Blog Posts

Nancy Cotterill co-founded 2nd Chance Indiana (as UNITE INDY) in late 2016. She was editor and later publisher of Indianapolis Business Journal, and then created a not-for-profit online news outlet for the four million wheelchair users in the U.S. As an award-winning journalist, Nancy uses her talents to promote efforts to fight the causes of overall poverty throughout our area while working to spread the specific message that second chance employment is lowering recidivism, changing lives, and raising families out of poverty.

May 21, 2025

During the COVID pandemic, most of us were too busy adjusting our paper masks to notice that crime was ballooning. Since then, the crime statistics are down, largely due to an effort by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police to get "crime guns" off the street.


May 7, 2025

Without family to provide even a small amount of money to an inmate, they are left to bargain for things they need, which makes them very vulnerable, but aside the issue of money, they often develop depression and anxiety, and without letters or phone calls, they feel entirely alone.


April 21, 2025

The 2018 bi-partisan First Step Act quickly shortened many unfair sentences, thousands, and over the ensuing years increased Federal prison training programs to an amazing degree. the prison population had dropped 28% and the better we try, the better the outcomes for people who want a second chance.


April 7, 2025

Pennsylvania's DOC team were stunned by what they saw: Officers and inmates eating meals together, playing video games, and laughing. Said a visiting staff member, "I was blown away. It was jarring, eye-opening," and another said, 'Oh my God, I've been trained wrong.'" 


March 7, 2025

Surprisingly, Indiana has the most individuals serving life sentences in the nation, ballooning the cost of incarceration for taxpayers, and ignoring the fact that many in their 70s and 80s are not a threat to society. The fact that we continue to imprison the elderly—far past the likelihood of returning to a life of crime—is an affront to common sense as much as it is to Judeo-Christian values.


February 21, 2025

You've been released from jail and have met with your parole officer. He has given you a long list of conditions that will include where you can go and with whom you can meet. The list seems endless for many, and due to the panoply of conditions, at least one in ten people on parole are sent back to jail on technical violations...

Tags: parole


February 7, 2025

When as many as 75% of inmates in our prisons are illiterate, and 85% of juveniles who interface with juvenile courts are illiterate, perhaps it is time to take a look at how the inability to read impacts lives and increases the population of prisons here and across the nation.


January 21, 2025

Since the early 90s, sociologists and criminologists have been working to figure out what will keep the habitual offender from re-offending and have developed a successful series of programs that are changing lives and reducing recidivism.


January 7, 2025

It may surprise you, but one man out of every three in the U.S. has a criminal record—In Indiana, that is 1.11 million men who have a criminal record today. We are here to help Hoosiers who need a hand up. We write to them, train and transport them, and connect them to jobs that pay a living wage. Over time, we can change the face of poverty...


December 20, 2024

Statistically, boys from fatherless homes are 14 times more likely to die from an overdose, provide 85% of juveniles in prison, and are 6 times more likely to commit suicide and a young man...


Contact Information

2nd Chance Indiana
241 West 38th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208

317-279-6670

Our Mission

Our mission is to reduce recidivism and rebuild lives through the dignity of work.