NPR

A New Approach To Incarceration In The U.S.: Responsibility

Authorities in Massachusetts want to cut the recidivism rate for men ages 18 to 24. They're trying a new program based on a German model that teaches responsibility as a means to greater freedoms.
Middlesex County Correctional Facility Assistant Deputy Superintendent Scott Chaput with inmates in the prison's P.A.C.T (People Achieving Change Together) unit in Billerica, Mass.

In Massachusetts, over half of young adult men released from jails and prisons go back within three years. The state's largest county wants to disrupt that cycle by teaching responsibility.

In Billerica, a suburb northwest of Boston, a select group of inmates at the Middlesex House of Correction and Jail are at this effort's forefront. They're part of the People Achieving Change Together, or P.A.C.T. unit — a program designed specifically for 18- to 24-year-olds who

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