February 21, 2024
"I think of boys getting guns and girls getting babies. Children who know how to create kids but not how to raise them. And I think of those dreadful numbers behind youth violence and carjackings, high school absenteeism and truancy rates, and the stream of young boys and girls…and I face how far we have fallen..."
February 7, 2024
The Innocence Project has been able to investigate, 249 people were found to be not guilty, 202 were exonerated by DNA evidence, and collectively, those prisoners spent 3,874 years in prison—each serving an average of 18 years for a crime they never committed.
January 22, 2024
When it comes to reentry, housing can be one of the most difficult needs to be met. Reentrants often leave the highly structured environment of prison or jail with no preparation or place to live, yet, study after study shows that unstable or nonexistent housing heightens the risk of being incarcerated again and about 10% become homeless on day one after release.
January 7, 2024
As constant as it seems for corporations to change names, they didn't invent the practice. According to the Bible, when God changed a person's name and gave him a new one, much like the corporations' aim, it was to establish a new identity. He changed the elderly and childless Abram, to "Abraham," meaning "father of a multitude" and it worked. Names change things.
December 21, 2023
Locked away from friends and family, from parents, siblings and children, incarcerated people have little option but to try and make the best of an unbearable situation at Christmas. Read the bitter-sweet reason one woman hates to call home during the holidays.
December 7, 2023
Most people in prison are not lifers, most are not dangerous, and as Sister would say, all are far more than the worst thing they have done. I can tell you from experience, that there is more hope, goodness, optimism, and energy in most reentrants than they will be given the opportunity to use. But as a society, we have given the deep freeze to people coming out of incarceration for as long as I can remember.
November 21, 2023
We have children in our midst who are not protected, not warned, not given rules, not advised, and not taught the value of life—their lives or the lives of others. Far too many kids believe they'll be dead by the age of 21, and too many of them are right. While total homicide figures are down from 2022, The rate of teen murder has almost doubled.
November 7, 2023
Of course fathers can be part of their children's lives without a marriage certificate. But, over the years, dads seem to have been officially downgraded from being standard equipment to being an option. When you buy a car you know you'll get a steering wheel, but you can decide not to get the heavy duty drive train—it's an option. The problem is, life is tough, and two people can do a job so much easier than one. The heavy-duty drive train can come in pretty handy when you are tackling a mountain of kid problems, debt problems, health issues, or just someone to give you a hug on a bad day.
October 21, 2023
Inflation has dealt a crushing blow to families with an annual income of less than $40,000 a year. Sixty-six percent reported hardship to severe hardship. Say you have an income of $37,000 a year. After inflation over the past three years, your family has had to get by with what amounts to a $7,400.00 cut in spendable income. Americans in the middle class are getting especially squeezed says a report by the Congressional Budget Office. For them, prices have increased far faster than their income.
October 7, 2023
Formerly, Indiana schools got graded like the kids…"A" through "F," but that simplistic format left much to be desired. Beginning Oct. 15th, 2023, each grade level must report on its own academic results. Parents will now be able to compare their child's school against the performance of other Indianapolis schools: the magic key to parental power!
