The closure of prisons is always a heartening sign, but when they are being re-purposed to serve society, things get even better. Crime rates have been declining across the country, and that, coupled with an emphasis on alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent crimes, have spurred creative ideas of change. GRACE Marketplace in Gainesville, Fla., is a re-purposed prison providing shelter for the homeless with a 135-bed center providing dormitory-style facilities; Arthur Kill Correctional Facility on Staten Island in New York has been transformed into a film and television studio by Broadway Stages; Scotland Correctional Center in Wagram, N.C., is now a sustainable educational farm called GrowingChange, which serves troubled teens and veterans. GrowingChange has come up with a "Prison Flip Toolkit" to assist those with similar ambitions. As founder Noran Sanford says, I believe we should take these rusting tools of injustice and smartly shape them into tools of justice.

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