LibGuides: Alternative Breaks: An Inside Look at Prison Justice

Trip Description

Participants will learn about the prison justice system alongside residents of a halfway house. This urban immersion experience will allow opportunity to work with youth as part of an afterschool program. Participants will also gain a unique perspective by touring an active prison and meeting with various employees.

Site Organizations

St. Leonard's Ministries
Founded in 1954, St. Leonard’s Ministries provides comprehensive residential, case management, and employment services for those released from prison without resources needed to rebuild their lives.

Recidivism rates for former residents are impressive — only 20%, while the state average exceeds 50%.
MCC Chicago - Federal Prison
An administrative security metropolitan correctional center.

Articles

RH Reality Check - Names Do Hurt
Important information regarding issue-specific language to use when on the trip.
Ban the Box movement helping ex-convicts find employment after being released from prison

Videos

Mass Incarceration in the US
Basic overview of the issues we are learning about. This was the first video we ever watched during a group meeting.
Dan Meyer of Nehemiah Manufacturing on hiring Returning Citizens
Local hero:
Speaking to over 80 Catholics, Dan Meyer, CEO of Nehemiah Manufacturing, shares to why his company hires returning citizens. This is part of a project of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Learn more here:
http://www.nehemiahmfg.com/

Cincinnati Connections/Resources

CHECK THESE OUT!!

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Call Number: HV9950 A437 2010
ISBN: 9781595581037
Publication Date: 2010-01-05
The house I live in (VIDEO)
Call Number: MEDIA HV5825 .H68 2013
ISBN: 829567092729
Publication Date: 2013
For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and damaged poor communities. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than 20 states, it captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels, the dealer to grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, revealing profound human rights implications