Ali Abbas, who had lost his home and entire family during a botched US bombing raid in Iraq when he was 12, lost both his arms and suffered serious burns. But today, since being fitted with artificial arms in a British Hospital, the 21-year-old lives in prosperous south-west London, is attempting to set up a charity for limbless children, and has married a childhood friend.
A group of prisoners at New York City's Rikers Island jail were let out for a day so they could deliver 700 Thanksgiving meals to the needy. The men cooked up the hundreds of turkey dinners in a jail kitchen for delivery to two churches, according to an AP report. That's not the only example this month of Riker's prison helping New Yorkers in need. A New York Times story today tells how, after Hurricane Sandy tore through nearby neighborhoods, the island inmates did 6,600 pounds of laundry for people in emergency shelters.
For 30 years, Gerard Thomas was among the 70,000 American veterans sleeping on the streets every night. As a paranoid schizophrenic he was in and out of prison and mental institutions for decades. These days, the 62-year-old devotes his life to helping homeless veterans.
Teenagers who are locked up are still entitled to an education. Near Washington, DC a juvenile program for incarcerated youth has turned itself around, much like some of the inmates, thanks to poet, Maya Angelou. 60 teenagers study at the juvenile correctional center, amid barbed wire and guards, within the gleaming new walls of the Maya Angelou Academy. Where there once were shackles and beatings, now there is emotional as well as intellectual growth for the inmates, who are called scholars.
The nation's newest Miss America is a 23-year-old Wisconsin brunette who had long conversations with her family mulling whether or not to make her father's jail time for mail fraud the heart of her campaign in the beauty pageant. Laura Kaeppeler said she wants children of incarcerated adults to feel less alone, to have mentoring and as much of a relationship with their parents as possible.
After several arrests, drug addiction and being homeless, a 50-year-old Miami man has overcome the odds to graduate from Florida International University with a master's degree in social work.
In New Zealand, a knitting circle formed for prisoners is churning out hats, slippers and scarves for donation to those in need in their community. The knitting does great things for the men's self worth as well.
Festival goers at a nationalist, right-wing concert in Germany were taken by surprise when souvenir t-shirts they were given had a secret anti-far right message that emerged only after being washed. Once washed, the slogan turned into a message from a group offering help to right-wing extremists break away from the neo-Nazi scene.
A fresh foods program at the Leavenworth Penitentiary has inmates growing a quarter million pounds of produce every year, which produces free healthy food for them, and more than 80,000 pounds in donations to help feed the needy throughout Kansas City.
A jail-based brand that includes crispy potato chips, crunchy cookies and formal shirts is transforming the lives of inmates and prepare them for a fresh start through vocational training in diverse fields, thanks to the successful launch of TJ'S brand (named for the prison).
A prison outside Birmingham has become the model for a meditation program that officials say helps inmates learn the self control and social skills they never got in the outside world. About 10 percent of the prison's inmates have completed the program, which really works.
Since the imprisoned handymen have been put to work on the little wooden houses, over 50 stray dogs have already been given shelter from the weather.
67 colleges and universities will participate in the new Second Chance Pell pilot program that expands access to financial aid for incarcerated individuals.
When things didn't work out, he made a "desperate decision." But when the judge in criminal court heard the story, he was booked– for a job.
This ex-con's chosen method of therapy is driving with the wind in his hair – and memorizing 3,000 different streets in London.
At 67, after two prison stints and so many arrests he's lost count, a former drug dealer donned a cap and gown as a graduate of the prestigious Columbia University.
Tattoos are now removable through laser treatments–and the L.A. Sheriff's Department owns several machines to help inmates change their lives.
A math and social studies teacher at Camp David Gonzales, a juvenile probation camp in California, worked tirelessly with a group of incarcerated young men to turn a kit of wooden planks into a solar-powered boat, able to compete against vessels built by high school students from across Southern California.
"Shawshank Redemption" star Tim Robbins has an acting class that's cutting repeat offender rates in half for inmates at real-life California prisons.
This nonprofit teaches others how to provide cheap tattoo removal for ex-convicts and victims of human trafficking who are eager for a fresh start.
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