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Freedom Fund: Bringing Justice to Incarcerated LGBTQ Individuals

Lukas Matuszewski

March 08, 2021 |

StreetWise |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

The 2020 social justice uprisings drew attention, and donations, to bail funds, which use donations to bail people out of jail while their criminal charges or immigration cases are pending. One fund that benefited from this trend is the LGBTQ Freedom Fund, which focuses its financial aid and related social and educational services on LGBTQ people, given their high risks for incarceration and mistreatment in the criminal justice system. Since its 2017 founding, the fund has helped post bail for people in 15 states and its fund has grown to several million dollars.

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Will New York allow incarcerated people to access treatment for drug addiction?

Sam Mellins

March 05, 2021 |

New York Focus |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

Medically assisted treatment is proven to reduce fatal opioid overdoses, particularly among formerly incarcerated people. When people are denied treatment in jail or prison and then resume their previous doses once they're released, they are up to 40 times more likely to die of an overdose. Only 18 of New York's county jails and fewer than one in five of its prisons provide access to such treatment drugs as Suboxone and methadone. When Rhode Island became the first state to make MAT available throughout its prisons, its overdose deaths among people recently released from incarceration dropped 60%.

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‘They track every move': how US parole apps created digital prisoners

Todd Feathers

March 04, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

State and federal parole officials have rushed during the pandemic to embrace the use of smartphone apps that monitor the location and behavior of a person on parole. The apps and related data analytics save courts money and time by easing the need for face-to-face meetings. While there are potential benefits as well for the people being monitored, such as not wearing stigmatizing and uncomfortable ankle monitors, some complain the apps are even more intrusive than traditional monitoring – and perhaps more apt to lead to technical violations of parole that can land people back in prison.

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The 'Hidden Punishment' of Prison Food

Patricia Leigh Brown

March 02, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Charleston, Maine

Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine has turned its food service into a farm-to-table experience, sourcing healthier, more appetizing meals from its own apple orchard and vegetable garden and from local farmers. Prison food is traditionally a "hidden punishment" of bland or inedible fare that has poor nutritional value. By eating locally, cooking from scratch, and training incarcerated people in horticulture and cooking skills, the prison is fostering an atmosphere that's healthier physiologically and psychologically.

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One Relationship at a Time: Restorative Justice Initiatives in West Harlem are Rewriting Legacies of Violence and Mass Incarceration

Ellida Parker Cheryn Hong

February 26, 2021 |

Columbia Daily Spectator |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The largest police raid in New York City history did little to resolve a decades-long conflict between residents of two Harlem housing projects, nor did it address the underlying problems causing violence in the community. So two community groups, supported by grants from the Manhattan district attorney, have deployed intervention teams to de-escalate and mediate disputes. They also provide an array of services to give young people alternatives to fighting and to assist people who were arrested in the raids as they emerge from prison.

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Oklahoma County promised to fix its jail more than 10 year ago, but deaths and staffing issues continue

Brianna Bailey

February 22, 2021 |

The Frontier |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The U.S. Department of Justice documented dangerous conditions in the Oklahoma County Detention Center that led to a 2009 court settlement requiring the county to staff and fund its jail adequately. But the Justice Department failed to enforce the settlement. Staff shortages and poor conditions persist in the jail, leading to 84 deaths since 2009, seven in the past three months. The county knew it would need voter approval to raise taxes or borrowing to pay for the jail reforms, but it never followed through and was not held to account by the federal overseers.

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Teacher in Greece offers hope to inmates through TV classes

Elena Becatoros

February 18, 2021 |

Associated Press |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Greece, Avlona

When the pandemic shut schools down in Greece, that included the schooling system in place for those in Greece’s Avlona Special Youth Detention Center; so, the director of the school started broadcasting lessons over a TV channel. The director and his team worked together to get the station up and running and then with the young men who are incarcerated to popularize it throughout the detention center via word of mouth.

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Tech Company Aims to Disrupt Predatorial Prison Phone Industry

Shani Saxon

February 17, 2021 |

Colorlines |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

A free mobile app called Ameelio opens a free channel of communication between incarcerated people and their families, to avoid the price-gouging telephone services that prisons and jails authorize to charge people exorbitant rates to talk. Ameelio's app makes sending letters with photos easier than doing it by snail mail. Nonprofits can also use the free service to communicate with clients. Ameelio, which is supported by donations and grants, is piloting a video-conferencing service.

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Durham, NC Just Finished Erasing $2.7 Million In Traffic Debt

Cinnamon Janzer

February 17, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

The DEAR program (Durham Expunction and Restoration) put 11,084 drivers back on the road legally and waived $2.7 million in fines in a purge of old cases that had revoked driving privileges for unpaid fines and fees. The two-year amnesty program, part of a national movement, took aim at the often racially disparate enforcement of state laws that burden the formerly incarcerated and others with unaffordable monetary penalties. Deprived of the right to drive, people either miss out on work and educational opportunities, or risk more traffic tickets, arrests, and fines.

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Hawaii Homeless Program Failed After Prosecutors And Police Wouldn't Play Ball

Christina Jedra

February 11, 2021 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Honolulu, Hawaii

LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) proved itself in Seattle as effective at addressing the underlying problems of people experiencing homelessness, by waiving their criminal charges if they accepted needed services. But the program's two-year test in Honolulu failed to gain traction because only some police bought into it, and the prosecutor's office never did. Instead of using criminal citations as leverage, the program was stripped down to an ordinary outreach effort, and managed to enroll only 50 people, not all of whom were helped. A new prosecutor and the police will make another go of it.

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