Incarceration

Corrections officials say the move is necessary to stem the flow of drugs into Missouri prisons. But criminal justice reform advocates warn it could violate inmates’ privacy and further isolate them from their families.

About half of all people released from prison in Missouri return within five years. But decades of research has shown prison education programs can help break the cycle.

Next year marks 50 years since rates of imprisonment rapidly increased in the U.S. Washington University sociology professor Hedwig Lee explains how that’s impacted people with family members behind bars.

The Transformative Workforce Academy — a St. Louis University initiative that works to address recidivism — holds virtual job fairs online.

A small group of men incarcerated at a prison in southern Missouri is working toward a common goal: creating personalized quilts for every child in the Texas County foster care system.

Twenty-five years ago, Reginald Dwayne Betts saw his entire life trajectory change in the space of 30 minutes. In what he has since described as “a moment of insanity,” Betts, then a 16-year-old high school junior, carjacked a man. He would serve eight years in prison for the crime.

The daily flow of workers needed to keep Missouri prisons running has made it nearly impossible to prevent the virus from entering facilities. State health officials hope to reduce this risk by first vaccinating prison staff, but the majority of inmates will be among the last in the state to be offered a vaccine.

Seventy-year-old Patty Prewitt has been busy making masks lately — like many citizen seamstresses working to help combat COVID-19. Prewitt, though, is…

James White knows the road to the women’s prison in Vandalia like the back of his hand.Every few weeks, he herds his three kids onto a passenger bus in…

James Dahm has worked at the City Justice Center in St. Louis for nearly a decade, but he hasn’t forgotten how hard it was to learn the ropes as a rookie…