What cities can learn from New Haven's fight to rein in gang violence: Seeking Solutions

As jails in Ohio struggle with the skyrocketing numbers of people addicted to opioids, they are increasingly becoming the state's primary detox centers. This article explores how several counties are addressing the issue by connecting inmates to jobs, training and housing to cut down on overdose deaths and reduce recidivism. Medicaid has also made it easier to get inmates health insurance coverage, which gives them access to treatment and medications upon release.

Massachusetts' Roca program uses five sites in the state to teach young men in their late teens and early 20s coping strategies to solve personal problems and change their behavior. The program targets men with previous criminal problems who actively resist other services and therapy, and who are deemed at high risk of violence. More than 80 percent of its graduates, who number more than 850 per year, have no new arrests, and two-thirds hold jobs six months after finishing the program. Seeing this success, Baltimore has committed $17 million in private and public funds to open a Roca chapter.

Certain cities in the United States are facing startlingly high rates of homicide and violence that haven't been seen since the height of gang activity in the 1990s. But certain cities, including Los Angeles, have continued to see declines in or stable crime rates, thanks to a community-based policing approach that uses tactics such as working with former drug dealers, hosting neighborhood events, cleaning litter from the streets, and mediating sit-downs between formal gang rivals.

Kentucky is rethinking its penal system for dealing with drug offenders and has shown success in reducing recidivism and relapse rates. Instead of leaving addicts to languish in the typical jailhouse environment of "extortion, violence and tedium," more than two dozen of the state's county jails have created separate units devoted to full-time addiction treatment and support-services for prisoners that involve peer-policing.

If juveniles in the Hinds County youth-court system, whose families tend to have limited resources, cannot get sustained, meaningful help at the center, they do not have many other options. But, thanks to a lawsuit on behalf of the juveniles in the facility, the county is starting to address the lack of mental-health services - whether in facilities or starting at home with the family.

New Haven's Project Longevity has measurably reduced gang violence through an approach brings law enforcement, social service groups, and community leaders together to offer teenagers and young men incentives to stop the violence, and a way out for those who need help. It's a model that may provide a solution for other cities facing gang violence.

In poor, crime-infected neighborhood with limited opportunities, where interactions with law enforcement are often toxic and punitive, and distrust on both sides is rampant. An integrated strategy is at the core of the model that can change this:"Operation Ceasefire," a form of targeted deterrence. The carrot-stick approach is carefully designed to reach men believed to be on the cusp of committing gun violence, let them know the consequences and help them fulfill their needs, thus finding a way to maybe change their trajectory into something more positive.

Paying at-risk people to stay out of trouble is the most controversial part of a new D.C. crime bill that also proposes counseling and other services to prevent repeat offenses. But a similar program is already in use in D.C., with the blessing of the District’s top prosecutor, giving nonviolent juvenile offenders a second chance. (2nd of a 3 part series)

An in-depth study of Texas youth crime records helped them find a path forward on juvenile criminal justice reform, but they still struggle with limited resources and a culture stuck on incarceration.

Mental health courts divert people with mental illness from prison into community-based programs with treatment, counseling, and court supervision. These programs graduate around 50% of participants, reduce recidivism, and have saved counties an estimated $485 million in avoided incarceration costs over 15 years.