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CLASSROOM 4 is the story of an award-winning professor teaching "The History of Crime and Punishment" inside a prison to a class of both free students and incarcerated students. It explores the true cost of mass incarceration and the power of human connection to transform society. The film has been included on the Oscars shortlist of 15 films under consideration for the 98th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film. Classroom 4 is now streaming nationwide on PBS POV and on the PBS App as part of POV Shorts Season 8. In the video below, Eden Wurmfeld, director/producer of Classroom 4, shares what went into creating the documentary.
Massachusetts Could Be the Next State to Give Abuse Survivors a Pathway Out of Prison, Victoria Law, BOLTS, January 22, 2026
Former Mass. Prisoners Reflect on Freedom After Decades Behind Bars, Laura Crimaldi, Boston Globe, January 11, 2026.
Reentry Never Ends, B. Arneson and Bridget Conley, Inquest: A Decarceral Brainstorm, January 2, 2026.
Hamm v. Smith and the future of capital punishment, Jordan Steiker, SCOTUSblog, December 30, 2025.
Twelve Ways to Heal Hurt, Alyssa Hatfield, Boston College Law School Magazine Online, December 9, 2025. Project Entrepreneur’s formerly incarcerated clients pitch businesses that serve the community.
Mass. Prison System to Debut Wellness Hotline for Incarcerated in Light of Recent Suicides, Hadley Barndollar, MassLive, November 26, 2025.
On bail policy, Massachusetts must catch up, Kathy Naples-Mitchell, CommonWealth Beacon, November 22, 2025.
The Heart Of Dorchester: Shooter & Former Gang Leader Takes it Back To The Roots - Dae Heat, a former street soldier and now an aspiring artist, is now trying to make change in the world. His work focuses on prison stories, gang culture, street life, and addiction and recovery. Find his music at / @43ad_daeheat
Calvin Duncan’s Unlikely Journey: Convict to Exoneree to Elected Official, Rick Rojas, NY Times, November 16, 2025. See also: He Was a Self-Taught Legal Expert in Prison. Now, He’s Running for Court Clerk, Rick Rojas and Katy Reckdahl, NY Times, November 13, 2025.
Man [Ricky "Fuquan" McGee] Was Released from Prison After 28 Years While Judge Considers Innocence Plea, Liz Neisloss, GBH News, October 14, 2025.
America’s Aging Prison Population Is Posing Challenges for States, Amanda Hernández, Stateline, September 29, 2025.
Trapped in Time: The Silent Crisis of Elderly Incarceration, Alyssa Gordon, Michele Deitch & Alycia Welch, Am. Civ. Liberties Union Nat’l Prison Project and the Prison & Jail Innovation Lab, Lyndon B. Johnson Sch. of Pub. Affs., Univ. of Tex. at Austin, Sept. 2025.
How to Cut the Prison Population, Save Money and Make Us Safer, German Lopez, New York Times, September 8, 2025.
More Freedom, Less Violence: Some States Look to European Prisons, Shaila Dewan, New York Times, July 26, 2025.
Healey’s secretive $360 million to ‘re-imagine’ Framingham prison for women, Guest Columnist Lois Ahrens, Daily Hampshire Gazette, July 23, 2025.
She got out. Then she gave back: How a Boston woman went from incarceration to inspiration, John L. Micek, MassLive, July 18, 2025.
Fighting for the Rights of Incarcerated People, March 18-19, 2025. Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) Conference on College in Prison, at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, featuring panelists Lizz Matos, Calvin Arey, and Michael Millemann.
The Two Faces Of Justice: Retribution And Rehabilitation In Contemporary Society, Jennifer M. Miller, IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), Volume 30, Issue 3, Series 3, March, 2025, pp. 70-81.
THE EUGENIC ORIGINS OF THREE STRIKES LAWS: How "Habitual Offender" Sentencing Laws Were Used as a Means of Sterilization, Daniel Loehr, The Sentencing Project's Second Look Network, 2025.