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L.A. Unified experiments with new tutoring program during pandemic

Betty Márquez Rosales

January 21, 2021 |

EdSource |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

Step Up is a pilot tutoring program that was launched to help students in the Los Angeles Unified School District navigate virtual learning during the pandemic. The program is only open to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and pairs them up with tutors if their teachers opt into the program. So far, nine schools are part of the program, representing 402 students.

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After shootings hit new high, Durham to spend $935,000 on an alternative to police

Charlie Innis

January 20, 2021 |

The News & Observer |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

Because two Durham neighborhoods using the Cure Violence method of "violence interruption" bucked the citywide trend toward higher gun violence, the city will expand its Bull City United violence-prevention program to four more neighborhoods. The additional $935,488 cost will pay for 16 employees, many of them formerly incarcerated, who will mediate disputes after a shooting, to prevent retaliation, and who will conduct outreach to people at risk of gun violence.

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In Eugene, Oregon, civilian response workers—not police—are dispatched to nonviolent crises

Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil

January 19, 2021 |

The Christian Century |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Eugene's well-established CAHOOTS program for replacing police as first responders to certain types of 911 calls has become a model for multiple cities as they seek to replicate its success in an era of questioning the role of police. While it saves its city money and replaces arrests and possible violence with social and health services for people needing housing or mental health care, or suffering from addiction, CAHOOTS is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of programs responding to these challenges. Communities' differences will dictate what works best for them.

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Albuquerque's vision for non-police first responders comes down to earth

Ted Alcorn

January 17, 2021 |

New Mexico In Depth |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

In response to the 2020 policing protests, Albuquerque was among the first cities to embrace a major change in handling mental-health-crisis calls to 911. But its new Community Safety Department has foundered in its first year, a victim of inadequate planning and resources. The plan to send unarmed first responders on such calls, to reduce the risk of a violent over-reaction by the police, depended on reassigning city workers from other agencies, none of whom were mental health professionals. City councilors have sent the planners back to rethink the latest in a history of failed responses.

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Criminalizing Mental Illness, Part 2

Andrew Stelzer Sarah Shourd

January 14, 2021 |

KALW |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles County's Office of Diversion and Reentry has moved about 6,000 people out of jails and into programs providing mental health care, drug treatment, housing, and job training at a cost that is about one-fifth that of incarcerating people with mental illness. Like Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, ODR provides an alternative to the default model in the U.S. of incarcerating people with such health problems. L.A. County is now shifting as much as $500 million from policing to supportive services because programs like ODR and CAHOOTS fall far short of the actual need.

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Firefighter jobs difficult to find for women fire crew after prison

Catie Cheshire Sinead Hickey Miles Green

January 12, 2021 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Arizona's Inmate Wildfire Program trains incarcerated people to fight wildfires, paying them low prison wages to provide a critically needed service as wildfires grow more common. Members of the only all-female crew, from Perryville Prison, tell of their pride of accomplishment in doing a dangerous job, and of the rehabilitative benefits of the program. They also describe their frustrations when regulations often bar them from using their skills after release from prison.

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How Genesee County wants to change criminal justice: A New Juvenile Justice Center

Amy Diaz

January 10, 2021 |

Flint Beat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Flint, Michigan

A new Juvenile Justice Center that will focus on trauma-informed treatment of children rather than simply jailing them is still more than one year from completion. But, in the years leading to its opening, the county's family courts have cut in half the numbers of children held in detention by emphasizing rehabilitation programs over jail. Many of the services are based on the "Missouri Model" of juvenile justice, which has been shown to reduce incarceration and prevent crime through evidence-based approaches that are more therapeutic than punitive.

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'A chance to choose life': For some, drug courts break cycle of addiction and crime

Paul Cuno-Booth

January 09, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Keene, New Hampshire

Cheshire County Drug Court provides intensive drug addiction treatment, behavioral therapy, and other services to help people charged with crimes whose drug problems are their underlying problem. Since 2013, it has helped dozens of people avoid re-offending and put their lives on track. Like other drug courts, it is not suited to all circumstances and its coercive nature – jail is threatened for failure to follow the rules – has its critics. But graduates credit it with saving their lives. And it serves as a gateway to services that people might not otherwise have access to.

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An alternative to arrest? Police turn to diversion for petty crimes

Paul Cuno-Booth

January 07, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Hampshire

Prosecutors often make decisions about which criminal charges can be resolved by addressing underlying problems and holding people accountable for petty offenses without incarcerating them. Police-led diversion programs catch cases earlier in the criminal process. Various New Hampshire police departments and in neighboring Brattleboro, Vermont, use the approach in dozens of cases per year, sparing those people the burdens and shame of jail and conviction. The approach has been proven effective in Seattle’s LEAD program as a way to prevent rearrests and to make people's lives more stable.

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A felony could have ruined his life. This program gave him a second chance.

Paul Cuno-Booth

January 05, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Vermont

Vermont's decades-old court diversion program uses restorative justice practices to erase criminal records and give people charged with lower-level offenses a shot at being held accountable, and giving back, without incarceration and convictions. Expanded significantly after legislators in 2017 applied the program to more categories of cases, the program has helped more than 90,000 people and now is used in as many as one-third of all misdemeanor cases. The program saves the state money and appears to contribute to lower rates of re-offending.

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