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A Philly jobs program lost six to a year of violence. Can it still help young people thrive?

Samantha Melamed

December 02, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PowerCorpsPHL and Mural Arts' Guild have notched impressive results in job placements of young people with criminal records. The programs' employment training, paid apprenticeships, and art therapy classes have all been disrupted by 2020's pandemic, social unrest, and street violence. Private grants have largely made up for budget cuts from the city of Philadelphia. But the lack of face to face training and counseling has been disruptive. Both programs and their trainees are persevering despite longer odds, with workarounds that keep the programs afloat in difficult times.

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A West Philly grandmother decided to save summer with a PlayStreet. Then, tragedy struck.

Samantha Melamed

August 08, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia's PlayStreets program is a nearly 60-year-old program that began as a meal service during the summer "hungry season," when school lunches are not served, but has evolved into a summer camp on 300 city blocks. Fifty blocks are designated "super streets," where high levels of poverty and violence are met with extra resources. On top of the usual meals and games, the city provides play equipment, DJ dance parties, and mural making. In a summer of extreme violence, neighbors say it also provides a sense of security and normalcy, which police credit as a violence-preventive measure.

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Philly garden activists are shipping millions of seeds to a nation fretting over food access during coronavirus pandemic

Samantha Melamed

April 27, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Across Philadelphia, people are turning to seeds to source their food instead of grocery stores and supply chains, which have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Philadelphia is home to the Cooperative Gardens Commission, helping people across the United States practice safe gardening, providing mentoring for novices, and packaging and sending seedlings. It’s just one of many localized garden initiatives working to make sure their communities and neighbors have fresh, sustainable food.

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Pennsylvania will no longer hold death-row prisoners in endless solitary confinement

Samantha Melamed

November 18, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Pennsylvania

Following an ACLU-led civil-rights lawsuit, the Pennsylvania Department of Correction has implemented huge changes to the treatment of death row inmates. In prisons across the state, individuals who have been sentenced to death no longer have to undergo strip searches, are allowed to have contact visitations with family and friends, can apply for prison employment, and socialize with others in their unit.

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Why this couple's wedding registry was devoted to paying off Philly kids' court costs

Samantha Melamed

July 10, 2018 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A couple created a nonprofit in Philadelphia to make micro grants for those who need small amounts to pay off medical bills or legal fees so they can move on with their lives. The effort garnered modest donations, including through their own wedding registry, and has made about 10 grants, but those have had significant impacts on recipients. The two acknowledge this is more like a bandaid, so they also partnered with a policy organization to work on wider systemic change.

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Can a Philly community bail fund fix our criminal-justice system?

Samantha Melamed

November 08, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Crowdfunding initiatives in Philadelphia offer an alternative to the cash bail process that disproportionately affects African Americans in problematic ways. “Community bail fund activists” raised almost $60,000 for Black Mama’s Bail-Out Day. Now, they are scaling the effort into a Philly Community Bail Fund to help not just Black mothers, but any of the poor, who are detained and kept away from their families and jobs while they await trial. Other crowdsourcing initiatives are springing up in the city, and all are needed to address the problem.

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A prosecutor meets the juvenile lifer he locked up for 40 years - and apologizes

Samantha Melamed

October 26, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A Philadelphia man imprisoned for 40 years for a crime he did not commit was finally freed when the prosecutor who helped put him behind bars realized he made a mistake and worked to get him out. The U.S. Supreme Court found automatic life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional, but despite that and the previous prosecutor's change of heart, Ronald Brinkley has not been exonerated and the current district attorney stands by the case. However, the former prosecutor has offered to help Brinkley as he transitions back to the outside world.

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How a Temple professor and a prison inmate started an international movement

Samantha Melamed

October 23, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In the Inside-Out Exchange program half of the students are college students, and the other half are prison inmates. The program has “expanded to about 150 correctional institutions across the globe” but the biggest takeaway is the effect it has on people. Students were “ engaged in a way they never had been in the classroom. For the inmates, suddenly their opinions mattered.”

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From Norway, Pennsylvania's prisons appear cruel and unusual

Samantha Melamed

October 04, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Pennsylvania

Thirty years ago, Norway’s recidivism rate was more than 60 percent. Then the country put rehabilitation at the core of its corrections system, training prison guards to act more like social workers than punishers. Recidivism fell dramatically. The country of 5.2 million now has just 3,900 prisoners. Norwegian delegates are meeting with officials in Pennsylvania to share their insights.

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He stole a $1 lemonade, smoked pot - then nearly had to die in prison

Samantha Melamed

September 27, 2017 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has a compassionate release law for inmates who are terminally ill so they don't die in prison, but in practice it has become even more difficult for inmates and their families to take advantage of it. The number of elderly prisoners in the state has soared. Advocates recommend prisoners get an automatic compassionate release when they receive a terminal diagnosis so the family is not burdened with trying to figure out the complex process and paperwork.

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