All Blog

Understanding Decarceration: A Shift in Criminal Justice Reform

Julie Truschel February 17, 2025

In my ongoing exploration of alternatives to incarceration, I recently came across the term decarceration. While I stay up to date on criminal justice terminology and the meaning seems clear from its parts, it wasn’t in my dictionary and I had never heard it used explicitly as the opposite of incarceration. So, where did it come from, and what exactly does it mean? The term decarceration first emerged in the

Read More »

Home for the Holidays: The Case for Alternatives to Incarceration

Julie Truschel December 23, 2024

Prisons are often depicted as places of rehabilitation, and some institutions are working towards this image, but the reality for many inmates is starkly different. Instead of focusing on personal growth and reintegration into society, time spent in prison often becomes a cycle of stagnation. Inmates might engage in routine activities—working in prison industries, attending mandatory programs, or simply passing time in recreation—but these actions rarely address the root causes

Read More »

Juneteenth and the American Criminal Justice System

Julie Truschel June 19, 2024

For over two centuries in America, millions of African Americans were subjected to brutal conditions under the institution of slavery. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declaring all slaves free, many remained in bondage. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston and announced the end of slavery in Texas, that the last enslaved African Americans were

Read More »