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  • Where the COVID-19 Pandemic Might Finally Ignite Change in the Bail Bonds System

    November 16, 2020 |

    70 Million |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Miami, Florida

    The spread of COVID-19 in jails prompted many releases from custody and a surge in donations to bail funds that pay for people's release. But those fixes have done little to address the underlying challenges of detaining millions of people before trial, either because they cannot afford cash bail or because risk-assessment tools deem them a threat to public safety or unlikely to return to court. In two South Florida jails, the struggles over containing the virus, providing due process to criminal defendants, and ensuring public safety have brought the debate into sharper focus.

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  • Manhattan Mental Health Court offers lifeline to those with serious mental illness — but they have to get in

    November 14, 2020 |

    New York Daily News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    Manhattan Mental Health Court was created in 2011 to divert felony criminal cases to treatment, and away from prison, for people in need of mental health treatment. But few people with serious mental illness ever benefit from it. Too few defense lawyers know to request the intervention or do it correctly. Prosecutors act as gatekeepers in deciding who gets the help, and many do not see its value. And, once cases are admitted to the court, they can sometimes take years to be resolved. Covid restrictions on the courts have only aggravated these problems.

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  • Biden embraces drug courts, but do they actually work?

    November 02, 2020 |

    The Boston Globe |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Drug courts can help some people with serious drug problems who face serious criminal charges, if such court programs are run carefully, based on evidence-based approaches. But, too often, such courts – which push criminal defendants into treatment as an alternative to incarceration – can do more harm than good. The proof of drug courts' effectiveness is mixed, and fairly thin. Thousands of such courts exist, based on widespread political support for an approach seen as less punitive. But many critics say the courts' track record overall is weak and their approach can be just another form of punishment.

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  • Second Largest Police Force to Stop Criminalising Drug Users

    October 16, 2020 |

    Vice |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United Kingdom

    Four UK police forces have adopted drug-decriminalization policies over the past five years, diverting hundreds of cases toward treatment and harm-reduction counseling, and away from criminal convictions, fines, and incarceration. The policies, which apply even in cases involving heroin and cocaine, have been found to reduce drug offenses and conserve police resources for more serious crime. Based on those programs, West Midlands, the second-largest police force in England and Wales, is launching a one-year pilot project aimed at diverting 1,500 people's cases away from the criminal process.

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  • A Special Court Keeping Native Americans Out of Jail

    October 12, 2020 |

    70 Million |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, Maine

    The Penobscot Nation's Healing to Wellness Court is a drug court, diverting people charged with drug offenses from possible fines and jail into therapy. But it has an added cultural element, providing traditional healing approaches alongside mainstream behavioral therapy. The cultural piece recognizes that Native Americans' historical trauma and disconnect from their culture can contribute to the problems that lead to addiction. The court is far less expensive than jail or prison, and its participants have not been jailed for failing treatment in more than two years.

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  • Harris County's bail reforms let more people out of jail before trial without raising risk of reoffending

    September 03, 2020 |

    The Texas Tribune |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

    Releasing tens of thousands more misdemeanor defendants from jail without requiring cash bail had no measurable effect on crime rates in Texas' most populous county. To settle a lawsuit that claimed cash bail unconstitutionally discriminated against people on the basis of wealth, Harris County established a set of reforms abolishing cash bail in most misdemeanor cases. Court-appointed researchers monitoring compliance with the settlement found re-offending rates remained stable while racial disparities in who gets released improved. Not tested yet was compliance with court appointments.

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  • Can Prosecutors Be Taught to Avoid Jail Sentences?

    August 25, 2020 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Columbus, Ohio

    A nonprofit consulting firm, Prosecutor Impact, advances the cause of reducing incarceration and related reforms by helping reform-minded elected district attorneys confront one of the greatest obstacles to change: their own staff's opposition. In Columbus, a two-week curriculum educated front-line prosecutors about local services that can serve as problem-solving alternatives to punishment. It also taught them about poverty's challenges and engaged them in dialogue with prisoners, to make them more open to alternative approaches, which a local defense lawyer says was successful.

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  • Minnesota Freedom Fund Bails Out Those Who Can't Afford It

    August 20, 2020 |

    The Community Voice |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    The Minnesota Freedom Fund spent its first four years as a modestly funded nonprofit that used donations to bail people out of jail, as a means of countering a cash bail system that critics see as unfair to people living in poverty and people of color. From 2016 to early 2020, it had a budget of $100,000 per year and bailed out 563 people. Protests against Minneapolis police misconduct produced a windfall of $30 million in donations. The fund has excess funds, beyond what's needed to bail out protesters, and faces some criticism that it has freed people accused of violence.

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  • Program offers alternative for youth who commit misdemeanors

    August 05, 2020 |

    Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Choose 180 channels Seattle-area young people into an alternative to court and jail when they commit relatively minor offenses. This "offramp" from the traditional justice system, serving a disproportionately Black and brown clientele, helped 400 clients in 2019, 87% of whom did not commit new offenses. Research shows such diversion programs have a better track record for preventing future crimes. A Choose 180 "sentence" comes in the form of a workshop introducing young people to mentors and giving them a chance at the stability and frame of mind they need to seek more lasting change in their lives.

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  • After Intake Pause, City's Supervised Release Program Set for Large Expansion

    August 05, 2020 |

    Gotham Gazette |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    New York City's supervised release program stakes a middle ground in the debate over abolishing cash bail systems by paying outside agencies to monitor and help people released from jail while their criminal charges are pending. More equitable than requiring cash bail for release but more restrictive than simply releasing defendants with no oversight, the program in its first three years boasted an 88% rate for participants complying with court dates while 8% in early 2019 were arrested on new felony charges while freed. The program, on hold during the early pandemic months, is budgeted for a big expansion.

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