Photo: Julian Roder for the Marshall Project
This is a complicated story about a complicated issue - how to reduce the number of young men imprisoned in the US (and decrease burnout among correctional officers) by using ideas from European prisons that aim to use prison to change behavior long term. It focuses on a US-wide program called Restoring Promise, and a mentor who now is helping evaluate such programs. To develop Restoring Promise, the nonprofit Vera Institute partnered with MILPA, formerly incarcerated Native American, Black and Chicano activists, to teach concepts like restorative justice and intergenerational leadership. In 2018, Vera, MILPA and the South Carolina Department of Corrections co-created the state’s first unit where shorter sentences let mentors reach many young men quickly, and it led to a 66% decrease in the odds that mentees would be charged with a violent disciplinary infraction, compared with young men not in the program. It is challenging to summarize how much is covered in this story - best to read it all.
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