Justice Reform

Eastern Mennonite University, located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, began the nation’s first graduate level program related to restorative justice. Now students come from around the world to study big ideas about reform on this small college campus.

Restorative justice is a practice that originated in the 1970s. But how does it work, and why is it being used? Many agencies turn to it as a practice in an effort to reduce punitive measures.

The first veterans treatment docket in Virginia was established in Fairfax in 2015, and since that time, there are eight additional courts. Fairfax also has drug and mental health treatment dockets—all meant to provide mentors and special services so that individuals can avoid jail and cure the issues that led to their issues with law enforcement.

A local jail is combating recidivism with a program that aims to rehabilitate inmates.

House of Bread offers skills training to women in the Roanoke area who were previously incarcerated, under-resourced.

The new law has drawn criticism from open-government groups.

By one measure, about a third of all prisoners will be considered geriatric by 2030. Prison systems are grappling with how to care for their elderly prisoners — and how to pay for it.

Three years after vowing to beef up measures to keep bad cops from quietly shuffling to new jobs, little has changed.

Fairfax County’s Taking Root program is unique because of its relatively broad eligibility requirements.

Three people incarcerated at prisons across the U.S. spoke to NPR's Morning Edition about how music helps them reconnect with the past, endure the present and envision the future.