“We want them to be able to get out, get a job, get themselves back on their feet and really succeed in their life,” an instructor said of his incarcerated students.
Vera Institute of Justice
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Malloy leaves office as national leader on criminal justice reform
Under Gov. Dannel Malloy’s leadership, Connecticut has repealed the death penalty, closed prisons, decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, raised the age from 16 to 18 at which defendants are tried as adults for most crimes, streamlined the process for parole and pardons, and reduced penalties for non-violent drug crimes.
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Young inmates tell Malloy about a new way in an old prison
CHESHIRE — Isschar Howard was 20 the night he shot and killed two young men who challenged his right to sell drugs on a corner in New Haven. He’s a 37-year-old lifer now, recently trained as a mentor to young inmates. The governor of Connecticut dropped by his cell Monday, shook his hand and thanked him for his work.
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‘To focus on young adults who are in prison is very cutting edge’
Our Q&A with Alexandra Frank of the Vera Institute of Justice about her organization’s partnership with the Connecticut Department of Corrections to reimagine prison. Her project is the new special unit at Cheshire Correctional to deal with the most disruptive demographic in prisons: young adults ages 18 to 25.
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A prison experiments with the young, the reckless and neuroscience
CHESHIRE — Warden Scott Erfe once asked a 20-year-old inmate with a habit of assaulting prison classroom staff, “What is your malfunction?” He is about to host a project to test the notion that pretty much every 18-to-25-year-old inmate has a malfunction: a brain that doesn’t mature until 25.