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NYPD Study: Implicit Bias Training Changes Minds, Not Necessarily Behavior

Martin Kaste

September 10, 2020 |

NPR |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

After all 36,000 New York Police Department officers took required training in recognizing implicit racial bias, more officers understood how racism may increase officers' aggressiveness but there was no evidence that this awareness translated into a less racially disparate outcome in the numbers of people stopped and frisked. Since the protests of police bias that started in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, most states have imposed mandatory implicit-bias training on police. NYPD's study is a rare measurement of the effects such training can have.

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In Safe Hands: First complex heart surgery at Reddington Hospital a huge success despite COVID-19

Chibuike Alagboso Adaobi Ezeokoli

August 26, 2020 |

Nigeria Health Watch |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Victoria Island, Lagos State

A partnership between a Nigerian hospital and a cardiac interventionist group is helping to "bridge the gap in availability of quality cardiac and critical care services" for patients who are in need of care. Although the system was first tested unexpectedly during the coronavirus pandemic, it has shown early success in building and training local specialists to complete cardiac surgeries.

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The coronavirus gave them jobs — and a new lease on life

Doug Smith

August 25, 2020 |

Los Angeles Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

Finding gainful employment after incarceration is hard in the best of times, but during a global pandemic it's even more challenging. A Los Angeles nonprofit, Chrysalis, has been able to place the hard-to-employ job seekers in hotels that have been leased by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to house people experiencing homelessness. Chrysalis typically prepares people for permanent jobs but also finds transitional roles such as some of the positions that have been filled in the 38 hotels under lease by the city.

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Can Prosecutors Be Taught to Avoid Jail Sentences?

Tina Rosenberg

August 25, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Columbus, Ohio

A nonprofit consulting firm, Prosecutor Impact, advances the cause of reducing incarceration and related reforms by helping reform-minded elected district attorneys confront one of the greatest obstacles to change: their own staff's opposition. In Columbus, a two-week curriculum educated front-line prosecutors about local services that can serve as problem-solving alternatives to punishment. It also taught them about poverty's challenges and engaged them in dialogue with prisoners, to make them more open to alternative approaches, which a local defense lawyer says was successful.

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Gun Violence Left a Mark on His Childhood. He Says People Like Him Should Lead Efforts to Reduce It.

Ann Givens

August 13, 2020 |

The Trace |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The South Central Leadership Academy was started in Los Angeles by a college student who believes that gun violence survivors like him should lead the community response in finding solutions to violence. Its first year of paying more than a dozen student survivors to learn community organizing skills succeeded in attracting funding to expand to Nashville, Baltimore, and Atlanta. COVID-19 put the latter two expansions on hold, but LA and Nashville continued with well-attended classes learning remotely. Founder Marco Vargas hopes to turn this startup into a national network of youth leadership academies.

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The Junk Science Cops Use to Decide You're Lying

Jordan Smith

August 12, 2020 |

The Intercept |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

When "junk science" forms the basis of the training curricula used by for-profit companies in the business of teaching police interrogation techniques, it can produce mistakes leading to false confessions and wrongful convictions. A number of vendors rely on practices long proven ineffective and debunked as myths, such as relying on interpretations of body language, eye movement, tone of voice, and other physical cues to claim evidence of deception. Genuine evidence-based interview techniques exist that should be used in making police training more professional.

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Mental health training for cops is working in Tucson. Can we bring it to Philly?

Jessica Blatt Press

August 10, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tuscon police use a combination of training and expanded resources to resolve mental health crises by putting people in the hands of mental health professionals, an approach that in 2019 diverted nearly 4,400 cases away from arrests and jail. All police officers take a required 12-hour mental health first aid class, and most go through another 40-hour crisis intervention training. A specialized team gets more extensive training to handle court-ordered interventions, emphasizing patience and humane treatment. A 24/7 Crisis Response Center serves as an intake desk to decide what help people in crisis need.

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‘We're writing the book' - McCracken jail sees strong early success from vocational programs

Dave Thompson

August 09, 2020 |

The Paducah Sun |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Paducah, Kentucky

Vocational training and life skills classes at the McCracken County Regional Jail help prepare incarcerated people for stable jobs and living situations once they are released. Of the first 16 to complete vocational training, none have returned to jail and 12 are employed, despite the poor job market during the pandemic. Though the results so far are small and early, jail officials are working to expand the available programs to more people. Particularly useful not only to the incarcerated people but also to their families are cognitive skills classes, which vocational students are required to take as well.

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What Philly can learn about smarter policing from Volusia County, Florida

Jessica Blatt Press

July 15, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Daytona Beach, Florida

Since he took over the Volusia County, Florida, Sheriff's Office in 2016, Philadelphia police veteran Mike Chitwood changed many of his department's personnel and put the entire 1,000-employee department through de-escalation training. By 2019, the reforms were credited with cutting deputies' use of force in half, all while crime dropped by 40% and arrests by 30%. A core piece of the training, inspired by Scottish police, is the Police Executive Research Forum's ICAT program, which emphasizes critical thinking and communication skills over the threat of deadly force.

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Inmate-Made Masks Help Community and Those Incarcerated, Jailer Says

Liz Carey

July 09, 2020 |

The Daily Yonder |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Versailles, Kentucky

When a pandemic lockdown idled the men jailed at Woodford County Detention Center, they replaced the jobs they previously had performed in the community with work in the jail that served an immediate need: sewing protective masks. They sewed more than 28,000 masks in the first four months of the pandemic, using donated clothing as the fabric and distributing them at no cost. While the incarcerated men were paid little for their work, they said they benefited with new skills, staying active, and feeling pride in their community service.

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