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Prosecutors try to keep people out of pandemic-clogged courts through diversion programs

Rebecca Rivas

December 30, 2020 |

Missouri Independent |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

Missouri legislators passed a law in 2019 clarifying that prosecutors can divert criminal cases to social services and healthcare agencies even before charges are filed. Small experiments that had been taking place in recent years suddenly grew in St. Louis County to help the courts focus only on serious cases during pandemic shutdowns. Now those innovations are spreading, as more drug cases and other low-level cases avoid the courts altogether. This eases the burden also on people, who in traditional drug courts still get arrested and face employment barriers even if their cases eventually get dropped.

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Pima County program getting people out of jail quicker, speeding up chances for a new life

Caitlin Schmidt

December 29, 2020 |

Arizona Daily Star |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

An array of services in Pima County, Arizona, greets hundreds of people getting released early from jail or helps keep them out of jail in the first place. By providing drug treatment, housing, job assistance, and other help that people need instead of incarceration, the county's Criminal Justice Reform Unit and Jail Population Review Committee saved the county $2 million in jail costs over just part of 2020. Drug use also declined and officials hope to see longer-range benefits in lower recidivism.

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These gardens ask visitors to reconsider solitary confinement

Anna Deen

December 23, 2020 |

Grist |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Solitary Gardens is an art project that protests prisons' solitary confinement conditions. Incarcerated people connect with volunteers on the outside who plant flowers, vegetables, or herbs in beds matching the tiny dimensions of the prison cell that confined Herman Wallace for a record 41 years in Louisiana. The people inside prison imagine their garden, often with memory triggers of what they have lost, and their gardener carries out their plan. The idea is to make a place for grief, healing, public service, and public education, as the gardens in four cities teach about solitary confinement.

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Local initiative helps folks with cannabis-related charges find jobs—while pushing to decriminalize pot

Courtney Duchene

December 22, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

When Pennsylvania's largest medical-marijuana dispensary, TerraVida Holistic Centers, struggled to find enough employees, given the state's ban on the industry's employment of people with marijuana convictions, TerraVida joined with the Urban League of Philadelphia to expand aid to the formerly incarcerated. Through Urban League's Out4Good program, the partnership helps people expunge their drug convictions. It also counsels and financially helps groups of 10 trainees at a time, dozens of whom have started careers and stayed out of trouble. The group also seeks a longer-term fix: marijuana legalization.

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Unique Housing Project Eases the Path to Re-Entry for Single Parents

Jared Brey

December 15, 2020 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, King County, Washington

Single parents readjusting to life after incarceration face numerous hurdles to re-entering society. A housing program in Seattle now provides access to transitional housing alongside services that help parents reconnect with their children, access to mental health care, and work toward permanent housing. Passage Point’s wraparound services are an effective and unique resource for a population that is commonly blocked from accessing public housing.

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A secret settlement hid an officer's misconduct. Outside Maine, it would have been different.

Erin Rhoda

December 09, 2020 |

Bangor Daily News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

A Colorado law enacted in 2016 requires law enforcement officers to disclose their past disciplinary records when seeking a new job at a different agency. By making such disclosures automatic, the law standardizes hiring practices statewide, protects past employers from liability for making the disclosures, and most importantly prevents rogue officers from hopping from one job to the next undetected. Maine has no such requirement., and so some of its agencies might unknowingly hire an officer with a record of misconduct.

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Newly Formed KC Bail-Out Group Successful After Its First Year in Action

Jazzlyn Johnson

December 08, 2020 |

The Community Voice |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

In its first year, Operation Liberation helped more than 30 people post bail to be released from the Jackson County Detention Center. The operation focuses on bailing Black people out of jail when their lack of money keeps them jailed on low-level charges. Kansas City's population is about one-quarter Black, but its jail skews 58% Black. Operation Liberation provides social supports to people once they are released from pretrial detention, helping with everything from housing to transportation. Its first year's work was funded by more than $75,000 in donations.

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A Philly jobs program lost six to a year of violence. Can it still help young people thrive?

Samantha Melamed

December 02, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PowerCorpsPHL and Mural Arts' Guild have notched impressive results in job placements of young people with criminal records. The programs' employment training, paid apprenticeships, and art therapy classes have all been disrupted by 2020's pandemic, social unrest, and street violence. Private grants have largely made up for budget cuts from the city of Philadelphia. But the lack of face to face training and counseling has been disruptive. Both programs and their trainees are persevering despite longer odds, with workarounds that keep the programs afloat in difficult times.

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How the Criminal Justice System Fails People With Mental Illness

Jordan Smith

November 26, 2020 |

The Intercept |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tyler, Texas

Crisis-intervention and de-escalation trainings for police were meant to reform the criminal justice system's handling of people suffering from mental illness. But a lack of rigorous standards in the training and use of these approaches means that they routinely fail as a means of diverting people from arrest and incarceration toward treatment. That failure, combined with a lack of adequate mental-health-care resources, maintains jails' and prisons' role as the nation's de facto mental health care hospitals, even though they lack the will and the means to help people heal.

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Alternative sentencing program offers resources for recovery rather than jail time

Katie Ellington

November 23, 2020 |

Richland Source |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mansfield, Ohio

The Richland County Community Alternative Center provides court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment in lieu of jail for people facing criminal charges related to their addiction. In 60-, 90-, or 120-day treatment terms, patients from across Ohio receive addiction counseling, therapy, work training, and other skills classes. Case managers help prepare people for re-entry when their sentence has been served. The center is run by the courts, which pay for treatment services, which makes it unusual.

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