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From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

Hannah Wallace

July 27, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

Lettuce Grow teaches gardening skills to 200 incarcerated people per year in 16 Oregon prisons and juvenile detention centers. The teaching includes college-level courses and hands-on gardening on prison grounds, which then yields hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables for prison kitchens. Graduates of the program commit many fewer crimes than the average ex-prisoner and have found work after prison at nurseries and in other horticultural pursuits.

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Leaving Behind Uniforms And Sirens, Summit County Sheriff Expands Crisis Response

Leigh Paterson

July 26, 2021 |

KUNC |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Frisco, Colorado

The Summit County, Colorado, sheriff's office runs SMART (Systemwide Mental Assessment Response), which pairs armed deputies with clinicians to respond to mental health crises. In 2020, the two teams took hundreds of calls but made only one arrest. Instead, most people are helped on the spot or referred to services that can help. The county plans to expand the service to 24/7 with two more teams, plus one mobile crisis until to handle suicide threats, staffed only by civilian mental health professionals. This report discusses the range of models used nationwide with and without police involvement.

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Austin youth re-entry program has 15% recidivism rate, compared to 75% nationwide

Clare O'Connor

July 26, 2021 |

KXAN-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

Jail to Jobs pays youth while they get trained for jobs in construction, manufacturing, landscaping, and cooking. The youth come from youth detention, the streets, probation, and foster care and their trainers are formerly incarcerated. Jail to Jobs, with four locations in Austin, has helped more than 600 young people find employment despite their pasts. Only 15% of its graduates have been jailed afterward, a lower-than-average recidivism rate.

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Have Colorado educators cracked the code to digital diversity?

Nick Budnick

July 26, 2021 |

Pamplin Projects |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

Across the country enrollment in online charter schools is disproportionately white, except in one state- Colorado. In Oregon, the opposite is true. This article compares what factors differentiate the state of Colorado versus the state of Oregon in terms of enrollment in charter schools along racial lines. Some differences include a larger diverse population in the state of Colorado, alternative schools that target at-risk students, and a larger team devoted to overseeing charter schools.

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NYC is sending social workers instead of police to some 911 calls. Here's how it's going.

Ryan W. Miller

July 23, 2021 |

USA Today |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

A pilot project in three New York Police Department precincts of Harlem showed in its first month that it can divert some mental-health crises away from hospitalization and toward other forms of help. Teams of medics and social workers took about one-quarter of such calls, sometimes at NYPD invitation. They sent about half of the people in crisis to a hospital, significantly less often than the police do in such cases. The goal in replacing police is to avoid needless violence and arrests in non-violent, non-criminal emergencies.

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NYC's Non-Police Mental Health Pilot Increasing Rate of Those Getting Aid, Data Show

Darlene Rodriguez

July 22, 2021 |

WNBC-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In its first month as a pilot project in a part of Harlem, New York's Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) handled one-quarter of 911 calls for mental health crises. Despite fears of danger to the teams of social workers and paramedics, police backup was needed only seven times out of 110 cases. More people accepted help from the non-police teams than in the past from teams of police and paramedics. And that help depended half as often on hospital visits. People got helped on the scene or went to community centers for services. The city plans to expand the program.

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Eugene, Oregon, Police Chief: Sending Unarmed Crisis Specialists On Mental Health Calls Saves Lives

Robin Young Allison Hagan

July 22, 2021 |

WBUR |

Radio Talk Show |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The police chief in Eugene, Ore., home of the CAHOOTS program, which other communities see as the model for finding alternatives to policing, supports the program because it saves lives and saves the city money. Sending unarmed medics and social workers on calls involving behavioral health problems, mental health crises, and substance-use psychotic episodes automatically de-escalates many situations because of the lack of a police presence.

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Can ‘Bad Men' Ever Change?

Amelia Schonbek

July 21, 2021 |

The Cut |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

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After 'painfully slow' start, restorative justice program tries to reset

Paul Cuno-Booth

July 17, 2021 |

Sentinel Source (The Keene Sentinel) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cheshire County, New Hampshire

The Cheshire County Restorative Justice Program works to take low-level defendants, accused of things like shoplifting or alcohol violations out of court and into an alternative process, sparing them criminal records that would later weigh them down. The program’s goal is to push the legal system toward restorative justice, reimagining its traditional processes.

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What Do Police Know About Teenagers? Not Enough.

Meryl Davids Landau

July 17, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Lafayette, Indiana

"Policing the teen brain" is a training regimen devised by Strategies for Youth that teaches police officers to de-escalate conflicts with adolescents to avoid unnecessary incarceration. Youth detention has dropped significantly since Tippecanoe County put most of its officers through the training. Police learn how to account for teens' lowered impulse control and undeveloped problem solving skills. The county decided to pay for the expensive training because detention, which hits Black youth hardest, can be even more costly – and leave lasting damage in the lives of young people.

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