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  • The career where it helps to have a criminal past

    June 29, 2021 |

    BBC |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

    All people between the ages of 14 and 21 in Washington, D.C., who are placed on probation for criminal convictions get assigned a probation officer, social worker, and a "credible messenger" – a mentor, usually with his or her own criminal past, who is paid by the city Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to help ensure a successful probationary period. The cost is far lower than youth detention and is associated with a much lower rate of re-offending. The work is so intense that the highly trained messengers often need their own counseling to cope with the stress of turning lives around.

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  • How Kitimat B.C. is catching its breath

    June 16, 2021 |

    Living Here |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Canada, Kitimat, British Columbia

    A new aluminum plant in British Columbia would have ended up putting more sulphur dioxide into the air, but the Kitimat Terrace Clean Air Coalition (KTCAC) helped bring this to light and encourage them to install air monitoring stations. They wrote letters to the government and took the company to court. As a result of their efforts, three air monitoring stations were installed to measure the particulate matter and alert residents if levels increased. “Industry and government are listening to people who are concerned in Kitimat,” says Steve Stannus, a founder of KTCAC.

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  • Community-led alternative to criminal justice resolves conflict, fosters community and protects youth

    May 23, 2021 |

    Grid Magazine |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Restorative justice healing circles run by Cookman Beloved Community Baptist Church in West Philadelphia have helped resolve hundreds of disputes among youth over the past 15 years using dialogue instead of courts. Bringing together people who were harmed, those who harmed them, and members of the community leads to negotiated agreements that provide justice and reconciliation without leaving young people with a criminal record. Restorative-justice approaches to school discipline in Philadelphia have dropped the numbers of arrests from 1,600 to 384 per year.

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  • Santa Barbara County Looks to Yolo County for Criminal Justice Reform

    May 16, 2021 |

    Santa Barbara Independent |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Woodland, California

    By turning over its criminal justice data to Measures for Justice, a nonprofit developer that turns raw data into publicly available reports, the Yolo County district attorney has a much better grasp on the work that it has been doing. Better data mean better-informed decisions about criminal justice reforms. The investment in the new system is prompting policy changes because of racial disparities showing up in the numbers. And that is prompting many other DAs to clamor for the same kind of system.

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  • Bringing a Veterans Treatment Court to Sedgwick County

    May 10, 2021 |

    KSNW-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Wichita, Kansas

    Kansas' only veterans treatment court started small, but it has proved the concept to Sedgwick County officials who want to copy its success. Veterans courts provide treatment in lieu of conviction and punishment for veterans charged generally with non-violent, less-serious offenses. The costs are much lower than for incarceration, with greater benefits to the defendants. National statistics show a 14% recidivism rate, much lower than for the criminal justice system overall. In Johnson County, 41 veterans have gone through the 18-month program; none have reoffended.

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  • National bail fund to expand in the Deep South

    May 04, 2021 |

    Associated Press |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Since 2018, The Bail Project has turned $41 million in donated money into cash bail to free more than 15,500 people in dozens of cities from pretrial detention. The project grew out of the work of Bronx Defenders, which saw over a decade the people it bailed out nearly all showed up for court dates and most did not get into new trouble while out of jail. Now the Bail Project is expanding with new offices in four Southern states, a reflection of the region's high incarceration rates and racial disparities. In the campaign to end cash bail as a penalty for poverty, bail funds serve as a stopgap.

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  • Dependency Court Programs Focus On Babies' Health

    April 29, 2021 |

    The Imprint |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Tacoma, Washington

    The Safe Babies program model trains judges to oversee foster-care cases with the goal of fixing the problems that led social workers to remove young children from their homes. Operating swiftly, so that babies do not lose precious weeks and months apart from their parents at a critical time, programs like Best For Babies in Pierce County, Washington, put teams of medical and mental health experts on a case. Nationwide, the program used in 30 states makes family reunification much more likely and rapid, with healthier parental attachments and child development.

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  • Michigan aiming to reduce seclusion and restraints at institutions that care for children

    April 29, 2021 |

    WSYM-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Michigan

    After the death of a 16-year-old boy who was tackled and restrained by staff at a juvenile justice facility, Michigan children's services officials imposed emergency rules limiting the use of restraints. In the past year, the use of restraints – which include handcuffs, straitjackets, even chemicals and medication – dropped from about 600 cases per month to fewer than half that. The state now is considering permanent rules restricting their use and is requiring more training for staff in preventing physical conflicts. One advocate says Pennsylvania serves as a model for nearly eliminating the problem.

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  • How Kenya turned the tide against ivory poachers

    April 27, 2021 |

    Financial Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Kenya, Nanyuki

    More and more park rangers, judges, prosecutors, and wildlife investigators are working together to stop poaching in Kenya. Through training and a new app that allows all parties to track wild animals in a protected conservation area, the number of poaching cases has decreased from 449 creatures killed illegally in 2021 to 93 in 2018. The number of court cases have also decreased in recent years.

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  • Part 2: “There is no Champion” — Granite State News Collaborative

    April 22, 2021 |

    Granite State News Collaborative |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, North Conway, New Hampshire

    White Mountain Restorative Justice offers juvenile and adult court diversion and victim-offender mediation programs. WMRJ aims to guide first-time low-level offenders through restorative justice processes to hold offenders accountable, repair the harm caused by crime, and prevent reoffences.

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