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

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  • Restorative Justice Part 3: In Vermont, Restorative Justice Under Statute May Not Lead to Equitable Services

    Reacting to troubling trends in incarceration in the 1980s, Vermont legislators created a system of community justice centers to give its justice system a distinct rehabilitative rather than punitive slant. The CJCs exist in every county and involve the community in repairing the harm from crimes, following a restorative justice approach. Though gaps in data on race mask Vermont's racial disparities in criminal justice, the system saves money and spares many people incarceration, while giving crime victims and communities a more direct say in how to hold people accountable for the harm they cause.

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  • Would You Dine in This Prison?

    The Clink operates in four British prisons, teaching haute-cuisine cooking skills and then helping its formerly incarcerated trainees establish productive lives once they're released. The training inside prison features restaurants that cater to the public, plus teaching the skills needed to find and keep a job on the outside. When graduates of the program showed the same inclination to commit more crimes as other formerly incarcerated people, the program provided more reentry supports that have contributed to much lower rates of re-offending. The program plans to expand to 70 more prisons in the UK.

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  • Restorative Justice Part 1: Juvenile Court Diversion is Cheap and Effective, But Inconsistent Across NH

    New Hampshire's 40-year-old system of diverting many juvenile prosecutions away from courts and incarceration, and into community-based restorative justice programs, has saved public money, lowered youth crime rates, and changed lives. By addressing root causes of lower-level offenses, the programs provide treatment to youth who apologize and atone for their offenses, and who then often perform community service projects to erase their arrest record. But there are many fewer resources now than at the program's start, creating an uneven and inequitable patchwork of available services statewide.

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  • Laws We Can Actually Understand

    Law Rewired, run by law students and an advisory board of legal scholars, translates complex laws and landmark court decisions into plain language so people can understand them. Real-world examples, easy to read bullet-points, videos, and a glossary of legal terms make the legal explanations more widely accessible. Summaries also explain why a law was enacted, when it can be applied, and any amendments that were added to it. The materials are available for free online and via social media and the organization answers 10 to 25 questions from readers every month about a variety of legal issues.

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  • People Fixing the World: How a bicycle tripled one woman's income

    Bicycles are improving mobility for Zambians living in rural areas. Access to affordable bicycles has increased their business profits, drastically cut their travel time to school, and improved access to health facilities in the countryside. Residents are able to pay small monthly installments for the bicycles, which have drastically improved their quality of life. The majority of Zambians living outside of cities live over 1 mile away from a good road.

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  • The Polarised City (2): Jos, Divided By Religion, United By Football

    With team names like Reconciliation, Peace, Love, Humanity, and Forgiveness, the football league organized by Face of Peace Global has begun to chip away at the religious-based fears and hostility that tore their city apart for a generation. Following 18 years of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in which people settled into starkly separate zones, the football coaches recruited teams deliberately mixed across religious and neighborhood lines. Divisions did not dissolve instantly, but players say that over time they have grown to trust and like their teammates, small steps toward peace.

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  • Digital Startup Fills News Niche in Wheeling, West Virginia

    Ledenews.com is one of the more than 80 online-only news sites started in 2019 to fill the void in news deserts. The site covers sports, politics, traffic, and local stories about local people in the Wheeling, WV area. The site cost $5,000 to start and now brings in about $60,000 a year in advertising, with 1,500 to 2,000 readers a day, a rate of growth that suggests profitability within a few years. The site publishes around 10 stories a week, including three major features, and all of the news is geared towards local issues not covered by other publications, including holding local officials accountable.

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  • Could a Citizens' Assembly Help Fix Your Democracy?

    France is among a growing number of countries piloting "citizens assemblies," in which a randomly-selected sample of citizens is tasked with reviewing and recommending potential responses to a pressing societal issue. The country's assembly on climate change resulted in more than 100 proposals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, but because they were nonbinding, only about 40 percent of the recommendations were forwarded to parliament.

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  • The Videos Saving Lives in the Developing World

    As a way to help train frontline health workers in developing countries about childbirth practices and child health, a nurse practitioner launched a video production project to offer short instructional films. In the 10 years since launching the project, the films have overall been viewed "more than 450 million times on YouTube, and they've been downloaded more than 200,000 times in 200 countries."

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  • Meet the scientists building a prison-to-STEM pipeline

    The movement to promote science education and careers among people who are currently or formerly incarcerated is making slow but real progress. Programs like the National Science Foundation's STEM Opportunities in Prison Settings, and the restoration of Pell Grants in prisons, provide institutional support. But progress can be seen in smaller programs like the Prison Mathematics Project, begun by an incarcerated math whiz whose Italian mathematician mentor inspired him to overcome barriers to education. Another sign of progress: More states are "banning the box" in college applications.

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