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“We Are Not Lost Causes”

Mark Obbie

March 05, 2020 |

Longreads |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Rochester, New York

In Rochester, NY, the Center for Teen Empowerment, a nonprofit that trains youth in community organizing, personal development, and anti-violence, is working to bring kids off the street and into safety. The program, which started in Boston, is centered on four ideas: jobs (paying the youth hired as organizers), teamwork, agency (letting them build their own activist agendas), and peer influence. While hard to evaluate because of its situational, qualitative nature, city officials, including law enforcement, point to the program as a factor in the decrease in violence across the city.

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Jacksonville Organization Attacks Violence, Blight With Holistic Approach

Claire Goforth

February 27, 2020 |

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Jacksonville, Florida

After the residential real estate market collapsed a decade ago, a developer that had been revitalizing an impoverished Jacksonville neighborhood with single-family homes pivoted to a broader approach to reducing crime and blight. Progress has been difficult, and violence in the neighborhood remains high. But, by building larger complexes and offering an array of services and interventions, Northwest Jacksonville Community Development Corporation is achieving slow but steady social change.

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Newsrooms Rethink a Crime Reporting Staple: The Mugshot

Keri Blakinger

February 11, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

Around the United States, news organizations are taking a new approach to the use of mugshots in their crime reporting. While still the norm in many places, newsrooms like the Houston Chronicle have stopped publishing the common “mugshot slideshow,” and some, including Connecticut’s New Haven Independent, have stopped publishing them altogether. The practice, often used to generate page views, depict people at their worst, doing more harm than anything else.

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How Fines and Fees Reform Became a Priority for Cities Across the Country

Emma Coleman

February 06, 2020 |

Route Fifty |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

From North Carolina to California, states and cities are taking a new approach to fines and fees – people are having their charges dismissed, warrants for minor offenses cleared, and many municipalities are actually saving money by spending less on collections. With a system that was built because it provided cities and states with revenue, there has been a realization that it disproportionately targets communities of color and often keeps people stuck in cycles of debt. With this national awakening, resources and networks are being created so other places can implement the same change.

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Important lessons for Philadelphia from Chicago's three-year decline in gun violence

The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board

January 10, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Since 2016, Chicago has seen a 37% decrease in homicides with a comprehensive, targeted approach toward violence. The city developed a multi-pronged approach, including a collaboration between foundations and funders, a partnership that analyzed police decision-making, resource allocation toward a new gun-violence-focused prosecution unit, and targeted investment in high-risk individuals. With such success, cities like Philadelphia – also experiencing an increase in homicides – look to Chicago for lessons learned.

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Chicago Police Hope To Build Trust With Experiment In Community Policing

Kari Lydersen

November 17, 2019 |

WBEZ |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago police have rebuilt some of the trust they lost in one part of the city, where the police department has used private funding to launch a community-policing program. In the department's 25th district, residents get to know their neighborhood officers and can call them directly, something they did 20,000 times in just the first nine months of the pilot project. "Community ambassadors" serve as liaisons between officers and neighbors who are leery of connecting with the police whose department's brutality and misconduct strained relations over many years. The city is working to expand the program.

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

Matt Daniels

October 24, 2019 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

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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Restorative Justice: Healing Instead of Incarceration

Michael Conforti

October 24, 2019 |

News Beat |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

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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Gun Reform is on the Agenda. But Victims of Color Aren't.

Champe Barton

October 09, 2019 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

With gun reform being a key legislative topic, the majority of time, energy, and resources have focused on preventing mass shootings, which amount to just 2-3% of gun-related homicides. The rest affect majority communities of color, which policy, lobbying, and reform efforts have largely ignored. Even with local violence-reduction efforts like Oakland’s LIVE FREE focused deterrence or a Chicago school’s focus on cognitive behavioral therapy showing impact, the allotted resources at the federal level continue to pass them by.

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How one African American mom tackles racism head-on

Christa Case Bryant

August 21, 2019 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

As a reaction to police shootings of Black people in Missouri, one mom created a group called "Touchy Topics Tuesday" to invite White people and people of color to have frank conversations about race. By building trust and personal relationships, this group facilitates tough yet critical conversations surrounding race and racism in America and creates more empathy, support, and acceptance in the community.

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