Newsletter APRIL 2024
April is Second Chance Month Second Chance Month recognizes the importance of supporting the safe and successful reentry of millions of people returning from incarceration each year.
An Introduction to Real-Life Skills
Do you know what Cashapp is? What about Tap to pay? What about a 401K vs 401A and which is better for you? Should you buy a car outright, lease it or finance it? These are all questions Real-Life Skills will help you ponder for yourself.
Written by Precious Bonner, Director of The Bonner Foundation During one of my daily phone calls with my brother while he was serving a 180-year sentence, I asked him “what do people do that don’t have the family support that you have”? In short, the answer is go back to prison or jail. The national average recidivism rate or tendency of currently incarcerated individuals to go back to prison, is 44% and costs $150,000 per instance. This means that for every 100 of you reading this, statistically speaking, 44 of you will return to prison. I say “NO”. No more releasing people back into a society that continues to condemn them after their sentence has been served. No more releasing people unsupported into a crazy new world and expecting them to just figure it out. The Bonner Foundation (TBF) fights against this system of neglect by supporting the entire individual throughout the reentry process.
Currently TBF is providing quarterly workshops to CTJC survivors and working with prisons in Indiana and Illinois to offer classes inside different institutions within each state. As the work continues to progress, TBF will begin to implement our long term program across the Great Lakes area that will aid each client from education while incarcerated completely through to homeownership after release.
On a mission to improve our country through recidivism reduction and community stabilization, TBF began with the development of Real-Life Skills, our reintegration study guide. With topics such as Forms of Payment, Identity Theft & Consumer Awareness, Insurance, & Employee Benefits it is my intention that in the time leading up to your release, Real-Life Skills will serve as an additional aide for you.
Contact The Bonner Foundation thebonnerfoundationnfp@gmail.com Purchase the Real-Life Skills Study Guide https://amzn.to/3Ula9bZ
Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson have been granted Certificates of Innocence Brothers Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson were finally granted Certificates of Innocence on April 2, 2024, thirty years after they were first tortured by Chicago police. This was a long awaited victory after justice was delayed by the state again and again. Sean and Reginald were just teenagers when they were framed and tortured by Chicago police in 1994. Both brothers were wrongfully incarcerated for over two decades, and in 2021 were finally exonerated. Every win is worth celebrating, yet we know that there is nothing that can ever make up for the years that are stolen by the carceral system. We will continue to fight for the liberation of all of us, and to hold these systems of oppression accountable. We hope to welcome more and more of you home. Reginald Henderson (left) and Sean Tyler (right) 6337 S. WOODLAWN AVENUE CHICAGO IL 60637 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG