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

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  • Program offers alternative for youth who commit misdemeanors

    Choose 180 channels Seattle-area young people into an alternative to court and jail when they commit relatively minor offenses. This "offramp" from the traditional justice system, serving a disproportionately Black and brown clientele, helped 400 clients in 2019, 87% of whom did not commit new offenses. Research shows such diversion programs have a better track record for preventing future crimes. A Choose 180 "sentence" comes in the form of a workshop introducing young people to mentors and giving them a chance at the stability and frame of mind they need to seek more lasting change in their lives.

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  • Surveillance Planes Watch Over Baltimore, But Catch Few Criminals

    In the first half of a six-month experiment, Baltimore's "wide-area surveillance" using video cameras flying above city streets to aid in crime investigations has led to only one arrest. The city's police commissioner doubts the city will agree to pay for the surveillance once private funding for the pilot project runs out, but he says he'll know more after the six-month experiment. The experiment is aimed at Baltimore's high rates of gun violence. Besides its effectiveness, critics worry about its privacy implications and that it targets mostly Black neighborhoods.

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  • Searching with the Mothers of Mexico's Disappeared

    Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

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  • How Hawaii's New Voting System Could Help Disabled Voters

    Voters with disabilities in Hawaii have more options for voting than in most other states. Electronic ballots in particular, which can be paired with assistive technology, allow voters more freedom and independence. Any voter with a disability can request a ballot be emailed to them as an HTML file. Voters must sign a privacy waiver and ballots have to be printed and signed. Hawaii is one of the few states that allows voters to scan their signed ballots and return them by email, as well as by mail or dropped in an official ballot box. More voter outreach is needed to make people aware of this option.

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  • 19th Amendment: The six-week 'brawl' that won women the vote

    Three generations of activists marched, protested, lobbied, and campaigned for more than seven decades to win the right to vote for American women. In 1920, national and local activists worked to convince Tennessee legislators to support the 19th amendment and become the 36th and final state needed to ratify it. Local suffragists were the most visible forces, lobbying their representatives to support the amendment, while national activists built alliances, identified legislators known to take bribes, and exerted political pressure at all levels of government, including among presidential candidates.

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  • The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising

    There are 29 Resistance to Advertising Aggression (RAP) groups working in France to ban outdoor advertising such as billboards. The groups worked with the mayor in the city of Grenoble to cancel a contract for 326 outdoor ads. While not all contracts can be changed, RAPs are particularly focused on stopping digital signs because the energy required to run them is harmful to the environment. Groups in the United Kingdom, São Paulo, New Delhi, and Tehran have won campaigns to remove billboards and other outdoor ads, which research shows reinforce sexist and capitalist ideologies.

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  • The birth of the Black is Beautiful movement

    The African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS) kickstarted the Black is Beautiful movement with 1960s fashion shows elevating Black models with dark skin and full bodies, who agreed to keep their hair natural year-round. As events increased and photographs spread, and famous Black women adopted their style, natural hair became more normalized. The founders recently released a song called We Will Breath to empower black people to “take back control of the narrative surrounding their lives.” The group continues to inspire Black entrepreneurs, such as Rihanna, and encourages people to support Black businesses.

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  • In Staten Island, A Burgeoning Youth-Led Movement For Social Justice Is Afoot

    The Young Leaders of Staten Island (YSLI) was created in Staten Island to fight for social justice after young residents of the borough felt the local response to George Floyd's murder was not enough. YSLI mobilized hundreds of protesters to march in Staten Island's largest public protest of 1,800 people. The group has demanded justice through police reform and beyond, hosting voter registration and census completion drives. Their efforts have resulted in 125 people registering for the census and 85 people to vote.

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  • Here's a radical idea that will change policing, transform prisons and reduce crime: treat criminals like human beings

    Comparing Norway's and the United States' approaches to prisons and policing puts the lie to the American notion that being tough and unrelentingly punitive effectively addresses crime. In Norway, even people imprisoned for violent crimes, in maximum-security prisons, are treated with respect and kindness, with privileges that would be unthinkable in most American prisons. The results are telling: Norway's recidivism rate, the lowest in the world, is less than one-third of the U.S. rate. While prison costs are far higher per capita, the ultimate costs in lower crime make the Norwegian approach affordable.

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  • How Urban Planning Keeps Cities Segregated—and Maintains White Supremacy

    Urban planning policies can lead to greater racial segregation, sometimes intentionally. While older policies could be explicitly racist, today policies such as zoning, which designates land for residential or industrial use, effectively excludes communities of color, immigrants, and households with lower incomes. Residential segregation leads to education, income, and health disparities. Minneapolis ended single-family zoning so lots can be converted to more affordable duplexes and triplexes and is working towards requiring new apartment projects to reserve units for low- to moderate-income households.

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