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  • Using Tech, California Counties Have Cleared 140,000 Marijuana-Related Convictions

    March 05, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    After California legalized marijuana, it offered people a way to erase their marijuana-related criminal records. But few tried, in part because the process was difficult. Code for America's Clear My Record initiative automated the process by creating lists of cases eligible for expungement and notifying counties that they could easily take the next step. As a result, 140,000 convictions have been reduced or dismissed, relieving those people of the burden of a criminal record when applying for a job. CFA is working to expand the program nationwide.

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  • In a city where bullets too often hit kids, a program calls on young people to shoot cameras, not guns

    March 03, 2021 |

    The Washington Post |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

    A group of D.C. teens produced a short film depicting life in their neighborhood, the final product of a pilot project that teaches filmmaking skills in order to lift up community voices and inspire youth to pursue a career. The program, "Don't Shoot Guns, Shoot Cameras," was started by the uncle of a homicide victim in a neighborhood where violence can feel more prevalent than positive inspiration. The program, which partnered with an existing nonprofit, is now seeking to expand.

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  • Here's What Happens When Social Workers, Not Police, Respond To Mental Health Crises

    March 01, 2021 |

    Honolulu Civil Beat |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    Honolulu could benefit from adopting the approach to mental-health crisis calls to 911 that Eugene, Oregon, uses. But it would need to make big changes first in its critical infrastructure. Eugene's CAHOOTS program sends counselors and medics on 17% of the calls coming to its city's 911 center, saving millions on police, ambulances, and emergency room visits. Non-police responders de-escalate potential conflicts and get people the help they need without arrest or violence. Honolulu is primed to examine this approach, as many cities have done, but it's not a simple matter to start it.

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  • Cops and Hippies

    February 26, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    The CAHOOTS program, which sends medics and counselors on certain 911 calls instead of the police, has become a national model in the wake of 2020's criminal-justice protests. But its roots reach back half a century, when a free medical clinic serving the hippie counterculture emerged as a public-health response to drug, mental health, and other non-violent emergencies. CAHOOTS has grown into a 24/7 service that saves Eugene millions in policing and medical spending, and saves many on the streets from unnecessarily punitive interactions with the police.

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  • One Relationship at a Time: Restorative Justice Initiatives in West Harlem are Rewriting Legacies of Violence and Mass Incarceration

    February 26, 2021 |

    Columbia Daily Spectator |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    The largest police raid in New York City history did little to resolve a decades-long conflict between residents of two Harlem housing projects, nor did it address the underlying problems causing violence in the community. So two community groups, supported by grants from the Manhattan district attorney, have deployed intervention teams to de-escalate and mediate disputes. They also provide an array of services to give young people alternatives to fighting and to assist people who were arrested in the raids as they emerge from prison.

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  • How does Portland's Street Response Team compare with a similar program in Denver?

    February 24, 2021 |

    KGW-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Although Eugene, Oregon's long-running, successful CAHOOTS program serves as one model for the new Portland Street Response, a more relevant model can be found in Denver's STAR program. Like CAHOOTS, STAR responds to mental-health and other crisis calls with medics and counselors rather than police officers. But Denver's size, demographics, and homelessness make it much more analogous to Portland. In STAR's first six months, it handled nearly 750 calls without a single arrest. Both STAR and PSR are starting small, so more resources are needed if the pilot projects succeed.

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  • ‘Crime-Free' Housing Ordinances, Explained

    February 17, 2021 |

    The Appeal |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Starting in the early 1990s, thousands of American towns and cities passed "crime-free housing" ordinances that purport to reduce crime in rental housing. The laws encourage or require landlords to evict tenants based on calls to police, or the criminal records of tenants or their houseguests. The laws' lack of due process has turned them into a tool promoting segregation and retaliation against people of color. Frequently enacted in places that have begun to diversify racially, they give police too much power to declare certain residences a nuisance. Legal challenges have begun to curb some abuses.

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  • Gun violence crisis: With revenge & retaliation on the rise, how police are responding

    February 17, 2021 |

    WLOS-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Buffalo, New York

    Asheville, North Carolina, police hope to model a violence-intervention program on one in Buffalo, New York, in which police use "custom notifications" to identify people prone to violence. Those notified are given a choice between arrest or assistance in redirecting their lives, with help from social services providers. Buffalo's program is credited with a 24% decline in gun violence in 2019, before the pandemic put it on hold and shootings rose again.

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  • Anti-human trafficking apps were meant to save lives. They're failing

    February 16, 2021 |

    Wired |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

    Since its April 2018 founding in Malaysia, the Be My Protector app has enabled interventions in 120 cases of suspected human trafficking, sparked by anonymous reports that its app enables. In about a third of those cases, which mostly involved migrant workers in South and Southeast Asia, the victims were able to return to their homes, while others were offered counseling. But, like the more than 90 such apps available around the world, Be My Protector has struggled to make a big impact. Many such apps capitalize on a trendy subject without a clear focus on improving conditions and helping victims.

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  • Human remains found at Multnomah Falls identified after 42 years

    February 15, 2021 |

    The Oregonian |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oregon

    Oregon law enforcement agencies partnered with a Virginia laboratory, Parabon NanoLabs, to use genetic genealogy to learn the identities of people whose remains were found long ago but never identified. To give peace of mind to families who never knew for sure of their loved ones' deaths, researchers use DNA samples taken from the human remains to compare to publicly available DNA profiles shared by people using home DNA tests. This can identify a victim's family tree. So far, Parabon has identified six of the 10 people it has tested for Oregon. The state has more than 150 unidentified skeletal remains.

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