Sheep's Clothing

theatlantic: One Year of Prison Costs More Than One Year at Princeton One year at Princeton University: $37,000. One year at a New Jersey state prison: $44,000. Read more. Right. Except for when that “prisoner” is a woman with kids (which she most likely is) and those kids end up in foster care (which they most likely will). The true cost of incarcerating women is actually much higher than represented in this chart. A report I worked on back in 2004, produced by the NH Commission on the Status of Women spells out exactly what that means for the women of NH. I would L-O-V-E to see something like this on a national scale. The report is worth a read if you’re interested in the real cost of prison. It’s also worth a read to gain a better understanding of why it’s short-sighted to not designate statistics like these based on gender.  I do realize a story like that would be hard to report because most states don’t even offer statistics based on gender and in order to determine the ones found in Double Jeopardy, the report linked to above, I had to cull through years of annual reports to determine the data. It’s what we like to call INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING. Someone should try it. 

theatlantic

theatlantic:

One Year of Prison Costs More Than One Year at Princeton

One year at Princeton University: $37,000. One year at a New Jersey state prison: $44,000. Read more.

Right. Except for when that “prisoner” is a woman with kids (which she most likely is) and those kids end up in foster care (which they most likely will). The true cost of incarcerating women is actually much higher than represented in this chart. A report I worked on back in 2004, produced by the NH Commission on the Status of Women spells out exactly what that means for the women of NH. I would L-O-V-E to see something like this on a national scale.

The report is worth a read if you’re interested in the real cost of prison. It’s also worth a read to gain a better understanding of why it’s short-sighted to not designate statistics like these based on gender. 

I do realize a story like that would be hard to report because most states don’t even offer statistics based on gender and in order to determine the ones found in Double Jeopardy, the report linked to above, I had to cull through years of annual reports to determine the data. It’s what we like to call INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING. Someone should try it. 

No Social Media For You: Facebook to Yank California Inmate Pages

futurejournalismproject:

Via CBS News:

Prison inmates in California found to have updated their Facebook profiles will lose their pages as part of a new policy designed to crack down against criminal abuse of social networks.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it will turn over to Facebook account information it gathers on prison inmates who have updated their pages since being put behind bars. Facebook will then wipe out their pages for violating the company’s user policies.

“Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity,” CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement. “This new cooperation between law enforcement and Facebook will help protect the community and potentially avoid future victims.”

I think there are plenty of protections available to protect communities from illegal activity and that this decision oversteps its bounds. 

futurejournalismproject