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Clearing a Path from Prison to the Bar Exam

Allen Arthur

June 21, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The Formerly Incarcerated Law Students Advocacy Association at City University of New York's law school mentors people whose criminal records serve as a barrier to pursuing a law career. FILSAA is part of a movement to nurture law-practice dreams and make them a reality by knocking down those barriers, including restrictive use of states' "character and fitness" requirements to become licensed to practice. Before that step, mentors can help people prepare for the LSAT and succeed in law school. Advocates say that lawyers with lived experience can serve clients better by earning their trust more readily.

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A cure for violence

David Scharfenberg

June 18, 2021 |

The Boston Globe |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

In the Boston area, the Roca organization intervenes before young men commit violence. Its "relentless outreach" approach is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, an approach that helps people recognize and change their destructive behavior and learn new skills to cope with conflict and stress – essential to keeping impulsive young men, many the victims of violent trauma, from committing violence. Researchers see evidence that the program, which has spread throughout the metro area and to Baltimore, makes people less likely to get arrested and more likely to get a job.

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‘Safety First' Drug Education Program Acknowledges the Failings of ‘Just Say No'

Roshan Abraham

June 17, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Studies show that abstinence-based prevention drug programs like D.A.R.E don't work. To provide another option, the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit, developed its own curriculum called “Safety First.” The 15-lesson curriculum was piloted in five schools under the San Francisco Unified School District.

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Penn class helps the formerly incarcerated launch their own businesses

Christina Griffith

June 16, 2021 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania's Restorative Entrepreneurship Program helps formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs plan a business launch with the help of teams of students from the schools of law, business, and social work serving as advisors. Success in business can help formerly incarcerated people avoid return trips to prison. Similar, longer-running programs in other states have helped their clients beat the recidivism odds. Clients of the Penn program received useful advice, but no startup capital, as they seek to start their own businesses.

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Crisis counselors are being hailed as police alternatives. It's too heavy a burden, some say.

Rebecca Tan

June 16, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County's longtime crisis response center illustrates the pitfalls of embracing a policing alternative without proper resources or thinking through the implications. The racial-justice protests of 2020 inspired many more cities and counties to explore mobile crisis response teams instead of police, to minimize violence and get people needed help instead of incarceration. While Montgomery County's team often deescalates crises and can either provide care or refer people to needed services, it lacks the staff to respond effectively. And the system of mental health care is too thin for the need.

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Reshaping mental health crisis response in Santa Cruz County

Stephen Baxter

June 11, 2021 |

Santa Cruz Local |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Santa Cruz, California

The nationwide 988 call system for suicide prevention and mental health crises will go live in July 2022, with federal funding available for certain local crisis response programs. Santa Cruz and Alameda counties already offer a variety of police and non-police teams that will either benefit from the new system or must adapt to the changes coming. Most of the non-police responses in the area operate only during daytime hours, and in the case of Santa Cruz's Mobile Emergency Response Team are not well known by the public. When police are the default responders, people may not get the care they need.

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Inside One Baltimore Group's Effort to Stop Youth Violence Before It Starts

J. Brian Charles

June 10, 2021 |

The Trace |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore's Roca program uses cognitive behavioral therapy, and patience and persistence, to work at changing the thinking of young people at high risk of committing or suffering gun violence. Counselors help their clients examine the trauma in their lives, learn to change their reactions to stress and conflict, and to choose legitimate jobs over the street economy. Unlike violence interruption programs that seek to mediate crises just as they threaten to turn deadly, Roca does its work further upstream, seeking to shape interactions before they turn critical.

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This Fitness Entrepreneurship Course Is a Second Chance for the Formerly Incarcerated

Kristi Eaton

June 09, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

People who spend their time in prison getting physically fit might seek to turn what they've learned into a job as a fitness trainer, once they're released. But felony convictions act as a barrier to such jobs. A Second U Foundation, founded by a formerly incarcerated man who faced such barriers, provides an eight-week course in running a fitness-training business. Of the 200 people who have taken the course since 2015, three-quarters have been hired by health clubs, while the others started their own businesses. Foundations and grants foot the bill so that the training is free.

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The helpline for jealous and violent men

Craig Langran

June 08, 2021 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Most domestic violence telephone helplines offer help to women who have been abused, and counseling programs for men provide their services in prison, once men have committed serious violence. But Línea Calma tries to prevent domestic violence by offering men psychological counseling by phone. The sessions of 60 to 90 minutes focus on helping men understand their feelings of rage, often linked to jealousy and machismo. In just a few months, the line (which in Spanish means the Calm Line) has taken more than 2,000 calls and some couples attest to its effectiveness in enabling men to react more calmly.

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Can a Radical Treatment for Pedophilia Work Outside of Germany?

Jordan Michael Smith

June 07, 2021 |

Undark |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Germany, Berlin

Prevention Project Dunkelfeld is "arguably the world's most radical social experiment in treating pedophilia." Its prevention-first approach to providing treatment to people who are sexually attracted to children means that it encourages people to volunteer for treatment and disclose past and planned crimes without the threat of being reported to authorities and punished. German law makes this possible, but in most places such crossing of lines from thoughts to action would be grounds for mandatory reporting. This policy and the program's disputed claims of effectiveness have drawn harsh criticism.

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