Center for Justice and Human Dignity

01/28/2025

Ready to be inspired?
Spend your next lunch hour hearing about creative innovation happening right now in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

Director Rob Jeffreys has big goals to increase public safety across Nebraska and is partnering with both state and local organizations to ensure the best opportunities for success for the people under the care of the Department of Corrections.

Learn more about:
• Community organizations and how they work in collaboration to support individuals as they are released from prison
• TRANSFORM Nebraska
• Reentry 2030
• Director Jeffrey’s vision for the future of Corrections, and more.

We hope this inspires you and your staff as much as it did us!

Join us for our 3rd Innovations in Corrections Webinar as we sit down with the Director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) Rob Jeffre...

01/13/2025

2024: A Year of Progress and Impact

As the new year unfolds, we at the Center for Justice and Human Dignity (CJHD) are proud to share the strides we’ve made together toward a more equitable and humane justice system.

This year has been transformative. Read our year-end newsletter here:
https://mailchi.mp/0224d261e30a/2024-a-year-of-progress-and-impact

01/24/2024

01/03/2024

Judicial education is crucial to diversion efforts and expanding effective alternatives to prison and jail - this National Center for State Courts guide is a great tool to empower judges to use these tactics!

bit.ly/3RqB3O

12/22/2023

📺USSC Chairman Hon. Carlton Reeves made a strong call for action and collaboration to shape the future of our justice system:

“Consider the people sitting inside a prison right now. Consider their children. Consider their families, their friends, and the communities they have been removed from. In a country where nearly two million people are currently incarcerated, where millions more have been incarcerated, and where millions more will be incarcerated, there are many for whom prison’s realities have remained painfully visible. The invisibility of incarceration, then, is not just about the height of prison walls. It is about the barriers between those who have seen firsthand the costs of imprisonment and those who make decisions about imprisonment.

If you are attending a conference like this one, you have probably asked yourself questions like these, many times. And you are likely struggling with the same concerns that I am.

So let me tell you why, despite all its flaws, I have hope that the federal sentencing system can reflect empathy, deliver mercy, and embrace alternative ways of achieving justice. Why I have hope that our passion for change – even if it comes from concern or even outrage – can be channeled into something constructive. Something enduring. Something that all the people in “We the People” can be proud of.

When we solicited public testimony, we heard from the Department of Justice, victims, and public defenders, as we had in the past. But for the first time, we heard from a group of incarcerated people.[6] When we issued our new guideline amendments, we cited – for every amendment – the words of incarcerated people and their families. And when we chose to make our criminal history amendments retroactive, we relied on what so many formerly incarcerated people and their families have pointed out to us: the fact that a year in federal prison costs taxpayers nearly $50,000, while a year of supervision costs less than $5,000.”

Rewriting the Sentence II Summit 2023October 17, 2023Speaker:The Honorable Judge Carlton Reeves, Chair of the United States Sentencing CommissionEmcee: Alan ...

12/13/2023

CJHD Executive Director Poulos recently spoke at the National Summit to Advance States' Criminal Justice Priorities hosted by CSG Justice Center, Office of Justice Programs, Crime and Justice Institute, Arnold Ventures, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and CNA. Chris and his fellow panelists discussed the personal challenges people face when they leave prison; how community supervision requirements and policies hinder successful reentry; the impact that connection to or lack of supportive housing, employment training, and behavioral health supports had; and why it is so essential to uplift and center voices of people who have been incarcerated in policy discussions.

12/12/2023

TUNE IN: “I am absolutely, positively serious about it – these programs work. If it’s done right, we can, not only improve public safety, we can reduce crime, we can help people, and we can save tax dollars, all at once.” - Miami-Dade County’s Chief Assistant State Attorney Stephen Talpins.

Watch Summit session videos now to hear bipartisan support for alternatives to incarceration (ATI).

Rewriting the Sentence II Summit October 16, 2023 Speakers:Jenna Bottler (Moderator), President & Executive Director, Justice Action NetworkHon. Rodney Ellis...