Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Teacher in Greece offers hope to inmates through TV classes

    February 18, 2021 |

    Associated Press |

    Text |

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

    February 17, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    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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  • Tech Company Aims to Disrupt Predatorial Prison Phone Industry

    February 17, 2021 |

    Colorlines |

    Text |

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

    February 11, 2021 |

    Honolulu Civil Beat |

    Text |

    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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  • A GOP Governor and BLM Activists Agreed on Restoring Voting Rights to Felons. Will It Last?

    February 04, 2021 |

    Politico |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Iowa

    More than 3,000 Iowans voted in the 2020 presidential election thanks to an executive order signed by the Republican governor after a protest campaign by activists to erase Iowa's permanent ban on voting by people with felony records. But that number was just a fraction of those newly eligible to vote, due to limitations in the order and a lackluster effort to inform the public. Iowa has a disproportionately high number of disenfranchised Black citizens who could be helped by a more permanent constitutional fix. That fix has now been stalled by the choice to act by executive order.

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  • These local nonprofits bring books to incarcerated individuals in North Carolina

    February 02, 2021 |

    The Daily Tar Heel |

    Text |

    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

    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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  • How New York Quietly Ended Its Street Drug War

    February 01, 2021 |

    Vice |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    From 2009 through 2019, street arrests for drug possession and sales fell by 80% in New York City, sparing hundreds of thousands of people harsh incarceration terms while defying warnings that more lenient enforcement of low-level drug crimes would wreak havoc on the city. The reforms came about because of persistent advocacy by groups opposed to racially disparate enforcement and its social harms, as well as legislative and court-imposed limits on punishment and stop-and-frisk policing. Now ticketing rather than arrest is used far more often for all types of drugs.

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

    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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  • Michigan's New Clean-Slate Law Makes State a Leader in Criminal Justice Reform

    January 27, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Michigan

    A new law in Michigan will automatically expunge misdemeanors and felonies after several years, making it easier to find employment for those who have a record. The automatic nature of the expungement removes the barriers of cost and time for successfully completing the long application process. A clean slate makes it easier for people to improve their lives through better housing and higher pay, leading to lower rates of recidivism.

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