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Putting Fewer Innocents Behind Bars

Tina Rosenberg

July 03, 2015 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Pre-trial detention for non-risk offenders has proven to be socially harmful, costly, and actually increases the crime rate. The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is a national program that aims to decrease pre-trial detentions based upon individual merit, and provides ways that a newly released offender can be surveilled, have mentoring, and receive treatment for mental health or substance abuse. The initiative has effectively helped to keep low-level offenders out of jail.

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Everything you think you know about disciplining kids is wrong

Katherine Reynolds Lewis

July 01, 2015 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, South Berwick, Maine

Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

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Prison Born

Sarah Yager

July 01, 2015 |

The Atlantic |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Bedford Hills, New York

More women are being incarcerated around the United States and that has spurred more institutions to create prison nurseries, which allow women to be with their newborns. It's not a new idea, but it's finding support among prison advocates as well as budget hawks because research shows nurseries can lower recidivism rates among mothers. The idea of children in prison remains controversial however.

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A Mother Forgives the Man Who Raped and Killed Her Daughter

Mark Obbie

June 30, 2015 |

Slate |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

Restorative justice emphasizes accountability and making amends by facilitating meetings between people who committed a crime and those who were hurt by that crime. Victims can get their questions answered and express to the offender how their lives were impacted and the offender apologizes and presents specific ways they will make amends, such as community service or drug treatment. The method improves recidivism rates and gives victims a small sense of control. One participant, Linda White, was inspired to become a vocal and active advocate of the approach after speaking with a man who killed her daughter.

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The ‘win-win-win' Tompkins could use to help jailed veterans

Melissa Whitworth

June 30, 2015 |

The Ithaca Voice |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Buffalo, New York

Over 220 Veterans Treatment Courts have been created across the United States, each of which helps provide services like rehabilitation and support groups instead of jail time to veterans. Courts in Ithaca, New York are thinking about implementing such programs and are looking to places like Buffalo, which has seen a decreased recidivism rate to just five percent.

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The simple idea that could transform US criminal justice

Tina Rosenberg

June 23, 2015 |

The Guardian |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

In the courtroom known as Part Two, at the Newark Municipal Courthouse, Judge Victoria Pratt is pioneering the procedural justice approach, and is getting results. The idea, now central to conversations around reform of the US criminal justice system, is simple: "people are far more likely to obey the law if the justice system does not humiliate them, but treats them fairly and with respect."

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Texas study may aid juvenile justice reforms

Sylvan Lane

June 22, 2015 |

Dallas Morning News |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Dallas, Texas

An in-depth study of Texas youth crime records helped them find a path forward on juvenile criminal justice reform, but they still struggle with limited resources and a culture stuck on incarceration.

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City program gives job opportunities to those needing a second chance

Laura Crimaldi

June 18, 2015 |

The Boston Globe |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Operation Exit, a program in Boston, offers vocational training to ex-offenders and people with a high risk of offending, giving them the motivation and tools to better their situation.

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Life on Parole

Matthew O'Neil

June 08, 2015 |

PBS Frontline |

Broadcast TV Programs |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Connecticut

Connecticut is attempting to reduce prison recidivism by changing parole practices. Changes to the system are allowing parole officers to foster relationships with parolees and counsel them as people, not as cases.

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Can gardening transform convicted killers and carjackers? Prison officials get behind the bloom.

Michael S. Rosenwald

June 07, 2015 |

The Washington Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Westover, Maryland

Eastern Correctional Institution is just one of the nation's prisons that's using gardening and agriculture as a way both to improve prison and community food systems, and to give inmates a sense of worth.

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