Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • A ‘Second Chance' After 27 Years in Prison: How Criminal Justice Helped an Ex-Inmate Graduate

    Since 2016, the Second Chance Pell program has been providing financial aid for those experiencing incarceration to pursue a college education. Started under the Obama administration, it has gained bipartisan support and traction in the Trump administration as well. Considering 90% of incarcerated individuals will be released, the Second Chance Pell program serves as a demonstrated commitment to reduce recidivism and mass incarceration.

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  • How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours

    Norway’s Halden Prison is taking a different approach to incarceration: emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment, which has led to a 20% decrease in recidivism in just two years. Over the past two decades, the country has sought rigorous criminal justice reform, which at Halden Prison means job training and certifications, yoga and other recreational activities, reenvisioning the role guards play, and spaces that look more like home than a jail cell.

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  • A Public Library Brings Opportunity to the Blind

    The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library is a branch of the New York Public Library system that offers a wide array of services for vision-impaired adults and children. They hold the largest physical collection of braille books in the country, as well as thousands of downloadable digital braille books, audio books, and newspaper subscriptions. Included amongst these offerings are also the Talking Books program which records and distributes their collection of 200,000 recorded books, hardware and software tech to help illustrate things like tactile maps or diagrams, and simple community classes.

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  • How San Mateo County Is Building a 'Prison-to-School' Pipeline

    In San Mateo's juvenile detention centers, Project Change encourages youth who have completed high school coursework to enroll in community college classes taught on the campus. Inspired by the promise of programs like these, California lawmakers are considering Senate Bill 716, which would require county probation departments to offer at least online higher ed programs. "Nobody's telling these kids to go to college — that's not on the menu. But when you make that something that's embedded in what they are receiving, that's huge," the founder of Project Change says.

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  • LGBTQ-focused therapy center offers scholarships for transpeople of color

    There are many factors that prohibit people from being able to attend mental health counseling including financial reasoning and difficulty finding the right therapist. This is often even more difficult for the LGBTQ community, but in Philadelphia, the LGBTQ-focused Walnut Psychotherapy Center is helping to eliminate some of these barriers by creating a wellness fund that distributes therapy scholarships.

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  • How a small Turkish city successfully absorbed half a million migrants

    A small Turkish city named Gaziantep, only 60 miles from war-torn Aleppo, is a role model when it comes to taking in and integrating migrants fleeing violence in Syria. Gaziantep has already taken in 500,00 refugees (growing their population by 30%), piped in extra water from 80 miles away, built 50,000 new homes, and started integrating Syrian and Turkish children in schools. Government officials say that there has not been any significant crises yet and the Turkish people are welcoming newcomers with open arms.

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  • Black People Are Charged at a Higher Rate Than Whites. What if Prosecutors Didn't Know Their Race?

    The San Francisco District Attorney’s office has been instituting “blind charging,” making it impossible to see someone’s name, race, and other demographics before deciding to charge them with a crime. This new practice comes as a response to accusations of racial bias and profiling when deciding whether to pursue a charge – citing that black people are disproportionately targeted within the criminal justice system.

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  • LGBTQ activist hopes attack, liaison committee can unite community

    Philadelphia’s LGBT Police Liaison Committee serves as an intermediary between the city’s LGBTQ community and police force, creating a safe place for LGBTQ people, many of whom are fearful of police, to report crimes. Besides being liaisons, the committee also does community outreach and education to both bring awareness to their services and create a more inclusive city.

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  • Blight is eating American cities. Here's how Mobile, Alabama, stopped it

    While the entire nation struggles to combat blight and rundown housing, the city of Mobile, Alabama put together a task force and managed to slow the spread of blight in the town and even change the state constitution. Now, the city is able to purchase blighted houses, make necessary repairs, and combat racial inequality while doing it.

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  • 'It has transformed my life': the restaurant where all staff have a disability

    A haute cuisine restaurant in the Spanish city of Jerez offers employment only for people with disabilities who are left out of the mainstream workforce. The restaurant employs 20 people with conditions ranging from Down's syndrome to cerebral palsy, and they say that they are treated just like anyone else and that it has transformed their lives. The restaurant has also caught people's attention for the food alone and even receives recipes and guest chefs from the top chefs in the country.

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