Tag Archives: BINJ

Prison Brought Us Together, But Friendship Survives

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This holiday season, longtime BINJ prison reporter Jean Trounstine reflects on the work that cleared her path to journalism.  

I first met Angie Jefferson in prison in 1992.

In 2024, there she was with two other friends, standing on my doorstep in Tewksbury.

Angie had come to my college acting class at Framingham MCI via Bertie, a Jamaican beauty shunned by others because she killed her daughter. Hurting a child is anathema to women behind bars; and while we know now it was likely post-partum depression, Bertie was deemed irredeemable. She sought refuge with nurturing women who didn’t judge, women like Angie. MORE IN BINJ

New Beginnings Reentry Day Program–A new Chapter!

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Please read and share my newest for Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism on Stacey Borden and her newest venture: Struggles In Reentry: A New Chapter For New Beginnings. It begins:

“On Saturday, April 5, Stacey Borden will begin her newest journey to provide educational programs, therapeutic services, and skills for those coming home from prison as well as for other formerly-incarcerated and system-impacted people.

Borden is the founder and, up until recently, was the executive director of New Beginnings Reentry Services (NBRS), which provided a home for women exiting prison. NBRS will transform from an overnight residential program for females into an all-gender day program and Borden will continue on with her vision of repairing harm and healing trauma. According to Borden, the New Beginnings Reentry Day Program will offer “healing spaces, mental health and substance use counseling, art and music therapy, yoga, and computer and financial literacy.”

In an interview with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, Borden, not only formerly incarcerated but also an award-winning activist, said, “I wasn’t getting enough funding to hire the right individuals to give the women the programs and services they deserve coming out of prison. Instead of feeling like a failure, I reached out and got help from mentors, and one day, woke up and said, Let me be a day center.”  MORE