couch hopping: Portrait Of Smiling Senior Woman Sitting On Sofa At Home

To Ease Reentry, Help the Hosts Who Offer Couch Hopping

When Carlos first came to live with us he was about 16. A friend of my son’s, he had a long history of family and housing instability and had been recently kicked out by his mom. As his informal host, I thought I did everything “right.” We already had a strong relationship; I met with his mom, laid out house rules and talked about his plans for the future.

Henry Montgomery

Inmate From Supreme Court Case Rejected for Parole a Second Time

It’s now been three years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Henry Montgomery should have a chance to earn parole, because he’d been a teenager at the time of his crime. But on Thursday, the Louisiana parole board voted against parole for Montgomery for the second time. So Montgomery, now 72, will remain in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, working five days a week at the prison silk-screen shop, as he has for decades. “I’m almost at a loss for words at how it is possible that Henry, yet again, was denied. One would have thought that he would be one of the first,” said Marsha Levick, chief legal officer of the Juvenile Law Center.

Person jumping from tall boulder to another over precipice.

Advice to my Brothers and Sisters Coming Home From the Inside

I was 16 when I went in and 23 when I came home. After seven years, I was willing to take on any obstacle that would come with being able to finally be home be with my family. Plus, anything beats waking up to the smell of cold cement walls!

Bronx: Older man with gray beard, mustache in dark jacket, ballcap, has arm around young man in blue T-shirt.

Bronx Program Wins $1 Million to Replicate Detention Alternative in Another City

A Bronx nonprofit will receive a $1 million grant from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to research, document and expand its youth violence prevention and alternative-to-incarceration programming to another U.S. city. Supporters of the model hope it will set a new standard for the rest of the nation.

Serious aged woman holding documents, checking information at laptop online

Advocate, Teen She Helped Rescue From Egyptian Jail Share Happy Ending

In my last column about Ahmed Hassan, a teenager born in New Jersey who was held in an Egyptian jail for a crime he did not commit, I primarily discussed the problems surrounding reentry after a prolonged jail sentence. Ahmed’s alleged “crime” was being an American citizen.