Over 100 journalists from eight states were selected as reporting fellows in to attend special seminars on covering corrections, sentencing and re-entry issues organized by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice, with support from the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project. Some 126 senior legislators, academics, practitioners and NGO representatives participated in the panels, which were aimed at helping journalists cover these issues at a time when many states have shown a readiness to consider policy changes that would protect public safety, while applying current research to the challenges of increasingly inequitable and economically unsustainable corrections systems of increasing budget constraints.
You can find links to each of the state seminars below, along with agendas and other materials that may help in further coverage. In addition,we have posted a sampling of stories from Fellows in each state seminar, and are adding to them as more stories come in.
Pew also sponsored a special national panel on Corrections at the 4th annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America on Feb 2-3, 2009. Panelists included Rep. Terrance D. Carroll, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives; Professor Todd Clear, John Jay College; Adam Gelb, Director, Pew Public Safety Performance Project; Beryl Howell, Commissioner, U.S. Sentencing Commission; Judge Nancy Gertner, Federal Judge, U.S. District Court, Massachusetts.
Below you will also find links to some general resource materials that were made available to reporters at our seminars. And keep watching this space for news of other seminars, events and research related to this key issue in our criminal justice system.
Conference Pages:
The Future of Sentencing, Corrections and Crime Reduction in Illinois
Covering Sentencing, Corrections and Re-Entry in Nevada
Sentencing, Corrections and Re-Entry: A Comparative Look at Wisconsin and the Nation
Covering Sentencing, Corrections and Re-Entry in Kentucky
Articles by John Jay’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice and Pew Fellows:
“State Gears to Free Prisoners” by Megan Twohey for the Chicago Tribune
“Faster Path to Adult Jail?” by Colleen Jenkins for the St. Petersburg Times
“What We Know and What We Do About Crime” by Mary Ann Lindley for the Tallahassee Democrat
“Editorial: Incarceration Escalation” for the Tallahassee Democrat
“Re-Entry Through the Eyes of an Ex-Offender” by Robert Wildeboer for Chicago Public Radio
“Feds probe DeLand Housing Authority” By PATRICIO G. BALONA for Daytona Beach News Journal Online
“Gov. Quinn Keeping Youth Prisons in the Dark,” by Robert Wildeboer for Chicago Public Radio
“Sheriffs cry foul over proposed laws,” by Patricio G. Balona
“Prison of Our Making” by Tim Eigo
“Urban Violence Brings Renewed Calls for National Guard Deployment,” by Ashahed M. Muhammad
“Kentucky explores requiring prescription for pseudoephedrine to curb meth labs,” by Jessie Halladay
Toolkits
The Jail Administrators Toolkit for Reentry A report by The Urban Institute
Resources
A Special Report by Criminal Justice Journalists and the John Jay
Center on Media, Crime and Justice
With support from the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States
The handbook explains PART ONE: COVERING PRISONS AND JAILS, PART TWO: COVERING SENTENCING, and PART THREE: COVERING PROBATION & PAROLE
Access full handbook below through below link