Health and Safety in Detention
It’s hard to grow up behind bars, yet many young people are struggling to do just that. So while we endeavor to expand alternatives to detention, we also recognize the need to create conditions of confinement that better protect young people from harm and nurture healthy development.
Other work includes evaluating the start-up and impact of facilities specifically for 18 to 21-year-olds, which could become models nationally for young people who are no longer kids but not yet mature adults, and evaluating the use of social impact bonds to spur good practice in this crucial area.
Related Work
Series: Covid-19
Facebook Post Put High School Student in a Detention Facility Now Struck by Coronavirus
In February 2018, Hernandez, upset about a change in location for her special education program, wrote, “I’m coming tomorrow morning and I’m going to shoot all of ya bitches,” on East High School’s Facebook page. She was charged with making a terroristic threat. She pled guilty to third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor offense, a ...
Blog Post
Erica Bryant
Family Is Essential Webinar
A conversation with family advocates about COVID-19 and Youth Justice
As youth justice agencies race to prevent and respond to the harms of the novel coronavirus, families are essential partners. In this webinar, hosted by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Georgetown Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, we hear directly from family advocates about the actions families need systems to take in the present moment. Th ...
Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.
My Old Friends
A T.R.U.E. mentor reflects on how books have shaped his life behind bars
The books would pile up so much that I would send home a banker box full of books every few months to keep within the confines of my property allotment of six cubic feet. My parents dutifully packed them in the storage area of their home, waiting for our reunion. I spent so much time in those books they became my closest friends. Their attention co ...
Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.
Looking Back Toward a Better Future
The purpose of this blog series is to allow you to gain an appreciation for the T.R.U.E. program through the words of those of us who have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of this unique experience. In future posts, I will write about the day-to-day life of a mentor and some of the experiences I have had in the unit. For now, I want ...
Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.
Connecticut’s T.R.U.E. Prison Program Offers New Beginnings
First, I knew I would be a good asset to this program. I know right from wrong and I’ve never been in trouble while incarcerated. Since being in prison, I have come to an even better understanding of right from wrong. Second, there are some things I need to work on within myself so I can be a better person for myself and society. For example, I nee ...
Series: Dispatches from T.R.U.E.
How Connecticut Reimagines Prison for Young Men
It is extraordinary that in less than two years, many of those ideas became a reality in Connecticut. Over the past 9 months, Vera has been proud to partner with CT DOC to design and implement this pilot unit for incarcerated young adults 18 to 25. It changes the culture of corrections by drawing on lessons from American juvenile justice, internati ...
Blog Post
Mary Crowley
Restoring Promise
An Initiative to Disrupt the American Prison System
Restoring Promise, an initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice and MILPA, works with prisons and jails to address the root causes and consequences of mass incarceration in how it manifests in prisons and jails. We work directly with prisons and jails to transform the culture, climate, rhythms and routines that define the prison system, starting ...
Project
Ryan Shanahan
Tough on Kids and Their Families
Whenever a family member is incarcerated, the entire family suffers. The May issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (the ANNALS) features a series of articles that shed light on the effects of criminal justice policy on families when an adult member enters the system. “Tough on Crime, Tough on Families?” does a ...
Blog Post
Cymone Fuller
Ryan Shanahan
Impact Evaluation of the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) Program
In 2012, New York City launched the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) program, a large-scale initiative serving 16- to 18-year-old youth held at the Rikers Island jail complex. The ABLE program provided Moral Reconation Therapy to young people with the aim of improving individual outcomes and reducing the number of youth who were rea ...
Young Adults in Rikers Island Jail
Evaluating a new approach to working with 18 to 21-year-olds on Rikers Island
The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) established a new facility—announced during the fall of 2015 and opened months later—to house 18-21-year-olds at Rikers Island. The jail is the first in the country to create separate housing for these young adults, who are cognitively different from both their younger and older counterparts, and thu ...
Project
Ryan Shanahan
Struggle for Identity and Inclusion
Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City
Vera partnered with Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice to conduct a research study that explores the needs and experiences of New York City’s unaccompanied immigrant youth. The study, Struggle for Identity and Inclusion: Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City, draws upon the personal expertise of these youth and system s ...
Impact Evaluation of the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) Program at Rikers Island
The Vera Institute of Justice served as the independent evaluator of the nation’s first social impact bond—an innovative form of pay-for-success contracting that leverages private funding to finance public services—to fund the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) for youth at Rikers Island. Vera employed a quasi-experimental design to d ...