The Free Library will be accepting and including the Reentry Think Tank's Reentry Bill of Rights in their permanent collection and, to honor the occasion, the men and women in reentry who organized the project want to give 4 additional copies to advocates, allies, and system stakeholders. The Reentry Bill of Rights is the first of it's kind and was co-authored by more than 1200 Philadelphians with criminal records. The document was centered on the question "What do we need to

Re-entry Blueprint- Stories and Solutions from the Formerly Incarcerated hosted by Frontline Dads ​​ Date: June 19, 2019 Where: The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm Description: The event is intended to advance the conversation on reentry in Philadelphia by providing a platform for formerly incarcerated people to present effective models that address the challenges facing others with criminal histories.

Please note the Kickoff event is Saturday June 1st - not June 4th

Join the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, the SOL Collective and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for a training on opioid overdose response. The training will consist of the following: an overview of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, the heightened risk of overdose for people being released from jail or prison, and the war on drugs. We will conclude with a training on how to help someone who is overdosing. This 90 minute training is intende

May 21, 2019, The Council of State Governments Justice Center Staff - The CSG Justice Center Pennsylvania has the highest rate of people on parole in the country and a ballooning probation population, but three Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) bills that passed the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month could change that. These bills, part of a larger effort to reform probation and parole in Pennsylvania, are backed by Governor Tom Wolf and have bipar

May 16, 2019, Jon Hurdle - The Philadelphia Citizen A Philadelphia mother recently found herself unable to pay her mortgage, in part because her estranged husband had stopped paying child support. She was on the brink of foreclosure, with a sheriff’s sale of her home not far behind. Desperate to save her home, the woman went to Philadelphia Legal Assistance, at 7th and Arch streets, which provides free civil legal services to low-income Philadelphians. PLA obtained court enfo

May 22, 2019, Alyssa Biederman - The Harrisburg Bureau In Pennsylvania, prisoners can train for jobs as barbers and cosmetologists, but many of them struggle to get licenses to work in those fields after their release because of their criminal convictions. Two bills — one in the Senate and one in the House — would prohibit the state from denying or revoking occupational licenses based solely on a person’s criminal history, as long as their crimes were not directly related to

May 22, 2019, Samantha Melamed - The Philadelphia Inquirer After fighting for 21 years to be exonerated of participating in a 1996 West Philadelphia murder, Terrance Lewis had given up. He withdrew his petition to vacate his conviction in February — an agonizing decision — to clear the way to be resentenced after a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that automatic life-without-parole sentences for juveniles were illegal. It would mean he’d get out of prison eventually — but he’d