PennLive: Charles Thompson - June 24, 2020 A bill aimed at helping people with past criminal records find open doors to work in occupations directly regulated by the state received final passage in the Pennsylvania General Assembly on Wednesday and is now headed to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk for adoption. Wolf is expected to sign it. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, breezed through the House and Senate with no opposition. DiSanto’s effort is the latest in

Michael Gelb - The Crime Report: June 19, 2020 A striking 47 percent of former inmates experienced at least one traumatic event in the eight months after they were released from prison, according to a study conducted at Florida State University’s Institute for Justice Research and Development (IJRD). Of those who experienced trauma, 18 percent lost a loved one to homicide, 23 percent were violently assaulted, 31 percent witnessed a serious injury or death, 31 percent were dia

Keri Blakinger and Keegan Hamilton - The Marshall Project: June 18, 2020 He sounded like he was dying. That was Sonia Rodriguez’s first thought when her fiancé called her from federal prison near Cleveland. The gravelly voice she had known since high school had turned into a wheeze. He could barely finish a sentence without pausing to catch his breath. He said he was coughing up blood. Rodriguez, a 49-year-old who handles accounting at a bakery, knew she was taking on a lot w

Joseph Shapiro - NPR: June, 15, 2020 Prisons across the country have placed prisoners on lockdown — they're kept in their cells mostly around-the-clock — as a way to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now prison reformers are worried that the response has increased the use of a practice they've long fought: solitary confinement. "We're starting to see an alarming trend in light of COVID-19," says Jessica Sandoval of Unlock the Box, a coalition of groups fighting solitary con

Timothy Williams, Libby Seline and Rebecca Griesbach - The New York Times: June 16, 2020 Cases of the coronavirus in prisons and jails across the United States have soared in recent weeks, even as the overall daily infection rate in the nation has remained relatively flat. The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 68,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May. By now, the five

Deanna Van Buren & F. Javier Torres-Campos – Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 9, 2020 With the highest incarceration rate in the world, US prisons and jails are drivers for the catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19. Because of dense living conditions, limited soap and hand sanitizer, poor access to quality healthcare, and an increasingly elderly population, the outbreaks we’ve seen so far may be just the beginning. It’s no surprise that hundreds of municipalities are alrea

You can still apply to get a one-time cash grant to help support your family during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apply online ASAP. Below, you can find information in Spanish and English. To learn more, visit CLS's website.

The CARES Act is providing federal funding to help our nation’s small businesses get through the COVID-19 pandemic. But thousands of small business owners are finding themselves blocked from receiving this critical aid because they have a conviction or arrest record in their past. Are you a small business owner with a record, or do you work for a small business owner with a record? CLS wants to hear from you! Click here to share your story. The Small Business Administration (