BY FERLANDA FOX NIXON November 2, 2015 On Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N) welcomed President Barack Obama on his latest stop on his national tour on criminal justice reform. With more than 600,000 individuals released from state and federal prisons each year, President Obama shared his sense of urgency to create a criminal
GLADYS P. TODD ACADEMY’S SUMMER BRIDGE PROGRAM PAVES HIGHER LEARNING PATH Posted: Saturday, July 18, 2015 12:00 am by Dawnthea Price / The Free Lance Star Germanna Community College President David A. Sam gazed out at an auditorium jam-packed with students, parents and educators. The 60 newly minted graduates of the Gladys P. Todd Academy’s
NY Times Sunday Review | OPINION By JOHN J. LENNON, APRIL 4, 2015 ATTICA, N.Y. — EVER wonder what prisoners do and talk about? Well, at the Attica Correctional Facility, we’re all tucked away in cellblocks watching TV. We watch a lot — all day, all night. Then we talk about what we’re watching. Conversation
BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE/THE FREE LANCE-STAR The ochre-breasted bird perched on the chain-link fence and chirped, his song wafting across the front yard and through the open window to where Jerry Grimsley sat in a tweed recliner. “Is that a robin?” asked his sister, Vickie Chevrette. Grimsley shrugged. Last year, the harbinger of spring would
BY JEFF BRANSCOME/THE FREE LANCE-STAR While in prison, Julius Berger started taking classes, thanks to a program funded by Doris Buffett. Berger says that while he was in Coffeewood Correctional Center, Buffett was his first and only visitor at that prison. At first, Julius Berger didn’t panic when the judge sentenced him to five years
Privately funded college classes are starting to creep back into state prisons after being absent for nearly two decades. Supporters say they reduce the recidivism rate and can save money on re-incarceration. By Katherine Long Seattle Times higher education reporter Every week, they slide books through the metal detectors — novels by Virginia Woolf and
AMY FLOWERS UMBLE, The Free Lance-Star Richmond Times-Dispatch FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The little boy tugged gently on Kathy Anderson’s sleeve. In the middle of a party, Anderson didn’t notice at first. The 5-year-old tugged again, and Anderson leaned down to talk with him. “This house is everything I ever wanted,” he said. Anderson directs
November 4, 2013 Click Here to see a short video, just under 5 minutes, of the highlights of the Maine State Prison graduation. Doris Buffett’s Sunshine Lady Foundation fully funds this college degree program. Doris believes in the power of education to reduce or eliminate recidivism, and to open up new life choices to these
October 8th, 2013, 5:16 pm, BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE / THE FREE LANCE–STAR For parents of adult children with disabilities, weddings and vacations often require strategic planning similar to invading Normandy. When your child is full-grown but requires ’round-the-clock care, you can’t just call the teenager down the street when you need to get away.
August 18th, 2013, 12:01 am, BY LINDLEY ESTES / THE FREE LANCE–STAR In December 2004, Shin Fujiyama took his first trip to Honduras and announced that he would eventually open a girls home in the Central American country, no matter how long it took. On Aug. 9, nearly a decade after the University of Mary
