Stoneleigh Fellow Sangeeta Prasad is interviewed by Generocity about her work with the Office of the District Attorney to revise the practices and processes that keep young Philadelphians under community supervision.
It’s been described as America’s mean season, the punitive years starting in the 1970s that saw the ballooning of the number of people — primarily men of color — imprisoned, often for nonviolent offenses in jails that increasingly deemphasized rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
By the 1990s, America was incarcerating more people per capita than any other developed nation. And with mass incarceration came its less famous relative: mass parole and probation. A staggering one out of every 53 adults in America are under community supervision.
“Folks kept on probation is just punitive,” sighed Sangeeta Prasad, who is working with Philadelphia’s Office of the District Attorney as one of the Stoneleigh Foundation’s newest multi-year fellows — not to be confused with Stoneleigh’s Emerging Leader Fellowship — who are selected for their established leadership skills and charged with transforming systems that serve vulnerable youth.
