The LEAD Program Faces a Reckoning for Centering Police

Helen Redmond

September 17, 2020 |

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Response Location: United States

The LEAD program (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion), which was launched in Seattle in 2011 and is used in such cities as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, provides intensive case management and services to people who come in contact with police and qualify to have their low-level cases bypass the criminal justice system. LEAD has been shown to lower recidivism by half and to make it more likely that people with drug and mental health, and other problems can find housing and jobs more easily. But this critical analysis argues that the police should not serve as gatekeepers.

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In a career born in her own grief, violence recovery specialist works at a Chicago hospital in a city under siege

Annie Sweeney

September 16, 2020 |

Chicago Tribune |

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Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Since the 2018 opening of a trauma-care center near the neighborhoods most affected by Chicago's gun violence, the University of Chicago Medical Center's Violence Recovery Program has helped survivors and victims' families to address the emotional harm that can go untreated when only physical harm is treated. Part of a growing field nationwide, hospital-based violence intervention, the program's nine specialists counsel people through the immediate shock of a gun injury or death. Then they address longer-term needs for services. The goals are both humanitarian and pragmatic, to head off more violence.

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Digging Our Way Out of the Hole: The Safe Alternative to Solitary

Jeremiah Bourgeois

September 16, 2020 |

The Crime Report |

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Response Location: United States, Washington

Washington's prison system cut by half the number of people held in solitary confinement by reducing its security system's reliance on the method and helping former solitary detainees transition back to the general population in a healthier way. But a formerly incarcerated journalist who spent more than seven of his 27 years in prison locked in solitary confinement says the state's disciplinary system is still rooted in an overly punitive approach to mostly petty offenses. A system based on positive incentives to good behavior exists in North Dakota prisons, modeled in part on Norway's approach.

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Atlanta's Trying to Support, Not Punish, Its Teenage Water Vendors

Adina Solomon

September 15, 2020 |

Next City |

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Response Location: United States, Atlanta, Georgia

Teens selling water on the sweltering streets of Atlanta are typically dealt with by police officers who often crack down on "unpermitted sales of water by youth." In a new approach, city officials convened a council to offer alternatives to police action and suggested ways to promote and develop the entrepreneurial spirit in teens through a variety of programs. The council looked to a similar program in Baltimore that re-engaged windshield-washing teens in school and re-directed others to full-time jobs.

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As call for police reform grows here, some look to Oregon for possible answers

Beth Adams

September 15, 2020 |

City Newspaper (Rochester) |

Multi-Media |

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Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Protests over police officers' conduct in the death of Daniel Prude prompted Rochester, N.Y., officials to look to Eugene's CAHOOTS program for an alternative model in responding to mental health crises. But CAHOOTS officials caution that their longstanding practice of dispatching mental health counselors as first responders, in place of police, has resulted in a safer, more caring response only because the agency is part of a broader system of social services. CAHOOTS teams are on call 24/7, replacing police on up to 8% of 911 calls and calling for police backup a fraction of the time.

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In Denver, This Program Helps Reroute 911 Calls To Police Alternatives

Scott Simon

September 12, 2020 |

NPR |

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3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first three months of existence, Denver's STAR program sent medics and counselors to respond to more than 600 calls to 911 in place of the police and without ever having to call the police as backup in a violent confrontation. The calls dealt mainly with complaints about unhoused people who callers complained were trespassing. Instead of the police approach, which often is to see such people as a threat, the STAR team sees them as people needing help. Such calls diverted from police end up connecting people with necessary social services and avoid possible violence or unnecessary incarceration.

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Homelessness on wheels: Boise Police, social workers launch new initiative for those living in vehicles in downtown Boise

Margaret Carmel

September 08, 2020 |

BoiseDev |

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Response Location: United States, Boise, Idaho

An emergency shelter, a housing nonprofit, the City of Boise, and the Boise Police Department came together to coordinate efforts and give assistance to the growing number of residents experiencing homelessness and living in RVs and cars around the city. The “Street Outreach Support” program involves knocking on the vehicle doors and offering temporary housing and medical attention to those who need it. While there are a smattering of reasons that people are living in their vehicles, the city is searching for a more permanent solution to getting people access to affordable housing.

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Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

Elise Schmelzer

September 06, 2020 |

The Denver Post |

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Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

To avoid unnecessary arrests and reduce police-public friction, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) sends a mental health professional and a paramedic to some mental-health-related 911 calls instead of sending police. In the first three months of the pilot program, the STAR team – covering only certain areas of the city during weekdays – handled 350 calls without needing police backup. STAR builds on a 4-year-old program pairing Denver police with mental health professionals. That program handled 2,223 calls in 2019 and is expanding.

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Community courts and the homeless: Do these programs make a difference?

Donny Morrison Gina Scalpone Zack Demars

September 05, 2020 |

The Register-Guard |

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Response Location: United States, Oregon

As an alternative to traditional courts, community courts provide resources to those experiencing homelessness. Fines and jail time are often the punishment in traditional courts for those charged with trespassing or loitering, but community courts provide services that help people find housing, jobs, health care, and even offer mobile showers, food stamp assistance, and mental health care. While the long-term data are lacking and don't offer a clear picture of recidivism rates, community courts do provide a better quality of life for those living on the streets.

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In CAHOOTS in Oregon

Taylor Perse

September 04, 2020 |

Voices of Monterey Bay |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Oregon's CAHOOTS program has succeeded in replacing police on many mental-health crisis calls over its 30-year history because it is integrated in a larger system of services, including law enforcement. CAHOOTS' crisis workers, who cover the cities of Eugene and Springfield with three vans taking dozens of calls for help a day, come to their jobs with expertise as EMTs, nurses, or social workers. Then they spend 500 hours of training in crisis management and de-escalation, learning to offer help without forcing it, and without the threat of arrest except in the few cases when police backup is needed.

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