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

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  • Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops

    Two officers with the San Antonio Police Department's Mental Health Unit show how they respond to mental health crises with empathetic listening and de-escalation tactics rather than the traditional police tactics of command and control. The small unit can only handle a tiny percentage of the city's crisis calls. But the officers also run the training of all incoming police cadets, who now get 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training. This policing tactic works only because it exists within a well-developed system of mental health care in the city.

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  • Community College Partnership Fills Education, Mental Health Gaps In Amador County

    Rural counties in California face a shortage of psychiatrists and therapists. Some counties are responding to this issue by investing in mental health workers. In Amador County, the Amador College Connect program allows students who want to pursue a certificate or associates in human services to enroll in online courses. 44 students have been sponsored through the program since 2014.

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  • Getting a Handle on Self-Harm

    Self-injury tactics have been increasing among adolescents, but psychologists are finding success with implementing specialized forms of therapy. Typically used with those diagnosed with a personality disorder, a specialized talk therapy known as dialectical behavior therapy works to teach "mindfulness techniques and opposite action, in which patients act opposite to the way they feel in order to alter the underlying distress."

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  • Restorative Justice: Healing Instead of Incarceration

    Prosecutors in Brooklyn and Bronx divert some violent crime cases away from traditional courts to a program called Common Justice, which gives victims a greater say in the outcome – an outcome chosen by 9 out of 10 victims served by the agency because it provides a more healing alternative to the incarceration that has caused so many social problems in their neighborhoods. Through restorative justice dialog between victims and those who harmed them, agreements are forged whereby the responsible party will atone for his crime through restitution, community service, or other means.

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  • The Kim Foxx Effect: How Prosecutions Have Changed in Cook County

    In her first two and a half years in office as Chicago’s top prosecutor, Kim Foxx lived up to her campaign pledge to prosecute fewer low-level crimes, divert drug cases to treatment, and focus more on gun violence. An analysis of an unprecedented data release shows that Foxx’s office turned away more than 5,000 cases, mostly shoplifting and drug offenses, based on her vow to stop over-criminalizing behavior in ways that ruin lives. Meanwhile, her office prosecuted more gun crimes. Police complained her policies will increase crime, but in the short term at least there was no evidence that they had.

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  • An alternative to police: Mental health team responds to emergencies in Oregon

    In Eugene, Oregon, the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) initiative is providing a police-free response to mental health crises in the community. The mobile mental health unit responds to calls involving individuals with mental health issues, are trained in de-escalation, and provide in-the-moment services like transportation or access to wrap around services. These types of services have become more popular, with cities around the country piloting them.

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  • NYC: Where the Police Offer a Free Art Class Instead of Prosecution

    Since 2015, Project Reset has diverted potential criminal cases to programs that change behaviors without imposing punishment or staining people's records with criminal convictions. Art classes, behavioral therapy, and restorative dialogue have made 16- and 17-year-olds in the program significantly less likely to commit new offenses, while 98% of those admitted to the program have completed it. Offered in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx, the program helped the Manhattan district attorney nearly cut in half the number of prosecutions of low-level misdemeanors and violations.

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  • Cook County Jail Program Helping Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths By Providing Released Inmates With Naloxone

    After recognizing that just-released inmates were more likely to overdose on opioids, Cook County Jail partnered with Cook County Health to train at-risk detainees how to administer Naloxone nasal spray. This program also provides released detainees with Naloxone kits, and has recorded significant success from this process.

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  • In Cahoots: How the unlikely pairing of cops and hippies became a national model

    Long before CAHOOTS became a national model for replacing police on some 911 calls with mobile crisis-response teams of medics and counselors, it represented an "odd marriage of police resources and counterculture philosophies." The acronym for Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets is in fact a sly reference to White Bird Clinic's hippies "in cahoots" with cops. But the police have long since made their peace with the service, which spends a tiny fraction of what it costs to run Eugene's police department while handling a large share of non-violent crises involving homelessness and mental health.

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  • How Germany averted an opioid crisis

    Unlike the U.S., Germany has avoided an opioid epidemic by implementing regulations around when the drug is administered to patients that includes alternative treatments, special permission and screening for risk to addiction. For those that are being treated for drug addiction, their approach is centered on harm reduction strategies which has also shown greater success than the U.S.'s model of punishment.

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