After Michigan Killings, Students Praised Shooter Drills. But Do They Really Work?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/us/school-shooting-drills-oxford-high.html

Dana Goldstein

The New York Times

2 December 2021

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Students at Oxford High School in Michigan, the scene of a mass shooting on Nov. 30, credit their active-shooter training with saving lives. But experts on school safety say some of the lessons taught in the training given to the OHS students, from a program called ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) could endanger more people than they protect. The evidence that this and similar training is effective is quite thin, and critics fear it detracts from higher priorities: preventing, not just surviving, such shootings, and focusing on much more common forms of gun violence.

The Judge Who Keeps People Out of Jail

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/11/30/new-mexico-drug-court

Ted Alcorn

The Washington Post Magazine

30 November 2021

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Since 2018, Judge Jason Lidyard of Rio Arriba County, N.M., has forged a new model for a drug court. Instead of demanding abstinence from drugs as the price to stay out of jail, Lidyard uses respect and personal relationships to seek a redefinition of success: making substance abuse less deadly and less socially crippling. Violating the court's requirements to get treatment results in more help, not jail. The less punitive approach seemed to reduce overdoses until a new fentanyl surge complicated the picture. Almost all of the people who've gone through the court have avoided new felony arrests.

The U.S. Government Is Wasting Billions on Ineffective Wildfire Policy

https://slate.com/technology/2021/11/fire-industrial-complex-wildfire-policy-suppression.html

Aaron Labaree

Slate

30 November 2021

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The U.S. Forest Service and the state of California's Cal Fire pour billions of dollars into waging all-out war on massive wildfires. Huge camps for firefighters, heavy equipment, and elaborate airborne resources make up the arsenal thrown at a problem that is growing thanks in part to climate change. But the efforts are largely wasteful and ineffective because of the scope of the problem and the lack of focus on aspects of the problem that can be controlled better, such as fires at the "wildland-urban interface" where human habitation meets the forest.

'You're not alone': New Summit court program helps parents reunite with children

https://www.beaconjournal.com/restricted/?return=https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2021/11/29/new-summit-court-program-helps-parents-child-custody-cases/8585321002

Stephanie Warsmith

Akron Beacon Journal

29 November 2021

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Summit County, Ohio's juvenile court's Multidisciplinary Team Representation assigns a parent advocate and social worker to child-custody cases to help parents reunite with their children much more quickly than the system typically processes cases. The program has just begun in the county, helping a handful of families reunite, but a study in New York City showed the same approach reunited families 43% more often than if just an attorney were helping the family. Parents whose troubles lead to the temporary loss of their children need supports that help them get on firmer ground.

‘An utter failure': Law meant to clear old convictions, including for marijuana possession, helps few

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/28/marijuana/an-utter-failure-law-meant-clear-old-convictions-including-marijuana-possession-helps-few

Dan Adams

The Boston Globe

28 November 2021

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In 2018, Massachusetts legislators passed a law allowing people with certain lower-level criminal records to seal the records or expunge convictions altogether. The law was meant to remove the burden that a criminal record imposes on people seeking jobs or renting apartments, particularly when the conduct is no longer illegal, such as marijuana possession. Thousands have managed to get their records sealed. But relatively few have sought or won expungement, thanks to an overly restrictive and complicated process that hasn't been explained well to those who could benefit.

St. Paul police credit jiu-jitsu training for reducing injuries — and excessive force settlements

https://www.twincities.com/2021/11/28/st-paul-police-jiu-jitsu-training-reducing-injuries-excessive-force-settlements

Mara H. Gottfried

Twin Cities Pioneer Press

28 November 2021

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When St. Paul police studied controversial cases in which officers used physical force, they found troubling examples that were products of the training given to officers. So they began training new and veteran officers to use tactics inspired by the Brazilian martial art jiu-jitsu, which prizes teamwork by two officers to use leverage to restrain resistant people rather than using brute force, weapons, or chemicals. In the six years after the training began, St. Paul officers used force far less often, injured far fewer people, and cost the city much less money in settlements payments.

Prisoners hope that education can erase a stigma

https://hechingerreport.org/prisons-are-training-inmates-for-the-next-generation-of-high-tech-jobs

Danielle Dreilinger

The Hechinger Report

26 November 2021

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Idaho's nine prisons have more than 30 postsecondary educational programs geared to helping incarcerated people get hired in career-track, technical jobs after their release from prison. The prisons focus on jobs in demand and woo potential employers with tours of their well-equipped classrooms. They also focus on education that produces certifications that carry more weight in industry. Studies show those credentials produce better odds against people returning to prison. Such programs nationwide have suffered from inadequate funding, but more federal money is in the pipeline.

Without help, Philly kids who lost family to gun violence will 'self destruct.' So this grandmother gave them a getaway trip.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/columnists/inq2/gun-violence-trauma-kids-kalahari-resorts-waterpark-poconos-20211122.html

Helen Ubiñas

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network)

22 November 2021

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The group Moms Bonded By Grief went beyond the support-group work it has done for years for survivors of gun violence homicide victims to take 50 children and their mothers and grandmothers to a Poconos Mountains water park and resort. The long-weekend respite from Philadelphia's relentless gun violence included group therapy for children and adults, enabling them to talk about topics that often get buried or ignored. The excursion, funded by donations, is planned to be repeated next summer.

These Americans Are Just Going Around in Circles. It Helps the Climate.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/climate/roundabouts-climate-emissions-driving.html

Cara Buckley

The New York Times

20 November 2021

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America's capital of the traffic roundabout is Carmel, Indiana, a city of 102,000 people and 140 roundabouts. The city boasts exceptionally low rates of traffic deaths and injury crashes. Studies of roundabout use elsewhere show benefits as well in pedestrian and bicycle safety, and in cutting environmentally harmful emissions because traditional intersections cause much longer idling times. Not all drivers like them, but Carmel long ago overcame initial qualms when the longtime mayor put into practice the traffic idea he admired when he was a university student in England.

Green Jobs Offer Ex-Offenders a Career Path after Prison

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/prison-training-green-collar-jobs

Ryan M. Moser

Reasons to be Cheerful

18 November 2021

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At Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution, incarcerated men teach a course offered through a college correspondence school that can lead to certification to work as a wastewater treatment plant operator, a well-paying green-industry job in high demand. An incarcerated journalist tells the story of how demanding lessons in chemistry, microbiology, and algebra prepare students for the state certification exam. Hundreds have taken the course and many have found jobs in the industry after prison, although many employers remain reluctant to hire people with felony records.