Mr. Loomis would commit more crimes.
    …a report from ProPublica about Compas that concluded that black defendants in Broward County, Fla., “were far more likely than white defendants to be incorrectly judged to be at a higher rate of recidivism.”
    Compas and other products with similar algorithms play a role in many states’ criminal justice systems. “These proprietary techniques are used to set bail, determine sentences, and even contribute to determinations about guilt or innocence,” a report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center found. “Yet the inner workings of these tools are largely hidden from public view.”

  • Cascade Engineering, in western Michigan, discusses hiring the formerly incarcerated

    Michigan Public Radio Interview
    With the company's vice president, Kenyatta Brame, and Jahaun McKinley, formerly incarcerated and lean manager at Cascade who has been with the company for six years.