The Reentry Project is a collaborative news initiative about the challenges of—and solutions to—prisoner reentry in Philadelphia
This week:
• Can a fake court help high-risk Pennsylvania parolees?
• ‘What do you need to thrive back in your community?’
• Van Jones’ We Rise tour visits Philadelphia
• Pennsylvania training mentally ill inmates to help others on the cellblock
Read it now: The Reentry Project Weekly: August 11, 2017
Subscribe for free: The Reentry Project Weekly
Can a fake court help high-risk Pennsylvania parolees?
Tanya Curtis’ path to re-entry from prison last year looked suspiciously like a dead-end road. She was broke, for one thing. She didn’t have a high school diploma or GED. She had a history of addiction, drug dealing, petty crime.
As Philly’s inmate population plummets, why aren’t we saving any money?
The number of incarcerated persons drops 18 percent, but costs still rise. After years of cultivating a bloated jail population that led to overcrowded conditions and the “most incarcerated big city in America” title, Philadelphia is finally addressing its problem with a plan to slash the population of incarcerated persons by a third.
Why a $10,000 Philly tax break got almost no takers
Imagine if you offered a tax credit and nobody applied for it? That’s what happened in Philadelphia. Since 2008, the city has offered companies a $10,000 per year tax credit if they hired people with records. Few took it. Now the city’s trying something different.
‘Fair Chance’ will reimburse employers for hiring Philly ex-offenders
Philadelphia has a new initiative designed to put cash on the table instead of tax credits for city businesses that hire people with criminal records. Mayor Jim Kenney is urging businesses to take advantage of it. “There’s a lot of smart decent people there who took a wrong turn maybe can’t make bail,” he said Wednesday.
How Philly is revitalizing a widely unused tax credit program for hiring returning citizens – Generocity Philly
As it’s been made clear time and time again, finding a job is one of the most important factors that help those returning from prison to find success and avoid the hugely consequential problem of recidivism Philly is trying to tackle.
