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Iowa prison population drops to 20-year low

Erin Jordan

September 14, 2020 |

Quad-City Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa prisons have been contained through extensive testing, quarantines, and reductions in prison crowding. The state's prison population hit a 20-year low, down 13% from early April, because of accelerated parole hearings and reductions in new admissions. The state courts' slowdown and the prisons' temporary suspension in new admissions contributed to the population decrease. Since March, four people incarcerated in Iowa prisons have died of the virus while 833 have tested positive. An additional 126 staff have tested positive.

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Community courts and the homeless: Do these programs make a difference?

Donny Morrison Gina Scalpone Zack Demars

September 05, 2020 |

The Register-Guard |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

As an alternative to traditional courts, community courts provide resources to those experiencing homelessness. Fines and jail time are often the punishment in traditional courts for those charged with trespassing or loitering, but community courts provide services that help people find housing, jobs, health care, and even offer mobile showers, food stamp assistance, and mental health care. While the long-term data are lacking and don't offer a clear picture of recidivism rates, community courts do provide a better quality of life for those living on the streets.

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Harris County's bail reforms let more people out of jail before trial without raising risk of reoffending

Jolie McCullough

September 03, 2020 |

The Texas Tribune |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

Releasing tens of thousands more misdemeanor defendants from jail without requiring cash bail had no measurable effect on crime rates in Texas' most populous county. To settle a lawsuit that claimed cash bail unconstitutionally discriminated against people on the basis of wealth, Harris County established a set of reforms abolishing cash bail in most misdemeanor cases. Court-appointed researchers monitoring compliance with the settlement found re-offending rates remained stable while racial disparities in who gets released improved. Not tested yet was compliance with court appointments.

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More People With Felony Convictions Can Vote, but Roadblocks Remain

Lindsey Van Ness

August 31, 2020 |

Stateline |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

A longstanding campaign to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions led nine states since the 2016 presidential election to create or expand such rights, benefiting hundreds of thousands of potential voters. As of 2016, an estimated 6.1 million people were unable to vote because of a felony conviction. As that number has dropped, advocates have faced another obstacle: getting newly enfranchised people to register and vote. Nationwide, a number of advocacy and public-interest groups are racing to register the formerly incarcerated as the 2020 election approaches.

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Deradicalizing Militants the High-Tech Way

Tereza Engelová

August 26, 2020 |

HlídacíPes.org |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Czech Republic

Czech Technical University's online learning platform, HERMES, combats terrorism based on proven methods of deradicalization of former jihadists and preventing recruitment of new people to terrorism. Interactive exercises and other tools teach prison and court officials to separate radical jihadists from other prisoners. As thousands of people imprisoned on terrorism charges finish serving their sentences and are released from prisons, the programs also target community-based spread of radical thought, including with job opportunities for former prisoners.

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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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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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The Prison Within

Katherine Hervey

August 22, 2020 |

Raw Love Productions |

Documentary |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

In San Quentin Prison, men convicted of murder attend a 72-week restorative-justice circle where they tell their stories of trauma: what they suffered in their lives, and how they turned that into harm they inflicted on others. The Victim Offender Education Group enables a form of accountability and healing that being locked up doesn’t, because of the dialogue among the men and with others’ victims of violence.

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Why did 77 Ohio prisoners die of COVID-19, but just 10 in Pennsylvania?

Brie Zeltner Cid Standifer

August 21, 2020 |

Eye On Ohio |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania prisons' relatively uncrowded conditions and approach to releasing people early when the pandemic hit have limited deaths in its prisons, making people incarcerated in Pennsylvania less than half as likely to die of COVID-19 as free Pennsylvanians. In neighboring Ohio, where COVID cases appeared simultaneously, the prison death rate has been nearly seven times higher than Pennsylvania's. Ohio's prisons are far more crowded, they rely much more on dorm-style housing, and their early-release rules were much more restrictive.

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This Chicago Nonprofit Supports Incarcerated Youth and Local Businesses During the Pandemic

Nicolette White

August 21, 2020 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Liberation Library, a Chicago-based nonprofit, provides books for incarcerated youth. The nonprofit fills the youths' book requests and has also partnered with five Chicago-based bookstores, where shoppers can purchase gift cards on behalf of the nonprofit. Since the onset of the pandemic, it has sent more than 1,100 books, more than double its usual number, along with card games, snacks and art supplies.

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