Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • As homicides surged, Oakland's premier anti-violence program went quiet

    September 07, 2021 |

    San Francisco Chronicle |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

    Oakland Ceasefire's "delicate architecture" balancing law enforcement and community-based responses to gun violence, which seemed to have helped lower the city's gun violence by half since 2012, came crashing down during the pandemic. While arrests continued, the alternative offered to people at high risk of violence – an array of services to turn their lives around – withered with a virtual ban on in-person meetings. Violence in the city surged as years of progress unraveled. The program is working to rebuild, while questioning if it should distance itself more from the police.

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  • King County's rise in gun violence doesn't have an easy explanation

    September 01, 2021 |

    Crosscut |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Community Passageways does the kind of violence intervention work that the city of Seattle plans to invest in to expand its reach. Peer mentors reach out to young men at highest risk of suffering or committing violence. They mediate disputes and counsel the men on finding work and staying clear of criminal trouble. While this group has made progress in connecting people to jobs and other help, its effects on Seattle's recent surge in gun violence are unknown. Similar programs elsewhere, focusing on the same sets of conditions that cause much community violence, have been shown to be effective.

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  • Dealing with mental health crisis one Zoom call at a time

    August 29, 2021 |

    Associated Press |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

    In Chicago, where the city's size and traffic would pose logistical and cost barriers to make mental health professionals first responders to mental-crisis calls, the Cook County sheriff's office has put 70 Zoom-enabled tablets in deputies' hands to set up on-the-spot counseling sessions with people in crisis. Instead of being confronted by a cop, people threatening suicide or harming others can talk to one of eight counselors on call. It's the first step toward getting the care they need, instead of an arrest and violent clash with police officers.

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  • A push to change Colorado's prison culture and perceptions — one art piece at a time

    August 23, 2021 |

    Colorado Newsline |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Colorado

    The Prison Arts Initiative program, jointly run by the Colorado prison system and University of Denver, puts personal expression through visual and performing arts at the heart of the prisons' mission to become less punitive and more rehabilitative. With exhibits like "Chained Voices," featuring paintings by incarcerated people, the program aims to give hope to people by making them feel seen and valued as fully human. Formerly incarcerated artists say they valued not only the personal growth they experienced, but also the knowledge that their art could change public perceptions of the people in prison.

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  • Some 'Most Impressive' Law School Applicants Are Convicted of Serious Crimes

    August 18, 2021 |

    Route Fifty |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    Starting in 2017, California has grown more open to licensing formerly incarcerated people to work as lawyers. State licensing authorities set high barriers to entry to the legal profession in their "moral fitness" license requirements. Vague rules can effectively rule out anyone with a serious criminal record. By clarifying its standards and making the process more transparent, the State Bar – aided by efforts to train licensing officials and by the California System-Involved Bar Association to educate prospective lawyers to pass the test – the system has evolved into a model for state-led change.

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  • How Ex-Miners Turn Toxic Land into Lavender Farms

    August 18, 2021 |

    Business Insider |

    Video |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, West Virginia

    Appalachian Botanical Company, or ABCo, owns a lavender farm that rests on a retired coal mine. The farm aims to restore the land and soil by growing lavender. Coal companies are legally obliged to restore the land they have mined, known as reclamation. ABCo is part of the reclamation. However, they also want to restore the community, it employs former coal miners and recovering addicts to harvest, pick, distill, and package the flowers. The farm grew two-fold since its inception.

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  • Since when is being a teenager a crime?

    August 07, 2021 |

    Reveal |

    Illustrations |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Wyoming

    Neighboring states of Wyoming and South Dakota take starkly different approaches toward youth who get in trouble. Side-by-side comic panels follow two real cases through each system. A South Dakota teen gets help that steers her off a destructive path. A Wyoming teen gets punished, and ends up in a downward spiral of more trouble and more punishment. Both states once had relatively high youth incarceration rates. Now only one of them, Wyoming, does: the second-worst in the U.S., and three times the national average.

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  • Chicago organization uses predictive analytics to identify young people who may be headed for trouble

    August 04, 2021 |

    CNBC |

    Broadcast TV Talk Show |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

    Eddie Bocanegra of READI Chicago describes his group's gun-violence-prevention model. Data from police and hospitals, plus community intelligence, identify those people most at risk of committing or being victimized by gun violence. Then, providing those at highest risk with cognitive behavioral therapy, job-finding help, and other social services has been shown to reduce this group's victimization by nearly one-third and its likelihood of arrest for gun violence by 80%.

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  • Shootings and murders are down in Chester as new community-driven program takes root

    July 30, 2021 |

    The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Chester, Pennsylvania

    Barely half a year after creating the Partnerships for Safe Neighborhoods, the Delaware County district attorney's office and Chester police have seen a sharp drop in shootings. While multiple factors may affect the violence levels, officials and community members give much of the credit to the new program, which uses a focused deterrence approach to threatening to arrest people at risk of committing violence, but in return offering trade school training, rental aid, and counseling from community partners. The program shows the residents officials want to address the root causes, not just lock people up.

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  • The Path Forward: Decriminalizing addiction through diversion

    July 29, 2021 |

    Las Vegas Optic |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Alamosa, Colorado

    In Alamosa County, law enforcement officers who believe drug abuse is at the root of a person's criminal behavior can refer that person to treatment and other services, rather than arresting and jailing them. The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, used in multiple places around the country, has helped the county jail fewer people and send more into treatment. It also has caused a large drop in arrest warrants, because case workers help people make their appointments in court and elsewhere. Now, San Miguel County, N.M., is working to adopt LEAD, though it needs more treatment facilities.

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