College-in-prison programs have many benefits, but barriers to access abound

Tamar Sarai Davis

June 21, 2021 |

Prism |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Middletown, Connecticut

College-in-prison programs like Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education have a track record for improving incarcerated students' lives, lowering crime, and making prisons safer. But a number of factors compromise the number and effectiveness of such programs. Many fewer programs exist since incarcerated students were denied Pell Grants beginning in the 1990s. A 2015 program aimed at making financial aid more accessible poses a number of logistical hurdles. Prisons themselves can be inhospitable environments for attending classes and independent studies.

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Why U.S. Presidents Can't Win The War On Drugs

Nathaniel Lee

June 17, 2021 |

CNBC |

Broadcast TV News |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Fifty years on, America's war on drugs has failed at its principal goals: to eradicate illicit drug use and sales, to repair communities damaged by the drug trade, and to prevent drug-related deaths. Despite massive amounts spent on law enforcement, which has created great social harms and fueled incarceration, drug use has rebounded to 40-year highs, drug overdose deaths are peaking, and supply of illegal drugs is abundant. Policy advocates say a combination of legalization and public-health approaches to the problems would accomplish more than the wasteful, ineffective "war" mentality used to date.

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Barred From Her Own Home: How a Tool for Fighting Domestic Abuse Fails

Andy Newman

June 17, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Stay-away orders are a tool New York judges can use to protect victims from their abusers even before accusations get scrutinized in court. They grew out of a reform movement that urged police and prosecutors to take domestic violence more seriously. But they have become a form of summary justice, routinely issued upon the filing of a complaint without proper vetting. They have wrecked families and cost people their homes and jobs based on what turn out to be flimsy or false accusations. New York courts and legislators are considering proposals to fix the system.

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Crisis counselors are being hailed as police alternatives. It's too heavy a burden, some say.

Rebecca Tan

June 16, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County's longtime crisis response center illustrates the pitfalls of embracing a policing alternative without proper resources or thinking through the implications. The racial-justice protests of 2020 inspired many more cities and counties to explore mobile crisis response teams instead of police, to minimize violence and get people needed help instead of incarceration. While Montgomery County's team often deescalates crises and can either provide care or refer people to needed services, it lacks the staff to respond effectively. And the system of mental health care is too thin for the need.

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The force that could redraw the peninsula of India

Kamala Thiagarajan

June 15, 2021 |

BBC |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India

In the South Indian coast, erosion is leading to disappearing beaches. A study found that this erosion was in part due to man-made structures like a harbor that was built in the late 80s, groynes, and seawalls. These structures were interfering with the natural movement of sand. To fix it, they needed a structure that could block waves but also allow sand movement, the solution? An artificial reef. It was installed and some beaches are already seeing the results.

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Western's sexual assault prevention program is up for renewal — does the online training do more harm than good?

Lauren Gallup Makenna Marks Payton Gift

June 14, 2021 |

The Front |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Bellingham, Washington

Research shows that online training isn’t successful at changing attitudes or beliefs on sexual assault. This article takes an in-depth look at EverFi, an online sexual assault module that students at Western Washington University are required to take. The program is used at 1,300 other institutions. Researchers recommend programs that target specific individuals. Other methods that have been successful include implementing activities like group discussions, lectures, and policy changes. The programs should also take a long time to complete, for example, a semester-long training versus the few minutes,

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Federal program that helps farmers during the pandemic is changing the local food landscape

Kate Bradshaw

June 13, 2021 |

The Almanac |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

The Farmers to Family program, an initiative from the U.S Department of Agriculture set aside $3 billion for its Farmers to Families Food Box program, part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The program awarded contracts farmers and distributors to provide food for families experiencing food insecurity. The article lays out some of the challenges with the program like issues with how the contracts were awarded, difficulty coordinating between distributors and farmers, stringent requirements, as well as the quick, creative solutions that were deployed to overcome them.

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Reshaping mental health crisis response in Santa Cruz County

Stephen Baxter

June 11, 2021 |

Santa Cruz Local |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Santa Cruz, California

The nationwide 988 call system for suicide prevention and mental health crises will go live in July 2022, with federal funding available for certain local crisis response programs. Santa Cruz and Alameda counties already offer a variety of police and non-police teams that will either benefit from the new system or must adapt to the changes coming. Most of the non-police responses in the area operate only during daytime hours, and in the case of Santa Cruz's Mobile Emergency Response Team are not well known by the public. When police are the default responders, people may not get the care they need.

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The push to remake policing takes decades, only to begin again

John Sullivan Robert Klemko

June 10, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Jersey

Three "historic firsts in policing reforms" show how attempts to root out systemic problems in policing can fail. In all three cases – federal intervention to curb civil rights abuses in Pittsburgh, a computerized early-warning system to spot abusive Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, and rules put in place to reduce racial profiling in New Jersey traffic stops – bureaucratic and leadership failures, plus cultural resistance to change in police ranks, undermined early successes or good intentions. In all three cases, the problems persist decades later.

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Mobile crisis response program draws national attention but still struggles with funding

Dave Miller Allison Frost

June 02, 2021 |

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) |

Radio Talk Show |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The CAHOOTS program's national popularity as a model for diverting crisis calls from the police to unarmed teams of a medic and counselor belies its inability to fully serve its own community because of under-funding. Program director Ebony Morgan talks about the flip side of the program's cost savings for the city: unfairly low pay for its workers, long response times, and an inability to expand. The program's success with the community is built on trust that people in crisis will be helped rather than viewed as a threat. Morgan says the program itself needs to be valued more by city budget managers.

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