Program offers alternative for youth who commit misdemeanors

Anthony Wallace

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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Surveillance Planes Watch Over Baltimore, But Catch Few Criminals

J. Cavanaugh Simpson

August 05, 2020 |

Baltimore Magazine |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

In the first half of a six-month experiment, Baltimore's "wide-area surveillance" using video cameras flying above city streets to aid in crime investigations has led to only one arrest. The city's police commissioner doubts the city will agree to pay for the surveillance once private funding for the pilot project runs out, but he says he'll know more after the six-month experiment. The experiment is aimed at Baltimore's high rates of gun violence. Besides its effectiveness, critics worry about its privacy implications and that it targets mostly Black neighborhoods.

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Searching with the Mothers of Mexico's Disappeared

Ana Karina Zatarain

August 05, 2020 |

The New Yorker |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Mexico, Culiacan, Sinaloa

Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

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How the Queensbridge Cure Violence Team Is Changing Community Norms

Clodagh McGowan

August 03, 2020 |

Spectrum News 1 New York |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In the nation's largest public housing development, 696 Build Queensbridge uses the Cure Violence approach to mediating disputes before they turn violent. In 2017, its first year, there were no shootings in the development where the group does its violence interruption work. In the first 7 months of 2020, there were six shootings, up 2 from the same period in 2019 but far better than the rise in violence seen citywide. "Credible messengers" gain the trust of the community to prevent violence and counsel people to use "tools to communicate with other than violence," and without police involvement.

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The surprising way to stop shootings that doesn't involve more cops and arrests

Samantha Michaels

July 31, 2020 |

Mother Jones |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

After two failed attempts, Oakland Ceasefire retooled its approach and since 2013 has been a significant factor in lowering homicides and nonfatal shootings. The program, used in various ways in many cities, identifies young men at high risk of getting shot or shooting others and then offers them life coaching and social services to keep them out of trouble. By de-emphasizing the role of police, pinpointing those most in need of help, boosting community involvement, and forming deeper personal relationships, the program is credited with a 32% reduction in gun homicides over a six-year study.

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As Murders Rise, New York City Turns to a Police Alternative

Henry Goldman

July 30, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In New York City, 14 organizations have more than 200 people performing street outreach to intervene in potentially deadly gun crimes in at least 20 of the city's most violent "hot spots." These "violence interrupters" mediate disputes and offer social services in a process that relies on former gang members and others with street experience rather than police. While studies have shown mixed evidence of success, New York's programs have been credited with significant crime decreases. With violence on the rise after a long decline, the city is upping its budget for these programs to $39 million.

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Baltimore's Violence Interrupters Confront Shootings, the Coronavirus, and Corrupt Cops

Brandon Soderberg Baynard Woods

July 26, 2020 |

The Intercept |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore’s Safe Streets program, which uses a public-health approach to stopping the spread of community gun violence, mediated more than 1,800 conflicts in 2019 and is credited with preventing homicides altogether in one neighborhood, despite the city’s overall violent year. Since the program’s launch in 2007, studies have shown it to be effective in its use of “credible messengers” whose street savvy can be deployed to “interrupt” retaliatory violence. But the Baltimore program also illustrates tensions between such community-based programs and the police, especially when the police are corrupt.

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The Temporary Battle Against COVID-19 Taught This N.C. Native Community How to Combat a Longstanding Epidemic

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

July 22, 2020 |

100 Days in Appalachia |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cherokee, North Carolina

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reacted to COVID-19 with aggressive measures that yielded fewer illnesses than in neighboring counties, and no deaths, all without outside help. But one of their preventive measures – roadblocks severely limiting access to the Qualla Boundary, the band's territory – led to a surge in overdose deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin, because drug dealers responded with fewer shipments of more potent drugs. Overdoses eventually subsided with the roadblock lifted. The unintended consequence taught lessons about self-governance and unseen risks from within, not just from outside.

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Reformed leaders of rival gangs in Lehigh Valley collaborate on a community need: Diapers

Kayla Dwyer

July 20, 2020 |

The Morning Call |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Allentown, Pennsylvania

An anti-violence program served as the spark for a “diaper drive” that delivered more than 163,000 donated diapers to 1,100 families as the coronavirus shutdown took hold, a charity drive enabled by a gang truce – and run by gang members themselves. Members of the Latin Kings, Crips, and Bloods, working through the Zero Youth Violence program of the organization Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, benefited from years of work to strengthen community relationships as a means of conducting “violence interruption” work.

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Amistad ‘online' para supervivientes de violencia machista en la pandemia

Monica Pelliccia Elena Ledda

July 19, 2020 |

El País |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India

En India, debido a la epidemia de coronavirus, la plataforma Safe City reportó un aumento en los casos de mujeres víctimas de violencia en el entorno doméstico, mientras que la Comisión Nacional para las Mujeres reportó una disminución en las denuncias. Activistas de ese país han organizado encuentros digitales para dar apoyo a supervivientes de violencia de género en la pareja y de violencia doméstica.

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