Writing for Justice: Ford and Rockefeller Launch a Fellowship Focused on Mass Incarceration
The U.S. spends more than $80 billion each year on prison systems and incarceration, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). By the close of 2010, America had more than 2.2 million people behind bars in state, local, and federal prisons, reports ACLU.
Through the Art for Justice Fund, an initiative that aims to reform the criminal justice system, the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors launched a writing fellowship - supporting PEN America - to address issues of mass incarceration.
Aligned with a mission to stimulate discussion, the fellows’ projects aspire to “engage issues of reform, fuel public debate, crystallize concepts of reform, and facilitate the possibility of societal change.” PEN America's Writing for Justice Fellowship will commission six writers to create written works of "lasting merit that illuminate critical issues related to mass incarceration (and) ignite a broad, sustained conversation about the dangers of over-incarceration and the imperative to mobilize behind rational and humane policies," according to Philanthropy New York.
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