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After Capitol riot, desperate families turn to groups that ‘deprogram' extremists

Paulina Villegas Hannah Knowles

February 05, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Groups like Parents for Peace and Life After Hate use former radicals to counsel people in the grip of right-wing extremism. Bombarded by pleas for help by families since the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, these groups use a series of meetings to help people examine the roots of their ideology, with an aim of helping them discover for themselves the irrationality of their hatred and other beliefs. While one researcher says the methods show signs of effectiveness, success is defined mainly in individual stories of change, in a hard-to-measure process of "personal and idiosyncratic" introspection.

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Inside the L.A.P.D.'s Experiment in Trust-Based Policing

Michaela Haas

February 05, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The Community Safety Partnership Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department has worked for a decade in 10 neighborhoods to prevent crime through building trust among residents, rather than through the LAPD's costly and troubled war on gangs. One study found that through long-term involvement in neighborhood life, with highly trained officers working closely with community organizers, CSP had helped increase public trust, save public money, and lower violent crime.

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This Honduran lawyer reunites families separated at the US-Mexico border. It involves difficult road trips — and detective work.

Michelle Wiley

February 04, 2021 |

Public Radio International (PRI) |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Honduras

Justice In Motion helps Central American people who were separated from their children by the U.S. government when they attempted to migrate into the U.S. One lawyer in Honduras has succeeded many times in her three dozen searches for parents who lost contact with their children and themselves are hard to find. Justice In Motion and its allies are suing the government and try to help parents with their asylum petitions, in addition to seeking family reunification.

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Cleveland saw a decrease in unsheltered homelessness in 2020: Can that continue?

Conor Morris

February 03, 2021 |

FreshWater Cleveland |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

During 2020, the city of Cleveland reduced the rate of people experiencing homelessness by 30% due to provisions put in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Using eviction moratoriums for those at risk of losing their homes, and hotels for those who were unhoused, the agencies responding to homelessness along with the city and county were able to better engage with the community's needs.

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These local nonprofits bring books to incarcerated individuals in North Carolina

Bethany Lee

February 02, 2021 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

Prison Books Collective and a partner organization, N.C. Women's Prison Book Project, for 15 years have collected donated books and then distributed them inside North Carolina prisons to incarcerated people who crave new reading material. Answering requests, which sometimes can be quite specific as to genre, the groups fulfill orders from their revolving supply. Combined, the groups make up to 75 shipments per week and in return hear from people inside about how meaningful the donated books are to them.

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Youth incarceration fell when California required counties to pay more for juvenile detention: New research

Clark Merrefield

February 02, 2021 |

Journalist's Resource |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

When a California law shifted the costs of incarcerating youth from the state to its counties, judges suddenly sent 40% fewer youth to state-run juvenile facilities. That reduction began a long-term trend that combined with a state commitment to evidence-based approaches to rehabilitation instead of punishment, especially for less-serious offenses. The end result is that state juvenile jails have been all but phased out of existence and California, a longtime tough-on-crime state, now has what one advocacy group considers the nation's most humane juvenile justice system.

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In the first six months of health care professionals replacing police officers, no one they encountered was arrested

David Sachs

February 02, 2021 |

Denverite |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Denver's STAR (Support Team Assisted Response) program deliberately reduces potentially violent encounters between uniformed police officers and troubled people by responding to certain low-level crises with a mental health clinician and a medic. In STAR's first six months, the team offered 748 people help rather than jail, without requiring any arrests to resolve problems. With more resources, the team could have handled more than 2,500 incidents. The police chief supports the program's expansion, saying it frees his officers to handle more serious matters.

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The "Secret Handshake"—A Program Gifting Cannabis to Unhoused People

Doug Johnson

February 01, 2021 |

Filter |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

In Los Angeles, the Sidewalk Project gives unhoused people gifts of marijuana to ease their anxiety and to show kindness. Since its start in the spring of 2020, the group has gifted gram-sized portions of weed nearly 1,000 times. The harm-reduction group gets its supply from growers who donate weed that isn't up to commercial-grade snuff. Evidence is mixed on whether marijuana is an effective antidote to opioid withdrawal symptoms, but Sidewalk says it has helped some by making them more relaxed. Personal use of marijuana is legal in California, with restrictions on quantities that can be transferred.

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More Than 1,000 Open Prostitution Cases In Brooklyn Are Going To Be Wiped From The Files

Otillia Steadman

January 28, 2021 |

Buzzfeed |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The Brooklyn district attorney is prosecuting few prostitution cases and has dismissed 262 cases that he and sex worker advocates say are a byproduct of law enforcement unfairly targeting trans women and women of color. The DA is working toward dismissing more than 1,000 cases and declining to prosecute all new cases. While legislative action is needed to achieve full decriminalization and to void the 25,000 criminal records that date to 1975 in Brooklyn, the DA exercised his discretion based on the harm done by arresting women for sex work and on related loitering charges.

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St. Louis comedian shares story of redemption, reentry following prison sentence

Christine Byers

January 28, 2021 |

KSDK-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

When people emerge from long prison sentences, they can be in a hurry to put their lives back on track. But, when enrolled in a voluntary re-entry program called the Concordance Academy of Leadership, they first must go through intense mental health counseling that begins while they're incarcerated before they launch a search for a job or permanent housing. The St. Louis-based program boasts much lower-than-average recidivism rates, in part because it responds to post-release mistakes with more counseling rather than automatic punishment.

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