The criminal justice system exists to prevent crime and to provide justice and healing to crime victims. But that system – police, prosecutors, courts, jails, prisons, and services for people with criminal records in and out of incarceration – is not alone in that mission. Community groups standing apart from the system do so as well, particularly in response to the movements for racial equity in law enforcement and to end mass incarceration. These stories look at the effectiveness of both sets of players, and at responses sparked when the criminal justice system itself is the problem.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/entry/the-radical-shift-in-drug-treatment-happening-inside-california-prisons
Juan Moreno Haines
Next City
15 October 2021
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To combat opioid overdose deaths among incarcerated people, the California prison system in January 2020 launched a treatment program that combines medication-assisted treatment with counseling by professionals and fellow incarcerated people. The program uses the three most effective medications to reduce opioid dependency. The one-year program features intense counseling, individual and group, based on a workbook that takes gender and trauma-related causes for drug abuse into account. Preliminary data show a decrease in deaths at San Quentin prison. More than 15,000 people have enrolled in the program.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-11/la-me-col1-victim-offender-dialogue
Leila Miller
Los Angeles Times
11 October 2021
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Since the 1990s, California prisons' victim-aid office has arranged for crime victims to meet with the incarcerated people who harmed them or their family members. These victim-offender dialogues, a restorative-justice method offering alternative forms of accountability, have helped survivors heal by providing information they could not glean from the traditional justice process. Some have also experienced reconciliation and forgiveness. Only victims can initiate the process, and most incarcerated people are deemed ineligible after screening and preparation for the face-to-face dialogues.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/prison-reform-curbs-some-solitary-confinement-but-how-much
Rachel Riley
The Everett Daily Herald (HeraldNet)
10 October 2021
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Washington state prison officials say they have tried for years to reduce their use of solitary confinement. They made some progress toward that goal until the pandemic. Despite that complication, hundreds still live for months or even years in near-total isolation, which critics liken to torture and blame for psychological damage to incarcerated people. Advocates for strict limits or abolishing the practice say the state has maintained the use of solitary under a variety of euphemistic names. Pending legislation would impose stricter limits, which prison officials oppose on safety grounds.
https://revealnews.org/podcast/when-abusers-keep-their-guns
Jennifer Gollan
Reveal
9 October 2021
Podcast / Over 15 Minutes
Starting in 1968, Congress has passed a series of laws, as have some states, stripping gun possession rights from people convicted of felonies or of domestic violence, or who are the subjects of restraining orders. But neither federal nor most state authorities do much to enforce the laws, relying instead on an honor system that often fails. Some places, like Washington's King County (Seattle), have done more to track who has guns they are barred from having. Thorough follow-up enables them to confiscate such guns in a process that can be less potentially violent than assumed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/traffic-stops-are-flashpoint-policing-america-reformers-are-winning-big-n1280594
Simone Weichselbaum
Emily R. Siegel
Andrew Blankstein
NBC News
7 October 2021
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A new Virginia law restricts when the police can stop motorists, limiting the chances for inequitable law enforcement. Barred from stopping vehicles based on minor infractions like a broken taillight, police in the first four months under the new law sharply reduced their stops of Black motorists. Police say such stops are a key tactic for getting guns, drugs, and dangerous people off the streets. But they also can be racially motivated, disproportionately punish people of color, and lead to violent confrontations. Many states and cities are considering dialing back traffic enforcement for these reasons.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/qualified-immunity-police-lobbying-state-legislatures/2021/10/06/60e546bc-0cdf-11ec-aea1-42a8138f132a_story.html
Kimberly Kindy
The Washington Post
7 October 2021
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Fifteen months after Colorado became the first state to strip law enforcement officers of their legal immunity from civil lawsuits for misconduct on the job, one lawsuit has been filed over a notorious incident while no real evidence has materialized that police department staffing will be gutted by resignations or recruiting problems. The 2020 social-justice protest movement inspired dozens of proposed laws to end the practice called qualified immunity. All but Colorado's bill failed, based on dire warnings from police unions. The Colorado law exposes officers to damages up to $25,000.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/10/05/red-flag-laws-are-saving-lives-they-could-save-more
Matt Vasilogambros
Stateline
5 October 2021
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Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted red-flag laws, most of them since the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting. The laws, also called extreme risk protection order laws, allow law enforcement officials or family members to petition courts to confiscate guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Use of the laws has grown and advocates say they have saved lives. But the growth has been slow, largely because of widespread ignorance of the laws among the public and even police. Some states have begun to fund education and training campaigns to rectify that.
https://tucson.com/news/local/subscriber/tucson-police-chief-says-mental-health-workers-in-911-center-would-ensure-callers-get-the/article_06fc27da-0a8a-11ec-83eb-4f1d0417a290.html
Caitlin Schmidt
Arizona Daily Star
5 October 2021
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In 2019, Mesa police began diverting calls about suicide threats to a crisis line, where trained mental health professionals could provide counseling or dispatch a mobile crisis unit. Then they placed mental health professionals side by side with police dispatchers to triage 911 calls on the spot. Police now handle many fewer suicide-related crises, saving the city money and giving people more appropriate care. In Tucson, a mobile crisis team operates more independently from police. After two social workers were abducted at gunpoint by a man in crisis, the police chief argued to adopt the Mesa model.
https://filtermag.org/denver-psilocybin-decriminalize-mushrooms
Alexander Lekhtman
Filter
4 October 2021
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Since Denver voters approved the decriminalization of the natural psychedelic drug psilocybin, the small number of arrests grew even smaller and one supporter of the policy sees growing interest in the therapeutic use of the drug. Even though supporters admit the policy has not made a big impact, it has influenced other cities and states to move in the same direction. Denver's policy was at the vanguard of what appears to be a pro-psychedlic movement in both legal and health policy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/domestic-violence-hotline-uk.html
Rachel Louise Snyder
The New York Times
1 October 2021
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The Respect Phoneline started in the UK in 2004 to give anonymous callers, usually men, a way to seek help for their violent impulses. Rather than putting the burden for resolving domestic violence on survivors and on the punitive tools of the criminal justice system, the hotline approach recognizes that people prone to abusing others are frustrated and unhappy and want to change but need help to figure out how. While the aftermath of anonymous phone counseling can't be tracked, the author observed the process helping many men change their thinking. Similar hotlines have started in multiple places.
https://www.boulderweekly.com/news/learning-when-to-be-hands-off
Jodi Hausen
Boulder Weekly
30 September 2021
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Although several Colorado law enforcement agencies have trained officers on how to de-escalate interactions with people in a crisis, including people with disabilities, the state in 2022 will become the latest to mandate such training for all law enforcement officers. The training is backed by a study that suggests it helps police better recognize and understand the reactions that people with disabilities might have under stress in a confrontation with police. Trained officers in Boulder last year successfully ended one potentially violent incident without serious inury.
https://nextcity.org/urban-news/entry/atlanta-housing-police-in-disinvested-black-communities-increase-trust
Adina Solomon
Next City
29 September 2021
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The Secure Neighborhoods program lets select police officers buy houses at subsidized prices if they move into a mostly Black, historically disinvested neighborhood. The aim of the program is to make police officers part of a community, build community trust, and discourage crime. While violence and auto theft in the chosen neighborhood have dropped, and some community members say the program improved relations, others complain that the gesture has been fairly superficial and just adds to gentrification pressures.
https://www.kmov.com/news/parson-acknowledges-new-gun-needs-to-be-revisited-after-police-say-it-ties-their-hands/article_fff27f96-1ffd-11ec-a528-bf635d2a93c7.html
Lauren Trager
KMOV-TV
28 September 2021
Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes
A new Missouri law, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, restricts the ability of local law enforcement officials to collaborate with federal officials in enforcing gun laws and investigating gun crimes. The law, which legislators meant as a statement of gun-rights principles, would fine police officers who violate it. Many local law enforcement officers withdrew from federal-local gun crime task forces and have otherwise stopped working with their federal counterparts. One department stopped submitting data to the federal ballistics database. Police say the law interferes with legitimate police work.
https://www.wwno.org/news/2021-09-24/they-saw-me-and-thought-the-worst
Richard A. Webster
New Orleans Public Radio (WWNO)
24 September 2021
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Comparing police accountability in Jefferson Parish, La., to neighboring New Orleans reveals a stark contrast because of federally imposed reforms in New Orleans. Jefferson's sheriff's office, one of the nation's largest police agencies not using body cameras, has a weak internal investigation process and lack of transparency for its uses of force, which are skewed by race. New Orleans had similar problems until a Justice Department report led to a package of reforms that have helped reduce the use of force and increased accountability and transparency.
https://humanglemedia.com/sexual-violence-is-endemic-in-sokoto-but-a-law-firm-is-changing-the-narrative
Abiodun Jamiu
HumAngle
23 September 2021
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Rashida Muhammad and Co. is a small law firm in Nigeria's northwest states that gives free representation to women and girls who have been victims of sexual and gender-based violence. Despite harsh laws on the books, the people who commit such crimes benefit from an inefficient and slow system of justice. The Rashida firm has successfully prosecuted five cases, with more in progress. When victims do not see a likely way to seek justice, crimes go unreported, people committing harm remain unaccountable, and victims are discriminated against in education.
https://www.thecut.com/2021/09/gabby-petito-body-cam-cops-fail-domestic-violence-victims.html
Melissa Jeltsen
The Cut
22 September 2021
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The case of Gabby Petito illustrates how decades-old laws meant to make police take domestic violence more seriously can backfire on the people who most need protection. Mandatory-arrest laws require police responding to a domestic-violence complaint to determine who is the primary aggressor, as a prelude to an arrest. In Petito's case, as in many, Moab, Utah, police deemed her the aggressor based on a cursory investigation, and possibly based on ingrained biases against women. This does nothing to get at the root of the problem and get people the help they need.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/police-reform-consequences/620150
Russell Berman
The Atlantic
22 September 2021
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In the wake of 2020's social-justice protests and a controversial killing by Aurora police of a man in their custody, Colorado legislators passed the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act, the first police-reform law of its kind in the nation. The law mandates several reforms aimed at improving transparency and accountability, including prompt release of body-cam videos and allowing people to sue police officers for violating their rights. The law has resulted already in a crackdown on misconduct in Aurora. What's less clear is whether it can change the culture of policing.
https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.10/south-youth-in-arizona-a-radical-change-in-juvenile-detention
Ruxandra Guidi
High Country News
20 September 2021
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Unrealistic fears of a wave of youth violence left rural Apache County, Colorado, with an unused, costly youth detention facility. So the local courts decided to refashion the empty jail into the Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout offering a "care-first" approach to teen problems. Mentors and a truancy prevention program help youth avoid trouble and get educations. Youth arrests have dropped, though that might also be credited to the state's risk-assessment tool that is meant to guard against overuse of punishment.
https://www.propublica.org/article/he-beat-her-repeatedly-family-court-tried-to-give-him-joint-custody-of-their-children
Megan O'Matz
ProPublica
16 September 2021
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Wisconsin is a leader in the movement to treat fathers as equal caregivers and to prioritize shared custody in divorces. But this fathers' rights reform, combined with outmoded ideas about women who allege domestic violence, often forces domestic violence victims to maintain frequent communication with their abusers and to turn over their children to violent former spouses for visits. Although the shared-custody law does exempt cases of serious domestic violence, advocates say the law allows large exceptions, makes proving allegations too hard, and is overseen by courts dismissive of women's allegations.
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/police/austin-police-reform-shootings-defunding/269-8cee19b7-d49d-493e-b2b1-85281c3f133e
Tony Plohetski
KVUE-TV
15 September 2021
Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes
After years of inaction on police-reform measures, Austin city leaders raced to restructure and cut resources from the city's police department after the 2020 nationwide social-justice protests followed close on the heels of another in a series of controversial police shootings in Austin. By freezing hiring of new officers and shifting $140 million to other agencies, the city was among the biggest cities making the earliest, boldest moves to reform policing. A year later, a severe shortage of patrol officers and rising violence has sparked a new round of debate about where the city goes from here.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/14/every-man-was-drinking-how-much-do-bans-on-alcohol-help-women-in-india
Preeti Jha
The Guardian
14 September 2021
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The Bihar, India, state government banned drinking and selling of alcohol in 2016 after women in the mostly rural state mounted protests blaming men's alcohol abuse for rampant violence against women. Hundreds of thousands of arrests, carrying severe penalties, resulted from the ban. Previous bans in Bihar and other states failed because of unpopularity and loopholes. This one has some evidence to suggest it cut drinking by a lot but violence by only a little, while bootlegging and other crimes have increased. The prohibition protests have spread to other states.
https://crosscut.com/news/2021/09/seattle-police-intervening-fewer-mental-health-calls-data-show
David Kroman
Crosscut
13 September 2021
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Washington state legislators imposed new restrictions on the use of force by police, including strict limits on physically restraining someone who is not suspected of committing a crime. At a time when non-police responders to mental health crises are not yet fully staffed, the use-of-force reforms have had the unintended consequence in Seattle of denying some people in mental health crises the emergency care they need. Police believe they are not allowed to restrain someone in order to involuntarily commit them to a mental hospital. Involuntary commitments have dropped by almost half.
https://70-million.simplecast.com/episodes/where-juvenile-detention-looks-more-like-teens-hanging-out
Ruxandra Guidi
70 Million
13 September 2021
Podcast / Over 15 Minutes
Apache County, Arizona, once had a costly, under-used juvenile detention center and a traditional philosophy that stern punishment would steer young people away from misbehavior. Now the abandoned detention center is The Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout with mentors, connections to social services, and a place where youth can go to socialize – a rare commodity in this rural community. It's run and staffed by the court system and its probation department. But its methods are love and support, not threats of arrest and incarceration. Juvenile arrests are now way down.
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/navigators-help-defendants-avoid-boobytraps
Patrick Sisson
Reasons to be Cheerful
13 September 2021
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The nationwide nonprofit Partners for Justice aids public defender offices and their clients, helping to close gaps that can turn into unfair outcomes in criminal cases and repeated failures guaranteeing incarceration. Advocates get posted for two years to assist underfunded public defenders in multiple cities. The help can include gathering evidence to aid in clients' defense. But it goes beyond that to helping them and their families navigate bureaucracies so that their lives can be stable enough to avoid more criminal legal entanglements.
https://www.vaildaily.com/news/eagle-county-problem-solving-courts-offer-new-hope-to-repeat-offenders-battling-substance-abuse
Kelli Duncan
Vail Daily
9 September 2021
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Eagle County's two problem-solving courts put treatment ahead of punishment when addressing crimes committed by people with substance abuse problems. Originally set up as one court, they now function separately to address drunken driving and drugs and serve people "teetering on the edge of serious prison time" for repeat offenses. More than 90 percent of participants in 2020 maintained sobriety and more than 80 percent avoided new legal troubles. While the threat of punishment is used to win compliance with rules, prosecutors say they're more interested in permanently curing the underlying disease.
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