Social Connections Called Key to Prison Reform
Date:  08-04-2022

One recurring theme for success was the maturity of incarcerated people and a desire to reconnect with family and children and leave a life of crime behind
From The Crime Report:

In 2014, Nebraska created a Vocational and Life Skills (VLS) Program providing funding for the state’s jail population to learn trades to lower the odds of recidivism, reports the Nebraska Examiner.

About 6,000 inmates have been served since the program began and the state upped spending on the training programs from $3.5 million a year to $5 million, according to a study by researchers from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

The most recent annual report on the VLS Program for 2020-21 said that 71 percent of participants completed their classes. Campagna, a co-author of the study, said that it was “unexpectedly high” due to limited access to prisons due to COVID-19. Continue reading >>>