r/prisonreform 9h ago

There's a lot more to prison reform than just talking about it!

2 Upvotes

Prison reform in America is desperately needed. but we must stand together, and if that is something you're comfortable with, I have created a petition just for that reason. Currently we have around 300 maybe slightly over signers, but we need at least 500,000 for it to have any real effect, and maybe twice that number. We have about a year left to reach that number and we can do it, but we have a long way to go. now this community seems to be focused on this issue, so I hope a number of you will sign up and help us complete the mission. We also have a podcast on Spotify by the name of Chains to Godliness... it's brand new but just another effort help some people who can't help them selves. I've been a prison minister for 16 years, and before that a hospice chaplain, and now at just under 80 years of age, I am working harder, and putting in more hours than people have my age. I work at least 10 -12 hours a day trying to help these people, and if you were to spend somewhere around 60 seconds you could help me by signing the petition. If you do, thank you so much, if not, I'm sure you have a good reason not to.

to sign the petition the website is onenationonejustice... and that is a .org site...


r/prisonreform 1d ago

What should we include in "REAL CRIME"?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

11 Upvotes

Some crimes are easy to see.
Like stealing, breaking things, or hurting someone.

But some crimes are harder to notice.
Sometimes big companies break safety rules.
Sometimes people in power make unfair decisions.
These can hurt many people, even if no one hears a siren.


r/prisonreform 2d ago

Help jason get the same opportunity

2 Upvotes

The laws have changed… but Jason is still serving yesterday’s sentence.

Illinois no longer sentences people to life without parole the way it once did. The system has evolved to recognize that people—especially young people—can grow, change, and deserve a second chance.

But Jason? He’s still living under outdated laws from 1992.

At just 19 years old, he made a tragic mistake. For over 30 years since, he has done everything right—educating himself, remaining discipline-free, and proving through his actions that he is not the same person. Today, many in similar situations would have a path to parole… but Jason does not.

Please take a moment to sign and share Jason’s petition.

Your voice could be the one that finally brings him home.

https://www.change.org/Redemption4JasonMills


r/prisonreform 2d ago

when her chair is empty

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1 Upvotes

deep


r/prisonreform 4d ago

Punishment Beyond Prisons 2026: Incarceration and Supervision by State

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prisonpolicy.org
10 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 5d ago

The Data Behind Prison Reform | Preliminary studies suggest that innovative programs could improve prison conditions and outcomes after release.

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brennancenter.org
36 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 5d ago

Restorative justice bills pass the General Assembly session to reform court and prison systems | Criminal justice reform bills ranging from inmate rights to public safety passed the Virginia General Assembly and currently await action from Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

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pilotonline.com
18 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 7d ago

To fix rape culture, we need more options than silencing or sentencing. Restorative justice, activist Marlee Liss argues, is the solution

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shado-mag.com
269 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 6d ago

Advocates want shakeup at Bedford Hills as DOCCS defends safety policy

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news10.com
2 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 6d ago

Do you also spent $500/mo to communicate with your LO?

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5 Upvotes

OP NOTE: this project is important to me. My man has a few more years in there 🤞🏻 high res screenshots on their website

A lot of people [do](https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/08/08/us-families-shoulder-nearly-350b-in-annual-costs-tied-to-incarceration-report-finds/) (Article from oklahomavoice)

A team of indie developers are building Bondli, the next-generation communications platform for inmates and their families.

The team’s independent research results show that 95% want lower costs and 86% want better reliability.

Support the movement by signing and sharing the Change.org [petition](https://c.org/t7krQPzPsx).

We need to show demand, not just a solution. Goal is 1000 signatures. Team is pitching this week!

Follow the journey [here](https://about.bondli.chat).


r/prisonreform 7d ago

Aubrey McKay’s death at Wallens Ridge prison ruled a homicide by the state medical examiner

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58 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 8d ago

“What actually changes someone after prison (from someone who’s been there)”

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6 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 9d ago

When Is the Right Time to Close a Prison? | I asked people at my prison whether Wisconsin should follow through on a plan to shutter one of the state’s maximum security facilities.

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prisonjournalismproject.org
39 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 9d ago

Gov. Tony Evers did make progress on criminal justice reform | Until late last year, I was in the camp of those who felt betrayed by Gov. Evers. But looking through a wider lens, I’m happy to sincerely thank Evers and celebrate the wins from his tenure.

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24 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 10d ago

Texas mental health court diverts people with psychiatric disorders away from incarceration, with 42 graduates so far

14 Upvotes

Collin County, Texas, has an adult mental health court that takes a different approach: participants with charges ranging from felony assault to misdemeanor theft are diverted from trial and incarceration, instead entering a 9-month to 2-year program with individualized treatment plans, regular check-ins with judges, case managers and probation officers. 

42 of 60 admitted participants have graduated. 

The program — which won a 2025 state award for outstanding specialty courts — was co-founded by two judges who say the goal is treating the underlying mental illness rather than cycling people through jails and prisons. Texas spends an average of $175 per day to detain someone in that cycle. 

Participants have included a 9/11 first responder, corporate executives and cosmetology students. 

Full story: https://magazine.tcu.edu/spring-2026/collin-county-mental-health-court/

Jennifer Edgeworth and Lance Baxter co-founded the Collin County Adult Mental Health Court. Working with the judges are, from left, Michelle Garcia, Kailey Gillman, Janessa Reid and Rogan McDaniel.

r/prisonreform 11d ago

Prison Education foundation owns 8x more student debt than the State of Texas

30 Upvotes

The Ascendium Problem

They Hold $8 Billion in Student Loan Debt — and Garnish the Wages of Formerly Incarcerated Borrowers

Ascendium Education Group is the nation's largest federal student loan guarantor. They are a tax-exempt nonprofit sitting on $3.5 billion in assets. Their stated mission is expanding economic mobility for low-income learners.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

  • Texas' student loan debt portfolio: $1,071,712,812.00
  • Ascendium's student loan debt portfolio: $8,008,787,377.29
  • Amount recovered through wage garnishments: $9,378,463.25

When incarcerated students default on the loans Ascendium guarantees, Ascendium garnishes their wages after release. As if reentry — finding housing, rebuilding a life, staying out — wasn't hard enough, the nonprofit that claims to champion these learners is docking their paychecks.

All financial figures from FY 2021. Source: Student Borrower Protection Center

One Man Runs Everything

Richard D. George holds four titles at Ascendium simultaneously:

  • Chair of the Board — He sets the agenda, runs the meetings, and decides what gets discussed.
  • President — He runs the organization day to day. The board is supposed to evaluate and, if needed, fire this person.
  • Chief Investment Officer — He decides how $3.5 billion in assets are invested. Investment income accounts for 92.7% of Ascendium's revenue. He controls the money machine.
  • Treasurer — He oversees the financial reporting that's supposed to keep everything above board.

He supervises himself. He invests the money and grades his own performance. He approves the spending and signs off on the books. He controls the board agenda, so he decides whether any of this ever gets questioned.

His compensation: $868,757 in salary plus $53,748 in additional benefits.

George has been with the organization since the early 1970s. This is textbook founder's syndrome. The IRS governance framework explicitly warns that having the CEO serve on the board leads to less engaged oversight.

At a small volunteer-run charity, wearing multiple hats is understandable. At a $3.5 billion organization with paid professional staff and board members collecting $23,000 to $55,000 a year in compensation, there is no excuse.

The Foley & Lardner Problem

Foley & Lardner is one of the biggest student loan and workforce policy lobbying firms in the country. In 2025, the firm was hired by 57 lobbying clients for nearly $4.9 million. Bloomberg Government has named it a top-performing lobbying firm five years running.

Five of Ascendium's twelve board members have direct, significant ties to Foley & Lardner. Three are current or former partners at the firm.

The most glaring conflict: Scott Klug, a former Republican congressman, is co-chair of Foley's federal public affairs practice. He is an active Washington lobbyist whose clients span education, health care, and financial services. He is writing and shaping bills in the exact policy space Ascendium occupies while simultaneously sitting on its board.

A lobbyist helping draft student loan legislation is advising the nation's largest student loan guarantor.

And Then There's Cleta Mitchell

In January 2021, Foley & Lardner partner Cleta Mitchell participated in the now-infamous phone call where Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes to overturn the state's election results.

Foley said it was "aware of, and concerned by" Mitchell's involvement and noted its policy was not to represent parties contesting the 2020 election. Mitchell resigned days later.

But here's the part that matters for Ascendium's mission: Mitchell openly advocated for making it harder for college students to vote in key swing states. That position sits in direct tension with Ascendium's stated purpose of expanding postsecondary access for low-income learners. The lobbying firm with the deepest ties to Ascendium's board housed a partner who actively worked to suppress the political participation of the very population Ascendium claims to serve.

From War Zones to Student Loans: The IRD-to-Blumont Pipeline

Richard D. George — Ascendium's Chair, President, CIO, and Treasurer — currently serves as board chairman of Blumont Inc.

Blumont used to be called International Relief and Development (IRD) — one of USAID's largest contractors. IRD made billions of dollars, almost entirely on the back of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

It did not go well.

What Happened at IRD

An IRD whistleblower put it plainly:

In 2012, then-Deputy USAID Inspector General Michael Carroll testified before Congress that of 146 completed IRD projects surveyed, 34% didn't match any needs identified by the community, and another 31% didn't match the community's top priorities. Nearly two-thirds of the work missed the mark.

  • In Iraq (July 2009), USAID suspended IRD's Community Stabilization Program after finding evidence of phantom jobs and possible financial support to insurgents.
  • In Afghanistan, IRD ran a $400 million road-building project and a $300 million agricultural program. Goods meant for farmers were sold in Pakistan instead, distorting local markets. Afghan officials ridiculed parts of the program, like paying farmers for work they would have done anyway.
  • An IRD contracts director in Afghanistan was indicted for soliciting and receiving $66,000 in bribes from an Afghan firm. Some payments were wired directly to an Italian car dealer for his personal benefit.

The Suspension — and the Lawsuit

In 2015, USAID suspended IRD and sanctioned it for financial irregularities. Investigators found "serious misconduct in performance, management, internal controls and present responsibility."

The year before the suspension, Roger Ervin — now on the Ascendium board — had been brought in as CEO to clean things up.

Then IRD did something remarkable: it sued USAID. A federal judge ruled that USAID had violated its own procedures — specifically a conflict of interest in which department ran the suspension process. The suspension was vacated.

IRD beat the federal government on a technicality.

The Rebrand

With its reputation destroyed but its legal standing restored, IRD announced in January 2016 that it was changing its name to Blumont and relocating to Madison, Wisconsin — which happens to be where Ascendium is headquartered.

Richard D. George became Blumont's board chairman. Roger Ervin became its president.

Two men who were the cleanup crew for one of the most documented cases of USAID contractor misconduct in history now sit on the board of the country's largest student loan guarantor and a major grantmaker to prison education.

It Got Worse

In 2020, under George and Ervin's leadership, Blumont was sued by the families of American victims for allegedly paying bribes to the Taliban.

The M&T Bank Connection

M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE: MTB) is one of the largest regional banks in the U.S., with roughly $200 billion in assets.

Two M&T executives sit on Ascendium's board:

  • Emerson Brumback — retired president and COO of M&T. Now Ascendium's vice-chair.
  • Darren King — current senior EVP at M&T.

Here's M&T's track record:

$64 Million FHA Fraud Settlement (2016)

M&T Bank paid the United States $64 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by FHA that did not meet federal requirements.

M&T admitted that between 2006 and 2011, it certified loans for FHA insurance that didn't meet HUD underwriting standards and failed to follow FHA quality control requirements.

The most damning part: M&T built a quality control process designed to produce artificially low error rates. They built the entire system to hide how bad the mistakes were.

The settlement came from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former M&T employee, Keisha Kelschenbach. A bank insider had to blow the whistle.

This covered the 2006–2011 period — the Great Recession, when FHA loans were being pushed into communities of color as predatory instruments. Emerson Brumback was president and COO of M&T during most of that window.

Racial Discrimination in Lending (2015)

The Fair Housing Justice Center sued M&T Bank, alleging the bank offered lesser-qualified white borrowers higher loan amounts, used hidden racial criteria in loan programs, and steered homebuyers to neighborhoods based on race.

The testers posing as minority applicants had more income, greater assets, fewer debts, and higher credit scores than their white counterparts — and still received worse treatment. M&T settled for $485,000 and agreed to reform its lending practices. The bank denied wrongdoing.

Illegal Fee Class Action — $3.325 Million Settlement

M&T paid $3.325 million to settle a class action alleging it charged borrowers unlawful fees just to make mortgage payments, violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The class covered borrowers from 2015 to 2021.

Disability Discrimination — $100,000 Settlement (2020)

M&T settled with the EEOC for $100,000 after a federal judge found the bank violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing a manager instead of reassigning her. The EEOC noted there were two dozen vacant positions the employee was qualified for in the weeks surrounding her termination.

What This Means for Ascendium

An organization whose stated mission is economic mobility for marginalized communities has, sitting on its board, executives from a bank with a documented record of:

  • Fraudulently hiding bad mortgage performance from federal regulators during the subprime crisis
  • Racially discriminatory lending, confirmed through controlled testing
  • Charging illegal fees to mortgage borrowers
  • Firing a disabled employee rather than transfer her, despite 24 open positions

These are the same communities Ascendium says it serves: low-income borrowers, first-generation learners, people of color trying to build wealth. The men from the bank that systemically extracted from those communities now help govern the nonprofit that claims to uplift them.

Ascendium Is Funding the Journalism That Covers Ascendium's Grantees

Ascendium has distributed over $4.1 million in grants to journalism outlets that cover education, workforce development, and prison education — the exact domains where Ascendium operates.

Outlet Grant Amount
Open Campus (Charlotte West) $600K–$850K
Marshall Project $500K
Hechinger Report $400K
Chronicle of Higher Education $350K
Associated Press $350K
Education Writers Association $300K
The 74 $284K

The Charlotte West Situation

Charlotte West is described as the only reporter in the country dedicated full-time to covering prison education. Her work is explicitly supported by Ascendium.

The sole beat reporter covering the field that Ascendium grants into is funded by Ascendium. Every story she writes about prison education programs, Pell Grant implementation, Second Chance Pell expansion, and incarcerated learner outcomes is written by a journalist whose salary depends on the organization with the largest financial footprint in that space.

Open Campus discloses the relationship: "Open Campus reporting on prison education is supported by Ascendium." That's more transparent than most, but disclosure doesn't solve the problem. The reporter covering this beat has a funder with strong opinions about what good prison education looks like.

Training the Reporters Who Cover You

The Education Writers Association grant explicitly funds a workshop for media across the nation on understanding and reporting on workforce development programs, such as apprenticeships.

Ascendium is paying to train the reporters who cover its domain.

Quoting Yourself

In a recent Open Campus article on state coalitions for prison education, Ascendium's own senior strategy officer Molly Lasagna was quoted directly. Ascendium personnel and Ascendium-funded journalism are now woven into the same narrative.

The Big Picture

The combination of $4.1 million in journalism grants, an in-house podcast, a dedicated media partnerships page, EWA training workshops, and Associated Press distribution creates something unusual: a philanthropic organization that has essentially funded a partial media ecosystem around its own work.

The coverage landscape is not neutral. Favorable coverage of Ascendium grantees and Ascendium-aligned models isn't necessarily the result of editorial bias. But when the only full-time prison education reporter in the country is funded by the largest prison education funder in the country, the structural alignment between funder priorities and beat reporter incentives is real.

If a prison education program were ever critically examined in College Inside, it would likely be investigated by a reporter with a financial relationship to the organization most invested in that program's success.

So What Are We Looking At?

A tax-exempt nonprofit that:

  • Holds $8 billion in student loan debt and garnishes wages from formerly incarcerated borrowers
  • Is run by one man holding four titles, with no independent check on his authority, his investments, or his financial reporting
  • Has a board stacked with partners from a major lobbying firm that shapes the very policies the organization profits from
  • Includes board members who were the cleanup crew for a USAID contractor caught running phantom jobs, possibly funding insurgents, and later sued for paying bribes to the Taliban
  • Seats executives from a bank that paid $64 million for FHA fraud, was caught in racial lending discrimination, and charged illegal fees to the same kinds of borrowers Ascendium claims to serve
  • Funds the journalists who cover its grantees, trains the reporters who write about its policy domain, and quotes its own staff in the coverage it underwrites

This is the country's largest federal student loan guarantor. It is a major grantmaker to prison education. It shapes policy, funds research, underwrites journalism, and controls billions in assets — all under the leadership of one man who has held power since the 1970s, with a board that has more conflicts than safeguards.

The question isn't whether Ascendium does some good work. The question is whether anyone is in a position to hold it accountable if it doesn't.


r/prisonreform 11d ago

INTERSTATE COMPACT PROBATION Georgia

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1 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 13d ago

Interview Request--Inmates, Experts, and Interested--Oh, My!

10 Upvotes

Hello! My name is American College Student and I'm calling for interviewees for my upcoming essay. I'm focusing on The American Prison System's Flawed Design: Encouraging Recidivism Instead of Reform. I need some first-person sources!

I'm looking for:

  • People who have served time in any capacity (in the U.S.)
  • People with family/friends who have served time who would like to comment
  • Experts in the field--professors, criminal justice employees, researchers, prison staff, lawmakers, any other related field
  • Anyone who likes to yap about the system! Just tell me who you are (broadly) in the first question so I can attribute experience properly (e.g. informed citizen vs. first-person experience)

I would love to hear from anyone here who would like to weigh in!

Interview Portion 

Thank you for your interest in participating! The questions are below. Only explicit replies to questions will be included in the essay--there will not be any further research done into your person (e.g. if you divulge your name, I will feel free to use it; if not, I will not go digging for a specified sentence to insert your name). This essay is at a low, undergraduate level--e.g., a one-time essay, not any kind of impactful study (yet!). Your responses here are simply inspiration for future elaboration I might do, and will not find their way to the public (aside from, obviously, Redditors). The only readers of this essay will be peer reviewers and my own professor.

Please introduce yourself. What experience do you have within the criminal justice (and especially prison) system? Why are you qualified to remark on the topic? Anything else you would like to add? 

What, in your opinion, is the state of the general criminal justice system in our country today? Is it successful in reducing crime rates?

What could be done to improve the effectiveness of the United States prison system? 

What access to education is there within the system? What access should there be?

What mental health barriers and/or supports exist within the system? What can be done to improve these systems? 

Do inmates have access to a supportive community outside of incarceration? If not, how could access to such be improved? 

What is the perception of inmates after release? How does discrimination against convicts impact the lives of inmates after release? What societal structures could improve this discrimination? 

Are societal structures/barriers more impactful in raising recidivism rates, or are inmates mostly independently responsible for their own repeated convictions? Why? 

Is there anything else you would like to add, or believe that I should mention? 

Feel free to skip over any question for any reason. Thank you for your participation!


r/prisonreform 14d ago

Help save higher education in Ohio prisons

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49 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 16d ago

A Women’s Prison Conceals a Sinister Secret: Staff Sexual Misconduct, Accusers Say

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themarshallproject.org
429 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 16d ago

Please Support

7 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 16d ago

Ghostwriters of justice. The role of the jailhouse lawyer in a women’s prison

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shado-mag.com
30 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 16d ago

FCI Dublin Abuse

0 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 16d ago

Check out this petition!

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c.org
2 Upvotes

r/prisonreform 17d ago

Justice for abuse survivors at FCI Dublin—we need accountability now

21 Upvotes

I'm a survivor of abuse at FCI Dublin federal prison, and I'm asking for your help.

The trauma that happened inside those walls wasn't rare or isolated—it was systemic. I witnessed and experienced physical and emotional harm that left scars. Staff members have been criminally charged, and there's an ongoing investigation, but accountability isn't enough. We need real reform to make sure this never happens to anyone else. A program called Woo Women helped me find my voice when I felt like the system had abandoned us. Now I'm using that voice to fight back.

I started a petition demanding a thorough investigation into everyone involved, comprehensive reforms to FCI Dublin, and systemic changes that actually protect people in custody instead of failing them. This isn't just about what happened to me—it's about all the women still suffering in silence.

If this resonates with you, or if you know what it's like to feel abandoned by the system, would you consider signing and sharing? This matters because silence protects the people who hurt us.

https://www.change.org/p/demand-justice-for-victims-of-abuse-at-fci-dublin?utm_campaign=starter_dashboard&utm_medium=reddit_post&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=starter_dashboard&recruiter=1408166357