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Lifting Up Community Voices to Tackle Injustice

Jean Trounstine

December 26, 2017 |

Truthout |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Richmond, Virginia

This article uses the stories of five different activist women across the United States as examples of successes using the human-centered design strategy of centering the people most directly affected in the decision-making and healing process. The women work in a variety of justice areas (from housing equity to incarceration), but they all testify to a community justice model as being the most effective and empowering solution to past and current injustices.

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Bernalillo County partners with South Valley community programs to end racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice

Elizabeth M. Miller

December 26, 2017 |

New Mexico In Depth |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

A program in Albuquerque, New Mexico that successfully diverted young offenders from the criminal justice system still grappled with kids running away while under house arrest. This defeats the purpose of diversion since they can end up in jail, so county officials found another option for kids who might have chaotic home lives. They partnered with a community organization where kids can go if they need a safe space without violating their probation orders and learn skills like gardening and screen printing.

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Philly's Gang Violence Strategy Doesn't Work. Here's Why.

Maura Ewing

December 21, 2017 |

The Appeal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The "Focused Deterrence" approach to lowering gang violence was hailed as a success in Philly when shootings went down, but is that the whole story? The strategy is also receiving some notable critiques, including the claim that the social services and employment opportunities it claims to provide have been less than forthcoming.

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Lessons from Seattle: How this alternative to jail may be a solution for Utah

Erica Evans

December 20, 2017 |

Deseret News |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

A program piloted in Seattle and now replicated in several cities nationwide aims to redirect low-level drug offenders into a case management system that can help them change their lives by connecting them with social services and advocating for their wellbeing. The program is called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, and police officers can direct people into it if they are suspected of having committed a drug crime.

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Rethinking Rikers

Michael Schwirtz Neeti Upadhye Michael Kirby Smith Kaitlyn Mullin

December 16, 2017 |

The New York Times |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In the ongoing challenge to reform New York’s Rikers Island prison complex, many have turned to Chicago’s Cook County jail as a model. While Rikers has made some reforms – including group therapy for those with mental health concerns and doing away with solitary confinement for inmates under 22 – there is more that they can do to follow in Chicago's footsteps. There, they have introduced the use of real-time data collection to map violence, made mental health care a key component of their services, and trained guards in verbal de-escalation.

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The Radio Show Bringing Prisoners Messages from Home

Ivy Brashear

December 11, 2017 |

Yes! Magazine |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

“Calls From Home” is an Appalachian radio show that allows people in prison to hear messages from family and friends. People call in the radio show, leave a message, and every Monday from 9 to 10 p.m. the messages are played over the airways making a message from home accessible to the 11 prisons and facilities within range. “The folks who are locked up here are also a part of our community. They’re the least visible parts of our community, for sure, but they are here, and I see that as part of our responsibly as a radio station.”

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Portugal's radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn't the world copied it?

Susana Ferreira

December 05, 2017 |

The Guardian |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Portugal, Olhão

After the fall of an oppressive and isolating regime, Portugal found itself utterly unprepared to deal with the rapid distribution of narcotics in the 1980s, creating a crisis that left 1 in every 10 people struggling with addiction. The country took a radical approach to rectifying opioid use through a huge cultural shift in the way it viewed and treated addicts - prioritizing support services and pioneering programs like needle-exchange and substitution therapy, and eventually decriminalizing hard drugs so that users could more easily get help, and drug rates have since plummeted.

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Why New York City Created Its Own Fund to Bail People Out of Jail

Teresa Mathew

December 01, 2017 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Bail reform is a difficult process largely out of the hands of municipalities. Charitable bail funds allow individuals who can't afford bail to be free until their trial, in the hopes of changing the bail system from the inside.

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Native American peacemaking courts offer a model for reform

Rebecca Clarren

November 30, 2017 |

InvestigateWest |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Yurok Reservation, United States, Klamath, California

A growing number of tribal judges nationwide - including Judge Abby Abinanti of the Yurok Tribal Court - are using a framework of traditional culture and an approach known as "restorative justice" to address both the need for rehabilitation of offenders and resolution for people often failed by the dominant criminal justice system.

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Participatory Defense

Thomas Fox Parry

November 29, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

While there are many factors that have contributed to the sky high incarceration rates in the United States which have left prisons bursting at the seams, one of the causes remains the simple fact that the resources of a private prosecutor vastly outweigh those of publicly-funded defense attorneys.

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