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One Relationship at a Time: Restorative Justice Initiatives in West Harlem are Rewriting Legacies of Violence and Mass Incarceration

Ellida Parker Cheryn Hong

February 26, 2021 |

Columbia Daily Spectator |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The largest police raid in New York City history did little to resolve a decades-long conflict between residents of two Harlem housing projects, nor did it address the underlying problems causing violence in the community. So two community groups, supported by grants from the Manhattan district attorney, have deployed intervention teams to de-escalate and mediate disputes. They also provide an array of services to give young people alternatives to fighting and to assist people who were arrested in the raids as they emerge from prison.

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Oklahoma County promised to fix its jail more than 10 year ago, but deaths and staffing issues continue

Brianna Bailey

February 22, 2021 |

The Frontier |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The U.S. Department of Justice documented dangerous conditions in the Oklahoma County Detention Center that led to a 2009 court settlement requiring the county to staff and fund its jail adequately. But the Justice Department failed to enforce the settlement. Staff shortages and poor conditions persist in the jail, leading to 84 deaths since 2009, seven in the past three months. The county knew it would need voter approval to raise taxes or borrowing to pay for the jail reforms, but it never followed through and was not held to account by the federal overseers.

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Teacher in Greece offers hope to inmates through TV classes

Elena Becatoros

February 18, 2021 |

Associated Press |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Greece, Avlona

When the pandemic shut schools down in Greece, that included the schooling system in place for those in Greece’s Avlona Special Youth Detention Center; so, the director of the school started broadcasting lessons over a TV channel. The director and his team worked together to get the station up and running and then with the young men who are incarcerated to popularize it throughout the detention center via word of mouth.

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Durham, NC Just Finished Erasing $2.7 Million In Traffic Debt

Cinnamon Janzer

February 17, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

The DEAR program (Durham Expunction and Restoration) put 11,084 drivers back on the road legally and waived $2.7 million in fines in a purge of old cases that had revoked driving privileges for unpaid fines and fees. The two-year amnesty program, part of a national movement, took aim at the often racially disparate enforcement of state laws that burden the formerly incarcerated and others with unaffordable monetary penalties. Deprived of the right to drive, people either miss out on work and educational opportunities, or risk more traffic tickets, arrests, and fines.

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Tech Company Aims to Disrupt Predatorial Prison Phone Industry

Shani Saxon

February 17, 2021 |

Colorlines |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

A free mobile app called Ameelio opens a free channel of communication between incarcerated people and their families, to avoid the price-gouging telephone services that prisons and jails authorize to charge people exorbitant rates to talk. Ameelio's app makes sending letters with photos easier than doing it by snail mail. Nonprofits can also use the free service to communicate with clients. Ameelio, which is supported by donations and grants, is piloting a video-conferencing service.

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Hawaii Homeless Program Failed After Prosecutors And Police Wouldn't Play Ball

Christina Jedra

February 11, 2021 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Honolulu, Hawaii

LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) proved itself in Seattle as effective at addressing the underlying problems of people experiencing homelessness, by waiving their criminal charges if they accepted needed services. But the program's two-year test in Honolulu failed to gain traction because only some police bought into it, and the prosecutor's office never did. Instead of using criminal citations as leverage, the program was stripped down to an ordinary outreach effort, and managed to enroll only 50 people, not all of whom were helped. A new prosecutor and the police will make another go of it.

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A GOP Governor and BLM Activists Agreed on Restoring Voting Rights to Felons. Will It Last?

Kaila Philo

February 04, 2021 |

Politico |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

More than 3,000 Iowans voted in the 2020 presidential election thanks to an executive order signed by the Republican governor after a protest campaign by activists to erase Iowa's permanent ban on voting by people with felony records. But that number was just a fraction of those newly eligible to vote, due to limitations in the order and a lackluster effort to inform the public. Iowa has a disproportionately high number of disenfranchised Black citizens who could be helped by a more permanent constitutional fix. That fix has now been stalled by the choice to act by executive order.

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These local nonprofits bring books to incarcerated individuals in North Carolina

Bethany Lee

February 02, 2021 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

Prison Books Collective and a partner organization, N.C. Women's Prison Book Project, for 15 years have collected donated books and then distributed them inside North Carolina prisons to incarcerated people who crave new reading material. Answering requests, which sometimes can be quite specific as to genre, the groups fulfill orders from their revolving supply. Combined, the groups make up to 75 shipments per week and in return hear from people inside about how meaningful the donated books are to them.

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Youth incarceration fell when California required counties to pay more for juvenile detention: New research

Clark Merrefield

February 02, 2021 |

Journalist's Resource |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

When a California law shifted the costs of incarcerating youth from the state to its counties, judges suddenly sent 40% fewer youth to state-run juvenile facilities. That reduction began a long-term trend that combined with a state commitment to evidence-based approaches to rehabilitation instead of punishment, especially for less-serious offenses. The end result is that state juvenile jails have been all but phased out of existence and California, a longtime tough-on-crime state, now has what one advocacy group considers the nation's most humane juvenile justice system.

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How New York Quietly Ended Its Street Drug War

Max Daly

February 01, 2021 |

Vice |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

From 2009 through 2019, street arrests for drug possession and sales fell by 80% in New York City, sparing hundreds of thousands of people harsh incarceration terms while defying warnings that more lenient enforcement of low-level drug crimes would wreak havoc on the city. The reforms came about because of persistent advocacy by groups opposed to racially disparate enforcement and its social harms, as well as legislative and court-imposed limits on punishment and stop-and-frisk policing. Now ticketing rather than arrest is used far more often for all types of drugs.

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