Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 824 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

As Alabama grapples with solitary confinement, other states offer blueprints for change

Melissa Brown

March 24, 2019 |

The Montgomery Advertiser |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Montgomery, Alabama

The use of solitary confinement, or administrative segregation, in prisons is facing pushback across the country. In Alabama, a federal judge tasked the Department of Corrections to investigate how other states are reforming their use of solitary confinement – especially for those with mental health concerns. Recognizing that isolation often leads to increased bad behavior, states such as North Dakota and Colorado have placed stronger limitations on the use and deployment of administrative segregation.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Inside the Battle to Close Rikers

Maurice Chammah

March 22, 2019 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York City plans to close the eight jail complex located on Rikers Island and replace it with a series of four smaller, community-integrated facilities in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. While the administration has faced community pushback, the city has gleaned insights about the process, including jail reform and design and how to receive feedback from the community. The goal is for this plan could lead to further decarceration, financial savings for the city, and facilities that incorporate job-training, substance abuse treatment, and counseling into its services.

Read More
Go to Original Story
How Miami-Dade's Mental Health Program Steers People To Treatment, Not Jail

Nadege Green Daniel Rivero

March 14, 2019 |

WLRN |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Miami, Florida

For nearly two decades, Miami-Dade's Criminal Mental Health Project has worked to decriminalize mental illness, diverting people from jail into treatment and social services with an approach that has helped cut the jail population almost by half and save taxpayers millions. Combining the services of health care providers, law enforcement, and housing agencies, the project pairs participants with peer specialists and puts them on a treatment plan that can get their criminal charges dropped or reduced. Another benefit of the project: lower recidivism rates for people with serious mental illnesses.

Read More
Go to Original Story
‘Scrap it, start fresh, and think:' What Milwaukee can learn from New York City on housing young offenders

Allison Dikanovic

March 06, 2019 |

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

As Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County seeks to transform how it handles young offenders, it looks to New York City as a model for change. In New York, the city has shifted its focus from large, state-run facilities to community-based programs and secured, residential homes. Milwaukee County weighs the lessons learned from this initiative and seeks to re-evaluate the services and long-term effects of its criminal justice programming.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Ypsi-based program aims to restore dignity for women giving birth while incarcerated

Sarah Rigg

March 06, 2019 |

Concentrate |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Ypsilanti, Michigan

The Michigan Prison Doula Initiative seeks to provide pregnant women experiencing incarceration the support and care they need to maintain physical and mental health before, during, and after giving birth. The initiative has partnered with the Michigan Department of Corrections to start work in one prison – with the hopes of expanding to others – by providing prenatal counseling, support during birth, and postpartum visits.

Read More
Go to Original Story
'Nobody was born bad'

Allison Shirk Collins

March 01, 2019 |

Chattanooga Times Free Press |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga’s Violence Reduction Initiatives used a focused deterrence strategy to reduce crime. The initiative has led to a decrease in gang-involved homicides and shootings, working with individuals on probation to provide them with the social services they need to stop them from re-entering a life of crime. A core part of this method is to show communities that they’re not forgotten and that they’re cared for, and yet securing funding and consistent support for such programming has been challenging.

Read More
Go to Original Story
‘We believe that they can come home and be a positive force for change:' How one program helps people transition out of incarceration

Allison Dikanovic

March 01, 2019 |

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, the Alma Brothers Smart Reentry program works to reduce the rate of recidivism by building relationships with those being released from prison and reentering society. By providing each man in the program with a guide during the last year of his sentence and first year out of prison, the program is able to offer support, resources and opportunities that the former inmates may not otherwise have.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Australia is building community alternatives to prisons — they work

Lorana Bartels

February 22, 2019 |

Apolitical |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Australia

With their national imprisonment rate on the rise, Australia is pivoting to a justice reinvestment strategy that diverts money towards "early intervention, prevention and diversion." Although this has yet to be implemented on a large scale, small projects are underway in parts of the country and have delivered promising results.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Scrubbing The Past To Give Those With A Criminal Record A Second Chance

Eric Westervelt Barbara Brosher

February 19, 2019 |

NPR |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Indiana

Indiana's Second Chance law was passed in 2013 and allows people to petition to remove their misdemeanor convictions and arrests from public view. In Marion County alone, more than 11,500 people have visited the full-time paralegal processing all requests since legislators implemented the law. Many of those visitors speak with relief about the newfound opportunities that have come their way since the dismantling of that barrier. This is part of a growing movement in the US to reimagine the existing criminal justice system that creates far more problems than it solves.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Special Courts for Veterans Languish

Joseph Darius Jaafari

February 19, 2019 |

The Marshall Project |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Veterans treatment courts were developed in 2008 as a way for veterans to receive mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment rather than face incarceration. Created to address the mental health concerns that can lead to drug abuse and other issues, the courts have not seen the successes that were originally anticipated. Due to little demand, inconvenient locations, and mixed results, experts are calling into question the existence of such specialized courts.

Read More
Go to Original Story