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

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  • Meet the Judge Who Transformed California's Criminal Justice System

    Using the catalyst approach, Judge Thelton Henderson was able to reform California prisons. He employed courts to change bureaucratic systems, and was moved by the idea that if you “encourage everyone involved to buy into a solution.. long-term change will happen.” Coupled with court orders, Henderson oversaw lawsuits involving overcrowding and inadequate medical services in prisons. A move that led to statewide change.

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  • A Year of Bail Reform in New Jersey

    As New Jersey continues to reform its cash bail system, other states in the region look to it as an example. The state developed an algorithm called the Public Safety Assessment that considers an individual’s likeliness to appear for their court date and whether they pose a risk of committing another crime and presents these findings and corresponding recommendations to a judge. Since the reforms have been in place, the state has seen a 20% decrease in the pre-trial jail population and an overall decrease in crime.

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  • At crossroads of policing and murder, a long push for accountability

    Criticism and protests led by community activists in NY led to wide scale changes in NYPD’s policing, it resulted in a large decrease at the unequal way the NYPD racially profiled black and latino men. Many of this activism was led by the mothers of young black men killed at the hands of NYPD. In Baltimore, mothers are also coalescing around the same issue, but they’re taking a different approach.

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  • What Can New York Learn from New Jersey's Bail Reform?

    In 2017, New Jersey eliminated the cash bail system – meaning that potential offenders awaiting court could not be held in jail for money. Instead, judges use an algorithm that considers the individual’s criminal history, flight risk, and threat level to the community. As New York considers doing the same, it looks the impact it has made in New Jersey.

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  • Redina's story: A mother's troubled journey home from prison

    For Redina, and others suffering from addiction, it is hard to break the cycle. 'Women Working for a Change' is a program that tries to change addicts' thinking in order to prevent a relapse.

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  • Can a Philly community bail fund fix our criminal-justice system?

    Crowdfunding initiatives in Philadelphia offer an alternative to the cash bail process that disproportionately affects African Americans in problematic ways. “Community bail fund activists” raised almost $60,000 for Black Mama’s Bail-Out Day. Now, they are scaling the effort into a Philly Community Bail Fund to help not just Black mothers, but any of the poor, who are detained and kept away from their families and jobs while they await trial. Other crowdsourcing initiatives are springing up in the city, and all are needed to address the problem.

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  • Advice for firms to hire former inmates: Let a partner help

    What does a business like IKEA do if they want to hire former prisoners? They listen to a panel of people who have already done it.

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  • The Fight to Fix America's Broken Bail System

    Jails are overcrowded with inmates awaiting their trial and who didn't have the money to make bail. Across the country states are trying to implement new policies to deny high-risk felons bail, while conducting risk assessments to see if inmates would be a safety concern if they were released until their trial. Many plans have been developed but the big bail business remains a barrier.

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  • ‘We can't just keep doing what we've been doing': King County tries risky alternative to youth jail

    As Seattle’s Central District continues plans to expand their juvenile detention center, one prosecutor is looking for ways to keep kids out of it. "Our system has proven woefully inadequate, so we can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing," explains Jimmy Hung, the prosecutor behind this hope. Hung, in partnership with the chief deputy prosecutor, faith workers, police officers and the director of King County’s juvenile detention center are now piloting peace circles with incoming detained juveniles with a goal of seeing a behavior and lifestyle switch.

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  • Drug court – giving families a chance to break the cycle of opioid use

    In Washington County, Virginia, a drug court modeled after the federal drug court model is offering opioid addicts a chance to follow a strict program intended to help keep them sober as an alternative to incarceration. Participants are required to maintain full-time employment, subjected to random drug tests, attend mandatory therapy groups, and abide by a curfew. The program is helping addicts maintain sobriety throughout the duration of their enrollment in drug court instead of sending them to prison where they are less likely to have access to these types of addiction services.

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