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Jail or Bail? There's a New Option

Ted Alcorn

February 01, 2019 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Between the opposite extremes of jailing too many people unnecessarily before trial or releasing too many unsupervised, New York City judges in 2016 began to use a "supervised release" option. In the first three years, the program's 11,000 defendants showed up for court dates 89% of the time while 8% were rearrested for new felony crimes. The program, which requires people check in regularly with a case manager, helped reduce the jail population by more than a third. The approach tries to balance the needs of public safety with the reality that even a short jail stay carries its own social harms.

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Benchmarking Racial Inequity in St. Louis

Zoe Sullivan

January 16, 2019 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

The collection and analysis of data is a crucial first step in revealing and addressing areas of racial inequality in cities. Using the methodology of a 2015 New York City program designed to study metrics of inequality, the St. Louis Equity Indicators Project has already filled large gaps in data by identifying 72 metrics of inequality in the heavily racially-divided city. Following the recommendations of the Ferguson Commission, the St. Louis’ Equity Indicators provide a baseline by which the city can track efforts to improve racial disparities across issues of health, education, and legal justice.

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How Atlanta Is Turning Ex-Cons Into Urban Farmers

Max Blau

December 06, 2018 |

Politico |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Atlanta, Georgia

An entrepreneur and activist in Atlanta, GA runs an urban farm and employs former prisoners in an attempt to tackle Georgia's incarceration and recidivism problems. The program, called Gangstas to Growers, employs folks regardless of previous experience and aims to keep up with the rapidly gentrifying community.

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The Jim Crow Jury System Falls in New Orleans

Brentin Mock

November 08, 2018 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

An amendment passed in Louisiana does away with non-unanimous jury verdicts that have helped solidify racial discrimination in the criminal justice system since they were implemented in response to Reconstruction. Data shows black defendants were more likely to be convicted in the non-unanimous system and the votes of black jurors more likely to be silenced. Advocates said the amendment is a huge game changer against mass incarceration in Louisiana and racial discrimination.

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Law & Disorder: Progressive Prosecutors Hope to Dismantle Mass Incarceration

Manny Faces

October 30, 2018 |

News Beat |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Across the United States, individuals and organizations are seeking to shift the criminal justice system through District Attorney elections. From online communities like colorofchange.org, which seeks to support grassroots election efforts, to individuals like Minnesota’s Mark Haase, who is running on a platform of diversity and inclusion, to the Texas Organizing Project that wants to empower Black and Latinx communities, each of these missions seeks to create more equity and transparency in the criminal justice system.

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A movement for police accountability is on Nashville's November ballot

Margaret Littman

October 22, 2018 |

Scalawag |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Nashville, Tennessee

The killing of Jocques Clemmons, an unarmed black man that was shot by a white officer in Tennessee, became the catalyst that spurred a community to action. A community oversight board would be in charge of investigating police misconduct by the MNPD. Grassroots organizers, activists, and residents fulfilled the 4,000 signatures needed for a referendum vote on the board, and if approved would join a growing movement that is trying to address police shootings of unarmed black men. “More than 200 cities already have boards in place with varying degrees of success.”

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The Crime Machine, Part II

PJ Vogt

October 12, 2018 |

Gimlet Media |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

CompStat seemed like a miracle of technology and data when it was rolled out in New York City in the 1990s. Crime dropped as police leadership demanded precincts report every crime and what they were doing about it at weekly meetings where they were pressured to conform to this new system. But this also resulted in police distorting actual crime data to avoid reporting crimes in their districts and the push for increased police activity resulted in cops targeting minorities for minor offenses.

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To Help Immigrants Feel Safer Around Police, Some Churches Start Issuing IDs

Laurel Wamsley

October 11, 2018 |

NPR |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is set to start issuing parishioner ID cards in a program modeled off a similar one in Texas. The ID cards include a name, address, and birth date and are meant for undocumented immigrants to feel safer around law enforcement.

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The Crime Machine, Part I

PJ Vogt

October 11, 2018 |

Gimlet Media |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The creation of CompStat fostered a huge drop in crime rates in New York City by the 1990s. The idea came from an odd and obsessive transit cop was to track every single crime daily in every precinct and use that data to systematically go after everything from murders to low-level crimes once ignored by police. It was a drastic shift in the way NYPD worked and was credited with making the city far safer, but was also flawed.

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Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence

Scott Michels

September 26, 2018 |

Retro Report |

Documentary |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Operation Ceasefire, known as the “Boston miracle,” abandoned traditional policing’s responses to street violence, which caused severe racial tensions, and created a community coalition that used a carrot-and-stick model of targeting people at risk of suffering or committing violence, threatening them with punishment but offering instead social services if they put their guns down. After dramatically reducing violence in Boston in the early 1990s, it spread nationwide. But this highly targeted enforcement method can fail when it isn’t done by the book or sustained over a long period.

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