Austin youth re-entry program has 15% recidivism rate, compared to 75% nationwide

https://www.kxan.com/top-stories/austin-youth-re-entry-program-has-15-recidivism-rate-compared-to-75-nationwide

Clare O'Connor

KXAN-TV

26 July 2021

Broadcast TV News / 3-5 Minutes

Jail to Jobs pays youth while they get trained for jobs in construction, manufacturing, landscaping, and cooking. The youth come from youth detention, the streets, probation, and foster care and their trainers are formerly incarcerated. Jail to Jobs, with four locations in Austin, has helped more than 600 young people find employment despite their pasts. Only 15% of its graduates have been jailed afterward, a lower-than-average recidivism rate.

NYC is sending social workers instead of police to some 911 calls. Here's how it's going.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/23/nyc-mental-health-911-pilot-program-harlem/8053555002

Ryan W. Miller

USA Today

23 July 2021

Text / 800-1500 Words

A pilot project in three New York Police Department precincts of Harlem showed in its first month that it can divert some mental-health crises away from hospitalization and toward other forms of help. Teams of medics and social workers took about one-quarter of such calls, sometimes at NYPD invitation. They sent about half of the people in crisis to a hospital, significantly less often than the police do in such cases. The goal in replacing police is to avoid needless violence and arrests in non-violent, non-criminal emergencies.

NYC's Non-Police Mental Health Pilot Increasing Rate of Those Getting Aid, Data Show

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/nycs-non-police-mental-health-pilot-increasing-rate-of-those-getting-aid-data-show/3165520

Darlene Rodriguez

WNBC-TV

22 July 2021

Broadcast TV News / Under 3 Minutes

In its first month as a pilot project in a part of Harlem, New York's Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) handled one-quarter of 911 calls for mental health crises. Despite fears of danger to the teams of social workers and paramedics, police backup was needed only seven times out of 110 cases. More people accepted help from the non-police teams than in the past from teams of police and paramedics. And that help depended half as often on hospital visits. People got helped on the scene or went to community centers for services. The city plans to expand the program.

Eugene, Oregon, Police Chief: Sending Unarmed Crisis Specialists On Mental Health Calls Saves Lives

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/07/22/mental-health-responders-programs

Robin Young

Allison Hagan

WBUR

22 July 2021

Radio Talk Show / 5-15 Minutes

The police chief in Eugene, Ore., home of the CAHOOTS program, which other communities see as the model for finding alternatives to policing, supports the program because it saves lives and saves the city money. Sending unarmed medics and social workers on calls involving behavioral health problems, mental health crises, and substance-use psychotic episodes automatically de-escalates many situations because of the lack of a police presence.

For girls with mothers in prison, a summer camp offers much-needed support

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/for-girls-with-mothers-in-prison-a-summer-camp-offers-much-needed-support

Amna Nawaz

PBS NewsHour

21 July 2021

Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes

For three days each summer, the Girls Embracing Mothers (GEM) camp near Dallas gives girls an escape from their daily reality of being denied a normal relationship with their incarcerated mothers. Founded by a lawyer whose own mother was incarcerated, GEM combines typical summer-camp fun with trust-building exercises. During camp and afterward, the girls become part of a community of peers who understand each other's trauma – which puts them at higher risk of dropping out of school, mental health problems, and homelessness – in a place where they need not feel shame for their mothers' status.

Can ‘Bad Men' Ever Change?

https://www.thecut.com/2021/07/restorative-justice-lessons.html

Amelia Schonbek

The Cut

21 July 2021

Text / Over 3000 Words

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

Outgunned: Why California's groundbreaking firearms law is failing

https://calmatters.org/justice/2021/07/california-gun-law-failing

Robert Lewis

CalMatters

21 July 2021

Text / Over 3000 Words

Two decades ago, California became the first state to create a system to track and seize guns from people no longer legally permitted to possess a gun. Thousands of guns have been seized. But the database of gun owners now barred from gun possession because of a violent offense, a serious mental illness, or a restraining order has ballooned and many people slip through the cracks of a system "mired in chronic shortcomings." Local police often fail to support the system and the state's investigation bureau is understaffed.

A 'Zoom boom' boosted civic engagement across Kansas. But will it continue?

https://klcjournal.com/zoom-boom-civic-engagement

Stan Finger

KLC Journal

20 July 2021

Text / 1500-3000 Words

When courthouses and in-person government meetings shut down because of COVID-19, officials satisfied Kansas’ open meeting mandate by using pandemic relief aid to equip buildings with the technology needed to live stream proceedings and allow constituents to comment remotely. Crowds watching on platforms like Facebook Live were substantially higher than in-person attendance had ever been. Several cities linked agendas online and found creative ways to include public comments in meetings. Advocates are looking to maintain the public’s increased civic engagement as courts and government offices are reopening.

Tourism in time of pandemic. How the Safar Project opened minds and borders

https://news48.it/safar-travel

Isa Grassano

News48

19 July 2021

Text / 1500-3000 Words

An Italian travel writer and a publishing house partnered to recreate the experience of travel to new places, providing tourists with a virtual experience and tour guides with a source of income to replace their lost businesses when the pandemic shut down actual travel. Called the Sarar project (Arabic for travel), the service charges 15 euros for one and a half hour Zoom tours featuring live explanations and interactions with local people, limited only by time zones and cellular reception. An average of 50 tourists have signed on with the seven tour guides who have been recruited so far.

Temperature check: On the frontlines of the fight to save affordable housing from climate change

https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/article_f60b9d06-e4ec-11eb-a936-0b6db8159fd2.html

Sarah Ravits

Gambit

19 July 2021

Text / Over 3000 Words

Home by Hand is a nonprofit that’s working to mitigate the effects of climate change on home ownership. Storm damage, high utility bills due to extreme weather, and the loss of housing stock due to Hurricane Katrina have all added to climate-change related “cost burdens” that keep economically disadvantaged people from purchasing homes. The nonprofit is building homes that are environmentally friendly to push down utility costs as well as the costs of potential repairs in the event of inevitable storms and hurricanes.