"Essentially, Young New Yorkers is a diversion program, albeit one that actually focuses on these kids having their voices heard. Led by a coalition of street artists (artists that can relate to wanting to have their voices heard in a public forum as well as being arrested) and creative types, Young New Yorkers offers an 8-week diversion program where participants learn to express themselves via photography, illustration, and design. The program ends with a Young New Yorkers Finale where the participants present a public art project commenting on a “social issue relevant to them.” What’s...

"Currently 2.3 million Americans are behind bars, equaling more than 1 in 100 adults. Up from just 500,000 in 1980, this marks more than a 300 percent increase in the United States’ incarcerated population and represents the highest rate of incarceration in the world.
"Over the last four years, The Pew Charitable Trusts has documented the enormous expense of building prisons and housing inmates that is borne by states and the federal government. Indeed, in the face of gaping budget shortfalls, more than half of the states are now seeking alternative sentencing and corrections...

Tthis report released by the U.S. Department of Justice used a 5-year period to provide supplementary information for policymakers and practitioners on the officially recognized criminal behavior of released prisoners. While 20.5% of released prisoners not arrested within 2 years of release were arrested in the third year, the percentage fell to 13.3% among those who had not been arrested within 4 years. The longer recidivism period also provides a more complete assessment of the number and types of crimes committed by released persons in the years following their release.

"Over the weekend, Lech Szporer's performance-disruption indicted a broken criminal justice system." [Creators blog"]

This report provides a first-of-its-kind detailed view of the 219,000 women incarcerated in the United States, and how they fit into the even larger picture of correctional control. [p.2]

This report offers some much needed clarity by piecing together this country’s disparate systems of confinement. The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 1,852 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.1 And we go deeper to provide further detail on why people are locked up in all of those different types of facilities...