No other sitting Commander in Chief, including Ronald Reagan, who took office in 1981 when prison populations spiked upward rapidly, or George W. Bush, the hang-’em-high leader who presided over 152 executions as Texas governor, had ever set foot inside a federal penitentiary. But last month, President Barack Obama stepped behind bars — hinting that he’s conscious of the legacy he’ll leave and is eyeing criminal justice reform as his next issue to tackle.
“When they describe their youth and their childhood, these are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different than the mistakes I made,” Obama said after speaking to six nonviolent offenders at El Reno prison, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. “The difference is they did not have the kinds of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.” He added, “It’s not normal. It’s not what happens in other countries. What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things. What is normal is young people making mistakes.”
As bipartisan momentum grows in Washington, D.C., reform efforts are also sweeping the nation, many led by conservative governors. Here’s the latest innovations to come out of our country’s statehouses:
TEXAS SHUTTERS PRISONS
Everything’s bigger in Texas, including its correctional facilities. That is, until recently. Starting in 2007, Gov. Rick Perry, Bush’s successor in a “tough on crime” state and now a Republican presidential candidate, led the conservative state in reining in the size of its prison populations. Texas focused on expanding treatment programs and diverting offenders through probation and parole. In 2011, three juvenile facilities were closed, halving the number of incarcerated youth in the state. Cuts continued in 2013, when legislators reduced the corrections budget by $97 million, a clear sign they intended to scale back the system’s capacity. Two prisons near Dallas mired in scandal and operated by Corrections Corporation of America, the country’s largest for-profit prison company, looked to be on the chopping block. When Sen. John Whitimire, the longest-serving legislator, called for the closure of the prisons built during his watch, the decision seemed final. Through the budget process, both were defunded.
UTAH REDEFINES A PRISON-WORTHY OFFENSE
Obama didn’t selected El Reno prison for his visit at random. He picked the institution because half of its inmates are behind bars for drug offenses — the same proportion for the country as a whole. Utah faced the same situation. While crime fell for two decades, the state’s prison population increased without bound: From 2004 to 2013, the number of inmates grew by 18 percent, six times faster than the national average. This March, Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, signed a comprehensive reform package (developed by a commission of state and local officials) that reclassified all first- and second-time drug possession violations as misdemeanors, instead of felonies. Along with creating new guidelines for parole violations and adding “re-entry specialists” to smooth the transition from prison, the Beehive State’s new law is expected to eliminate the 2,700 projected incarcerations and save the public $500 million over the next 20 years.
ALABAMA DOESN’T JAIL FOR PROBATION VIOLATIONS
Alabama has one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates, jailing more than 30,000 people in a system designed to hold only 12,000 prisoners — leading officials to call it a “time bomb waiting to explode.” Almost a quarter of newly admitted inmates were thrown into overcrowded cells because they violated the terms of their parole or probation. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, half of those cases were for “minor technical violations,” such as missed appointments, unpaid fines, moving to a new home without permission or losing a job, “that did not result in a new offense.” A law signed in 2010 by Gov. Robert Riley limited incarceration for those who committed an administrative error but didn’t break any laws. The alternatives saved the southern state an estimated $18 million.
INDIANA RETOOLS DRUG-FREE ZONE LAWS
The signs are so commonplace you might not notice them: “Drug-Free School Zones.” In fine print, they’ll inform you that selling drugs within 1,000 feet of school property, a public park, a housing project or a youth center in Indiana is a Class A felony, automatically upping the recommended sentence to 20 to 50 years in prison. The creation of these areas were one of the government’s first salvos in the War on Drugs, passed by Congress in 1970, more than a decade before Ronald Reagan escalated the battle. Indiana’s reform began in 2007 in an unlikely way: bills in each chamber of the legislature initially set out to expand the drug-free zone to include bus stops and churches. Kelsey Kauffman, a professor at DePauw University, tasked her students with evaluating the law’s effectiveness. Over an eight-year campaign, they presented their findings — that more than 75 percent of the defendants affected by the zones were black — to multiple Senate committees. By 2013, new legislation cut the zones in half, limiting them to a 500-foot radius. A bill last year sought to scale them back even further to 250 feet, but political maneuvering killed the attempt.
NEBRASKA OVERTURNS DEATH PENALTY
Smack in the middle of America’s heartland, the Cornhusker State became the first conservative state in four decades to repeal capital punishment this May. Nebraska’s nonpartisan, unicameral legislature defied Gov. Pete Ricketts, a fierce advocate for the death penalty, with a 30-to-19 vote, just barely enough to overturn a veto. Liberals and conservatives alike believed the death penalty was inefficient, costly and immoral. “Today we are doing something that transcends me, that transcends this Legislature, that transcends this state,” Sen. Ernie Chambers, an independent from Omaha, said before the vote. “We are talking about human dignity.” Along with Washington, D.C., Nebraska joined 17 other states in banning capital punishment.
MISSOURI REPEALS SELECT BAN ON FOOD STAMPS
The federal welfare overhaul in 1996, passed by Rep. Newt Gingrich’s Republican stronghold in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, revoked the ability of felons convicted of drug offenses to receive welfare benefits. The lifetime disqualification from food stamps seemed so vengeful and contrary to public safety that 19 states have chosen to opt out of the provision entirely and 24 states created exceptions, according to a tally by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline blog. Barring someone from benefits “increases the odds they will commit new crimes by virtue of the fact that you’re creating a significant financial obstacle,” says Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project. A grassroots push, particularly by religious leaders in St. Louis and Kansas City, united lawmakers in values-based support and won the governor’s signature.
GEORGIA WIPES THE SLATE CLEAN
Once a person’s made contact with the criminal justice system, it’s hard to allude its grasp. A criminal record follows you into every job interview. It’s a red flag on every background check for a new apartment or a loan. That’s the case — even if a person isn’t a felon who spent years in the pen or if a judge dismisses the case or a jury agrees the accused is innocent. With prodding from the Georgia Justice Project and others, legislators overhauled the state’s burdensome and limited expungement law. On the day the law went into effect, one-third of Georgia’s population had a record expunged. Bolstered by the success, Georgia Justice Project convinced Gov. Nathan Deal to issue an executive order to “ban the box” asking criminal history questions on state employment applications this February — the first state in the Deep South to change its hiring policy.
Tag: Alabama
How Putting One Foot in Front of the Other Is Saving the African-American Community
“One in two African-American girls born in the year 2000 will get diabetes if something doesn’t change,” says Morgan Dixon, co-founder of GirlTrek. “That’s absolutely not acceptable on our watch.”
Statistics like that, as well as sobering data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that 80 percent of African-American women are obese or clinically overweight, are what motivate Dixon.
Dixon speaks passionately about her family’s American story, from her mother being part of school desegregation in Oklahoma to her ancestors fighting in the Kentucky Regiment during the Civil War. She is the first in her family to graduate from college and found success that wouldn’t have been attainable without the sacrifices of those who came before her.
But something was still missing.
Through long conversations with her friend and eventual GirlTrek co-founder Vanessa Garrison, Dixon discovered that both she and Garrison had an unfulfilled sense of purpose. Specifically, they both wanted to give back to female African-American community.
So they started GirlTrek, an organization that was launched in 2010 to encourage black women to walk their way towards better health. Beyond the obvious physical benefits and community building, Dixon and Garrison cite African-American history as motivation, from the endless walking of Harriet Tubman along the Underground Railroad to the civil rights marches of 1965 in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama.
In March of this year, GirlTrek chartered 10 buses so 500 of its members could participate in the 50th anniversary of the Selma Bloody Sunday March. Wearing their “superhero blue” GirlTrek T-shirts, Dixon, Garrison and their sisters in health marched to honor the sacrifices their community had made before and the desire of African-American women to stand up for their health.
“Black women have prioritized the health and wellbeing of everyone else above themselves because they needed to do that,” explains Garrison. “It’s gotten us to this point, but it’s absolutely going to kill us.”
As of April 2015, GirlTrek had more than 29,000 members in 500 cities nationwide. Their goal? To reach 1 million by 2018. Dixon and Garrison see what they are doing as an extension of civil rights, and they say the time has come for African-American women to focus on themselves.
“We have an obligation,” says Dixon, “to just live our healthiest most fulfilled lives because so many people have walked so far for us to get to this moment.”
Morgan Dixon, co-founder of GirlTrek, is a NationSwell Council member.
How Technology Can Level the Playing Field for Rural Towns in America
The sleepy town of Piedmont, Ala., sits at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, about 15 miles west of the Georgia border and what seemed to be dozens of miles from the edtech phenomenon that’s transformed communities and classrooms across the country.
But that changed in 2009 when Piedmont first began its foray into embracing technology and when the district adopted a one-to-one laptop program for older students. Since that point, the school district has been adding online courses, and in 2012, rolled out a wireless network blanketing the entire town. But unlike many school districts that have adopted similar high-tech learning strategies, Piedmont is not only aiming to help its children, but also hoping to revive a fledgling town that has seen the closure of several factories — leaving many without jobs. More than 9 percent of locals are unemployed and 25 percent of adults age 25 and older have less than a high school diploma.
“That’s always been the bigger picture,” says Matt Akin, superintendent of Piedmont City Schools. “What can we do to revive a community?”
With just 4,800 residents, the town’s median household income sits at about $33,000, which is about $20,000 lower than the national average; almost 37 percent of Piedmont’s children live in poverty. Which is why Akin and other community leaders are hoping embracing high-tech learning will attract more people to see the town as a great place to settle down.
As research shows, access to technology and the Internet in rural areas has the potential to close critical information gaps and helps residents access higher education and scholarship opportunities, online courses and other educational resources.
“Technology allows people in rural areas to reap the benefits of a rural lifestyle, while not sacrificing access to learning opportunities,” says Karen Cator, president of Digital Promise, a classroom technology advocacy group.
Though Piedmont educators have embraced technology in the classroom, they quickly realized that students were unable to translate the tech into their home lives with out access at home. Students were forced to sit outside the school to access the network in order to download videos or assignments, according to Piedmont Middle School principal Jerry Snow.
After receiving a federal E-rate grant to set up a wireless network in late 2011, Piedmont leaders moved on to resolve the next problem, which was a lack of technical experts or IT staff to help locals adapt. District leaders then began welcoming more student teachers to assist educators with technology, as well as partnering with local colleges.
Students laptops have also helped engage parent involvement, including helping them pursue their own opportunities, according to Akin. Parents use the wireless network and laptops to take their own online or GED courses, apply for jobs and access other resources. These types of outcomes are exactly what Akin was working toward.
But now he’s also expanded his goal to include addressing academic needs across the school district — including personalized learning approaches that test individual students and measure progress. Now, teachers vary between group lessons and monitoring individual work and students are assessed by online programs and also receive online lessons based on their academic levels.
“They can work at their own pace now,” Snow says.
While it’s still too early to tell whether Piedmont’s push for a more tech-savvy community will transform the entire town, some parents have seen improvements in their children’s grades and attention span in school. But Akin believes the multi-year effort will pay off in the long run.
“We just want kids to have the same opportunity that kids in other places have,” he says. “The opportunities that our kids have, and the opportunities that any kid has, shouldn’t depend on where they live.
MORE: For Kids That Struggle with Reading, Digital Literacy Programs Show Promise
The 10 Most Inspiring Books of 2014
In a year where our country witnessed a widening gap between rich and poor, a toxic chemical leak, long delays for veterans at hospitals and clinics, botched lethal injections, racially-charged protests, record low voter turnout and stunning Congressional dysfunction, we at NationSwell turned to these ten books for stories of hope. Confronted by complex issues, these authors never flinched. Instead, they brought us creative solutions and unwavering heroics. Read on for our top ten books of 2014 (alphabetized by author):
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Are there any inspiring books we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
These Frat Brothers Are Using Tiny Houses to Change the Lives of the Homeless
When the idea of frat brothers comes to mind, most of us probably conjure up images of crazy college parties. However, one fraternity is defying the stereotype and extending the notion of brotherhood to an unlikely group: the homeless.
Huntsville, Ala. has a substantial homeless population and a large portion of it is comprised of veterans. Fortunately, the Phi Kappa Phi fraternity at the University of Alabama – Huntsville has a solution in mind. In operation for less than a year, the members of frat have been working toward creating a tiny homes village for those without shelter in their community.
The idea began to develop after members of the group encountered a homeless man at a local Sonic restaurant. Moved by the experience, the frat brothers started having regular meals with various members of the homeless community, which inspired them to become more involved.
“Me and my brothers were like, ‘we want to do something about this,’” Phi Kappa Phi president Taylor Reed tells WHNT News.
With the help of Foundation for Tomorrow and the Help Our Veterans and Civilians organization, Phi Kappa Phi began plans for a tiny homes village, which will consist of multiple residences that are less than 500 square feet, are mobile and are fully equipped. To create an inclusive feeling, the village will also include a community garden that will be maintained by the residents as well as a space where a group meal will be consumed at least once a week.
Each unit costs about $5,000 to build, and about 30 homes can fit on one acre of land, which is the amount that the Foundation for Tomorrow is hoping to receive from the city of Huntsville. Alabama Center for Sustainable Energy has already volunteered to supply solar panels for the homes. Further, the frat brothers plan to build all of the homes themselves with the assistance of their fellow community members.
In order to raise the funds, Phi Kappa Phi is currently operating a website fundraiser. Their goal? To raise $10,000 and, as of November 19, they have raised $6,493.
For Help Our Homeless Veterans and Civilians CEO Rusty Loiselle, these homes are a rare and needed opportunity.
“Get them out of cardboard boxes and into these tiny homes while they go through re-training and get the assistance they need,” Loiselle tells WHNT News. “These tiny homes are a step towards nice solid housing, it’s a step up.”
MORE: Portland is About to Get Tons of Tiny Homes That Can Shelter the Homeless
The Double Amputee Veteran That’s Now an Eye-Catching Cover Model
Noah Galloway of Birmingham, Ala., never dreamed of entering the military — then history intervened.
“There’s a lot of military history in my family, and I didn’t want anything to do with any of it,” Galloway says in a video for Men’s Health. “September 11th happened, and I was twenty years old, I was physically fit, and I just saw it as something I needed to do.” In October 2001, he enlisted.
Then during December 2005, Sergeant Galloway was serving in the Infantry in Iraq in when his unit received orders that required driving a Humvee into an area known as “the Triangle of Death” in Yusufiah. Driving with the headlights off and night vision goggles on, they didn’t see a trip wire, which detonated a roadside bomb as they drove over it. The explosion blasted Galloway into a canal and led to the amputation of both his left arm and leg.
Personal turmoil soon followed. “I thought more than a few times that it would have been better if I’d have just died,” he says. “I’d have been looked at like a hero. But instead, here I am, I’ve had two of my limbs taken from me. I would drink every day, but then I would go out in public and I was fine. There was this other side of me that I was just really hiding. I finally decided this has got to stop.”
Galloway joined a gym, began working out extensively and changed his diet. “Everything in my life started to improve,” he says.
The father of three now works as a personal trainer specializing in helping disabled vets, and he doesn’t let his clients get away with their excuses for not excelling. “Whatever it is that you tell me that you can’t do, we can find something to get it done,” he says. “I’ve had nothing but people try to help me. The least I can do is try to help anyone that’s in need around me.”
Most recently, Men’s Health named Galloway its “Ultimate Men’s Health Guy,” picking him from among the 1,246 contenders who entered the magazine’s first-ever contest and placing him on the November cover. Galloway won the reader’s choice poll of three finalists — finishing with more than 60,000 votes.
We bet that his inspiring story will motivate some couch potatoes to lace up their sneakers.
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MORE: A No-Brainer Job for Ex Drill Sergeants: Motivating the Rest of Us
How Alabama is Improving the Test Scores of Minority Students
The state of Alabama ranks at the top of the nation when it comes to improvement in Advanced Placement scores.
If Alabama’s new distinction surprises you, you’re not alone. After the results were announced by the College Board (the organization that administers the test), even the State Superintendent’s Tommy Bice said in a press conference that when it comes to public education, “This is not usually where we’re ranked.”
According to the Associated Press, the number of students nationwide passing math, science, and English AP exams has increased by 49 percent over the past six years. Trumping that figure significantly, Alabama saw 136 percent boost in the same amount of time. More of the state’s high school students are also taking the exam — from 4,037 students in 2008 to 9,534 in 2014.
More notably, as Bice also pointed out, “I think the most important piece that I would add to that, is this is at the same time we were looking forward to including more under-represented groups…So not only have we increased the percentage of Advanced Placement exams passed, we’ve increased the number of minority students [passing them].”
MORE: Bad Test Score? No Test Score? No Problem!
Indeed, AL.com reports that from 2008 to 2014, the number of minority students passing the AP tests rose from 308 to 1,024, which is a stunning 232 percent increase in comparison to the country’s increase of 112 percent.
Each year, millions of students take one or more Advanced Placement classes at their high schools, which mimic the workload and pace of intro-level college courses. Each May, these students are given a standardized multiple choice exam and/or an essay based on their AP subject(s). The test is then scored on a 5-point scale, with 5 being the highest. Getting a score of 3 or above is considered passing, and in some situations (depending upon the university), a student can receive college credit for it. For example, if a high school student scored a 4 on her U.S. history AP exam, he or she could place out of U.S. History 101 or opt for a higher-level class once enrolled in college.
Ultimately, students who have scored well on AP exams could potentially graduate early — saving a lot of dough on college tuition. And thanks to Alabama’s impressive passing rates, the state’s families have saved a whopping $36 million (!) in tuition costs, the Associated Press reports.
ALSO: Delaware Pushes to Get More Low-Income Students Enrolled in Higher Education
So how did this happen? Since 2008, the state set a goal of improving scores with its Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program. Funded with $13.2 million in public and private grants, it provided teacher training and support stipends for teachers and students in school districts throughout the state.
Alabama (along with 42 other states) also received some federal backing for the tests. The exams, which cost $89 per subject, can set a test-taker back a lot of money. In 2013, the state received about $252,130 out of $28.8 million that the U.S. Education Department provided to help pay for low-income students to take the AP.
If anything, as Gov. Robert Bentley joked at a press conference following the announcement of his state’s new top-dog AP ranking, “It’s good to be No. 1 in something other than football.”
DON’T MISS: Guess Which State is the Tops for Education?
Can a Plush Toy Robot Get Young Kids Interested in STEM?
How many parents have spent countless hours playing Candy Land or Barbies with their kids?
Chris Harden and Jeremy Scheinberg are two dads from Alabama and Florida who grew tired of their children’s toys. The two felt their children weren’t getting much out of playing mindless games, which is why they decided to create a toy that helps kids get a head start on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning.
In less than a week, the pair will crowdfund a campaign on Kickstarter.com for their answer to more STEM-focused toys. TROBO, which connects to an iPad or iPhone app, is a plush toy robot that tells stories of STEM-focused topics to children ages 2 to 7, the Anniston Star reports.
TROBO features two characters: Curie, named for physicist and chemist Marie Curie and Edison, (a shout out to inventor Thomas Edison), both representing STEM heroes. TROBO plans to release more characters if the Kickstarter campaign is successful.
Harden previously served as a Development Director of EA Sports, overseeing the creation of user interface technologies for games like Madden NFL and NCAA Football. Scheinberg was the COO of media manufacturer Alcorn McBride and has worked extensively on rides and shows for NBC, Universal, Lego and Disney.
“It defines us as individuals, and we want to share that to our children as early as we can,” Harden says, referring to STEM education.
While the entry point at which children should begin STEM education remains a point of contention, some advocates argue the earlier the better. In fact, only 16 percent of American high school seniors are considering a career in the STEM fields and are proficient in math, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
“As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners,” President Barack Obama said earlier this year at the White House Science Fair. “Because superstar biologists and engineers and rocket scientists and robot builders, they don’t always get the attention that they deserve, but they’re what’s going to transform our society.”
Beginning with something as simple as a stuffed robot regaling children with STEM stories sounds like a good place to start.
MORE: Ask the Experts: How Can We Fix Early Childhood Education?
This Community Organization Looks to Economic Development as a Means of Reducing Hunger
Do you give a man a fish or teach him how to fish for himself?
For centuries, we have been pondering this question, but the Food Bank of North Alabama (FBNA) in Huntsville, Alabama, thinks it has found the answer. Instead of just providing food for its patrons, it’s creating a whole network to promote hunger awareness and sustainable, local food.
FBNA started with one volunteer at a desk in the local senior center in 1984, and has since grown into an organization that serves 100,000 people in an 8,000 square mile service area. Their mission: provide food and hunger relief to needy residents but also provide the tools to help the community create a sustainable local food system. (The Food Bank isn’t alone in this fight as it has partnerships with 200 organizations.)
So how does it go about creating a local food system? The food bank offers a wide variety of services that raise awareness and provide solutions. These services include education and presentations on regional hunger issues, backpack programs for school children on the weekends and loan programs for local, small growers and helping to form farming collaborations.
To help with the collaborations, the food bank established the “Farm Food Team,” which connects local farmers with schools, hospitals, grocery stores and restaurants to form partnerships that otherwise might not be possible. As a result, already five new farmer’s markets have sprouted in the area.
It wasn’t enough, though, to work with only people in the food business. The food supply should be the concern of the entire area, so the FBNA started the North Alabama Food Policy Council. Comprised of all volunteers, the Council aims to engage all residents and stakeholders. It has three goals in mind: (1) to educate the residents about the food system, (2) facilitate collaboration and (3) recommend regional policy changes.
The newest addition is the “food dialogues,” which, thanks to the Council, took place in 2012 and 2013. These talks involved residents and experts who came together to discuss how to increase sustainability and the local food supply. From these discussions, the Council will make their policy recommendations.
According to Kathryn Strickland, the Executive Director of the Food Bank of North Alabama, the purpose of the organization is to unite and connect.
“The connection between us and our health, between our food dollars and our local economy; and the connections we have with each other and how our friends and neighbors can grow the food for us,” Strictland told Sustainable Cities. “A local food system is all about connections and it’s so important to strengthen those in our community.”
MORE: Why Public Markets Are So Important
Why This Pastor Continues to Feed the Homeless, Even After the Police Told Him to Stop
Millions of people across the country (about 1 in 6) do not have enough money for a meal. But twice a month for the last six years, Rick Wood, a pastor at The Lord’s House of Prayer in Oneonta, Alabama, has made sure the stomachs in his own community did not go hungry by handing out free hot dogs and bottled water to those in need.
That is, until he was literally stopped by the food police.
As ThinkProgress reports, last month local police stopped Wood due to the city’s food truck law, which meant the pastor had to acquire a pricey permit (that can cost up to $500) in order to continue giving out food. The exact wording of the city ordinance states (per AL.com): “No person or business entity, including religious or charitable organization, shall operate a mobile food vehicle and/or pushcart upon the public rights-of-way within the city without a permit.” Reports say that the law was enacted after local restaurants complained that food trucks were affecting business.
MORE: A Man, His Van and a Mission to Help the Homeless
Wood told ABC 33/40 he wasn’t at all happy with the government’s decision. “I’m just so totally shocked that the city is turning their back on the homeless like this,” he said. “It’s like they want to chase them out of the city. And the homeless can’t help the position they’re in. They need help.”
As ThinkProgress reports, Birmingham’s homeless numbers have gone down in recent years but there are still 1,469 people in the area who do not have a roof over their heads. Wood, who has the Bible verse “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” etched onto the side of his truck, is not giving up his mission to help feed the hungry. According to a online fundraiser, Wood has already obtained the permit to continue in his good works.