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

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  • Pa. Supreme Court halts Philly criminal trials streamed on YouTube over possible harassment

    September 17, 2020 |

    The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

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    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Philadelphia criminal trials were broadcast live on a public YouTube channel to provide for public access to the courts during the pandemic shutdown, but the practice was halted over a complaint by prosecutors that this means of public access created opportunities for harassment and intimidation of victims, witnesses, and defendants. Responding to an emergency petition by the Philadelphia district attorney, the state Supreme Court halted the YouTube broadcasts. Prosecutors said they will explore alternatives including private Zoom calls and closed-circuit feeds.

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  • Iowa prison population drops to 20-year low

    September 14, 2020 |

    Quad-City Times |

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

    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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  • Can Prosecutors Be Taught to Avoid Jail Sentences?

    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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  • Minnesota Freedom Fund Bails Out Those Who Can't Afford It

    August 20, 2020 |

    The Community Voice |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    The Minnesota Freedom Fund spent its first four years as a modestly funded nonprofit that used donations to bail people out of jail, as a means of countering a cash bail system that critics see as unfair to people living in poverty and people of color. From 2016 to early 2020, it had a budget of $100,000 per year and bailed out 563 people. Protests against Minneapolis police misconduct produced a windfall of $30 million in donations. The fund has excess funds, beyond what's needed to bail out protesters, and faces some criticism that it has freed people accused of violence.

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  • Courts rule

    August 20, 2020 |

    Boulder Weekly |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

    Almost half of U.S. states guarantee citizens’ rights to petition for ballot measures, but the coronavirus made gathering signatures in person infeasible. Massachusetts courts allowed electronic signatures, but other states have not approved virtual citizen initiative campaigns. Ballot initiatives allow citizens to advance solutions and enact structural changes without relying on support from elected officials. MA groups used DocuSign to gather 30,000 signatures to get a proposal for ranked choice voting on the ballot. Not all MA groups were able to quickly or successfully pivot to the e-signature process.

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  • After Intake Pause, City's Supervised Release Program Set for Large Expansion

    August 05, 2020 |

    Gotham Gazette |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    New York City's supervised release program stakes a middle ground in the debate over abolishing cash bail systems by paying outside agencies to monitor and help people released from jail while their criminal charges are pending. More equitable than requiring cash bail for release but more restrictive than simply releasing defendants with no oversight, the program in its first three years boasted an 88% rate for participants complying with court dates while 8% in early 2019 were arrested on new felony charges while freed. The program, on hold during the early pandemic months, is budgeted for a big expansion.

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  • Program offers alternative for youth who commit misdemeanors

    August 05, 2020 |

    Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Choose 180 channels Seattle-area young people into an alternative to court and jail when they commit relatively minor offenses. This "offramp" from the traditional justice system, serving a disproportionately Black and brown clientele, helped 400 clients in 2019, 87% of whom did not commit new offenses. Research shows such diversion programs have a better track record for preventing future crimes. A Choose 180 "sentence" comes in the form of a workshop introducing young people to mentors and giving them a chance at the stability and frame of mind they need to seek more lasting change in their lives.

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  • They Stopped Suspending Licenses ... And Fine Collections Went Up

    July 27, 2020 |

    The Community Voice |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    When San Francisco courts stopped suspending drivers' licenses for failure to pay fees and fines, revenues actually increased. The reform, aimed at avoiding trapping poor people in endless cycles of debt and incarceration, was paired with affordable payment plans and alternatives to cash fines and fees as ways to hold people accountable for traffic violations. The rest of California, and eventually six other states and the District of Columbia, followed suit. The reforms have countered a trend that turned a traffic safety measure into a revenue generator for governments, on the backs of the poor.

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  • They Agreed to Meet Their Mother's Killer. Then Tragedy Struck Again.

    July 21, 2020 |

    The Marshall Project |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Jacksonville, Florida

    Jacksonville’s prosecutor began a unique experiment in using restorative justice dialogue in murder cases, seeking to help survivors learn the full truth of a crime in ways a traditional trial would not provide. In return for an honest dialogue with the people they harmed, defendants could win more lenient sentences. But in one case the tactic failed in a way that added to the survivors’ pain and ended the program altogether. Restorative dialogue has been shown to help victims, mainly when used after a conviction or for less serious crimes.

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