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Hawaii Homeless Program Failed After Prosecutors And Police Wouldn't Play Ball

Christina Jedra

February 11, 2021 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Honolulu, Hawaii

LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) proved itself in Seattle as effective at addressing the underlying problems of people experiencing homelessness, by waiving their criminal charges if they accepted needed services. But the program's two-year test in Honolulu failed to gain traction because only some police bought into it, and the prosecutor's office never did. Instead of using criminal citations as leverage, the program was stripped down to an ordinary outreach effort, and managed to enroll only 50 people, not all of whom were helped. A new prosecutor and the police will make another go of it.

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Even older teens benefit from catch-up classes

Jill Barshay

February 08, 2021 |

The Hechinger Report |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Israel

Despite the evidence of early interventions when children are failing academic, a now-defunct Israeli remedial high school program had long lasting effects on the participants. The teens that participated in the program attended college at higher rates, rose on the income ladder and even had higher marriage rates as adults. “I don’t think that we have evidence to give up on students who are older.”

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Health care workers replaced Denver cops in handling hundreds of mental health and substance abuse cases — and officials say it saved lives

Li Cohen

February 06, 2021 |

CBS News |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assisted Response) replaced police officers with health professionals on 748 calls for help. In incidents involving mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse, police backup was never needed, no one was arrested, and minor crises did not risk escalating into violence because of police presence. The six-month pilot project will expand to more parts of the city and more hours of the week, with an infusion of city money to supplement the private funding that got the program started.

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Denver successfully sent mental health professionals, not police, to hundreds of calls

Grace Hauck

February 06, 2021 |

USA Today |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first six months, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) handled 748 emergency calls that in the past would have gone to the police or firefighters. Two-person teams of a medic and clinician helped people with personal crises related mainly to homelessness and mental illness. None of the calls required police involvement and no one was arrested. The city plans to spend more to expand the program, which is meant to prevent needless violence and incarceration from calls to the police that other types of first-responders can better address.

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Inside the L.A.P.D.'s Experiment in Trust-Based Policing

Michaela Haas

February 05, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The Community Safety Partnership Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department has worked for a decade in 10 neighborhoods to prevent crime through building trust among residents, rather than through the LAPD's costly and troubled war on gangs. One study found that through long-term involvement in neighborhood life, with highly trained officers working closely with community organizers, CSP had helped increase public trust, save public money, and lower violent crime.

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After Capitol riot, desperate families turn to groups that ‘deprogram' extremists

Paulina Villegas Hannah Knowles

February 05, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Groups like Parents for Peace and Life After Hate use former radicals to counsel people in the grip of right-wing extremism. Bombarded by pleas for help by families since the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, these groups use a series of meetings to help people examine the roots of their ideology, with an aim of helping them discover for themselves the irrationality of their hatred and other beliefs. While one researcher says the methods show signs of effectiveness, success is defined mainly in individual stories of change, in a hard-to-measure process of "personal and idiosyncratic" introspection.

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This Honduran lawyer reunites families separated at the US-Mexico border. It involves difficult road trips — and detective work.

Michelle Wiley

February 04, 2021 |

Public Radio International (PRI) |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Honduras

Justice In Motion helps Central American people who were separated from their children by the U.S. government when they attempted to migrate into the U.S. One lawyer in Honduras has succeeded many times in her three dozen searches for parents who lost contact with their children and themselves are hard to find. Justice In Motion and its allies are suing the government and try to help parents with their asylum petitions, in addition to seeking family reunification.

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Cleveland saw a decrease in unsheltered homelessness in 2020: Can that continue?

Conor Morris

February 03, 2021 |

FreshWater Cleveland |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

During 2020, the city of Cleveland reduced the rate of people experiencing homelessness by 30% due to provisions put in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Using eviction moratoriums for those at risk of losing their homes, and hotels for those who were unhoused, the agencies responding to homelessness along with the city and county were able to better engage with the community's needs.

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These local nonprofits bring books to incarcerated individuals in North Carolina

Bethany Lee

February 02, 2021 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

Prison Books Collective and a partner organization, N.C. Women's Prison Book Project, for 15 years have collected donated books and then distributed them inside North Carolina prisons to incarcerated people who crave new reading material. Answering requests, which sometimes can be quite specific as to genre, the groups fulfill orders from their revolving supply. Combined, the groups make up to 75 shipments per week and in return hear from people inside about how meaningful the donated books are to them.

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Youth incarceration fell when California required counties to pay more for juvenile detention: New research

Clark Merrefield

February 02, 2021 |

Journalist's Resource |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

When a California law shifted the costs of incarcerating youth from the state to its counties, judges suddenly sent 40% fewer youth to state-run juvenile facilities. That reduction began a long-term trend that combined with a state commitment to evidence-based approaches to rehabilitation instead of punishment, especially for less-serious offenses. The end result is that state juvenile jails have been all but phased out of existence and California, a longtime tough-on-crime state, now has what one advocacy group considers the nation's most humane juvenile justice system.

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