Decriminalizing Drugs: When Treatment Replaces Prison

Girls Court brings an all-hands-on-deck approach to the lives of vulnerable girls, linking them to social service agencies, providing informal Saturday sessions on everything from body image to legal jargon, and offering a team of adults in whom they can develop trust.

A novel way to help young men growing up in communities in which concentrated poverty, violence and unemployment are well-documented barriers to health and longevity: male youth of color are trained to be the emergency response team to help stabilize street victims before doctors or nurses begin procedures.

Palm Beach County, Florida has many of the same social problems that Philadelphia has, including “gangs, drugs, and poverty.” However, their school system has managed to keep students safe by employing “safe-school case managers” who build relationships with students, and they offer a youth court that is a system run by students who peer-review cases of unrest. The initiatives in this county has prevented school violence from happening without metal detectors and just two police officers.

CitiStat has show great success in cities like Baltimore, where it has improved city services' efficiency (removing snow, fixing potholes, etc.). Many cities use Stat programs, but Baltimore has been a particular case of success. Looking at how it implemented its CitiStat program holds lessons for other cities.

In the past, Los Angeles was a dangerous city fraught with gang wars. Lately, though, LA has become a safer city due to six changes enforced by the police cracking down on public violence and gangs.

The use of a gun in a violent crime can carry a penalty of 30 years or more in prison. High Point, NC, has been using call-ins for 16 years - a carrot-and-stick approach aimed at reducing violent crime and drugs in the city.

A new juvenile justice center in Wyoming begins the movement to bring greater technological advancements to the education of the girls living there. The Wyoming Girls' School provides them with the state of the art tools they need to not fall behind while they fulfill their sentence.

In Clayton County, Georgia, the Second Chance Court is using a different tactic to give offenders the opportunity to move forward. The program, started in 2010, allows selected teens to attend counseling and classes – often with their parents – centered around self improvement and appropriate behavior. Collaborating with a community organization, the Second Chance Court has been able to reduce recidivism in youth.

South Dakota’s “24/7 Sobriety” initiative breathalyzers tens of thousands of people every day in an effort to curb drunk driving. Rather than legislation that takes penalizes offenders by taking away their license, the state addresses the behavioral issue instead. In counties that use the “24/7 Sobriety,” they’ve seen a 12% decrease in repeat drunken-driving arrests.

Colombia has attempted to decrease murder and homicide rates by setting up curfews for teenagers, forcing bars to close earlier in the evening, and creating gun laws to prevent the carrying of weapons. As a result of this epidemiological, data-driven approach, along with other governmental factors, the homicide rate has decreased significantly in most of the cities in which it was implemented.