A screenshot from “Cared Straight,” a documentary about the Youth Deterrent Program in Detroit. (Kickstarter) By Ricardo Ferrell, Waging NonVioloence, November 22, 2023 In many inner cities and suburbs across America our youth are losing their way, as they drop out of school and start hanging in the streets with the wrong crowd. These teens are drawn to negative influences and lose interest in their academics. They become bored with the idea of learning and obtaining an education and more...

“YES!” was the response of Gaile Osborne, executive director of Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina (FFANC), when asked for input on a new program to help foster and kinship care families learn how to support the brain development of young children. “I love these Brain Insights materials. How soon can we start?” said Osborne upon receiving the "The First 60 Days ” booklet on myths about newborns and their caregivers and the eight “ Neuro-Nurturing ” ringed books. The materials delivered...

“It’s peaceful and tranquil with them swimming around,” says Richard McCool, watching fish swim in one of two housing wings of the Dynamo program, where offenders with good behavior live independently at Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, Mo., on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. McCool, 65, is serving time for rape and first-degree murder convictions. “One day, God willing, we’re going to get out of here.” Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch By Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 26,...

American gun violence can feel like an unsolvable problem, with every mass shooting, like last week’s killings in Maine , affirming that the situation is getting worse. But the U.S. has in fact made some progress over the past few decades, enacting policies that have saved lives. That is the conclusion of a new study by Patrick Sharkey and Megan Kang at Princeton. Stricter gun laws passed by 40 states from 1991 to 2016 reduced gun deaths by nearly 4,300 in 2016, or about 10 percent of the...

By Ted Alcorn, Illustration: Jovana Mugoša/The Marshall Project, The Marshall Project, October 30, 2023 When Denver police sped to the scene of a shooting on June 27, 2022, they found a victim lucky to be alive — and a case that could just as easily have been a homicide. A man and woman had attempted to steal an unoccupied car that was idling at a gas station. When the owner chased them on foot, one of the assailants shot him in the face. Somehow, the bullet deflected off his mouth. He lost...

By Bobby Bostic, Illustration: Douglas Lopes/The Marshall Project, The Marshall Project, October 20, 2023 R ecently, at one of the writing workshops that I teach at three juvenile lockups in and around my hometown of St. Louis, one of my students posed a provocative question: “Why should I write about changing the world when the world doesn’t care about me?” The tall, lanky 16-year-old asked his question in a slow, rebellious twang that reminded me of how I spoke as a child. “You should...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is using funds seized from banks to fund a program that will connect arrested individuals with voluntary social services once they are released. Photographer: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images By Fola Akinnibi, Bloomberg CityLab|Government, October 16, 2023 New York City is adding to its ecosystem of programs aimed at keeping people out of jail with a new initiative in Manhattan courts. The program, called Court Navigators, will connect...

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks at the Arcosa Wind Towers, Aug. 9, 2023, in Belen, N.M. Grisham on Friday, Sept. 8, issued an emergency public health order that suspends the open and permitted concealed carry of firearms in Albuquerque for 30 days in the midst of a spate of gun violence. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) By Morgan Lee, Associated Press, September 9, 2023 New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry...

Sable Elyse Smith’s “Backbend” (2019) on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. MAURICE CHAMMAH/THE MARSHALL PROJECT By Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project, August 12, 2023 At first glance, the “Federal Prison Inmate Activity Book” looks like something a child might get at a fast food restaurant. But then you see that the word search puzzle includes terms like “larceny” and “embezzle.” On another page, above drawings of a panda and a one-eyed snake,...

The Goucher College library in Towson, Md., in 1953. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) By Alexandra Petri, The Washington Post, August 7, 2023 This was not always a place of punishment . People used to come here on purpose. Students, like yourself. Back then, it was called a library. These things on the shelves gathering dust were once prized. Sometimes, they were arranged by a special code called Dewey Decimal. They were passed excitedly from hand to hand, and we were...

By Michael Goldberg, Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo, Associated Press (AP), August 5, 2023 Monica Lee sat outside her parents’ home, where a former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy pummeled her son, who died hours later in the hospital. It was a sweltering afternoon in Braxton — the same town where, in a separate episode, six white law enforcement officers tortured two other Black men in January, shaking seasoned federal prosecutors, elected officials and ordinary people to their core. The...

MEREDITH RIZZO/THE MARSHALL PROJECT. IMAGES: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES, MIGUEL A. PADRIÑAN/PEXELS, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND DIE JIM CROW RECORDS By Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project, August 3, 2023 One morning in 2019, Kenyatta Emmanuel Hughes was released from Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, New York, and traveled 70 miles south to Carnegie Hall. That night, he stood before a crowd — flanked by a horn section, string quartet and backup singers — and sang...

A Black Prisoners Caucus meeting at Clallam Bay Corrections Center from the documentary “Since I Been Down.” (Facebook/Since I Been Down) By Darrell Jackson, Waging Violence, July 27, 2023 To survive in prison, inmates usually accept a “convict code” that demands toughness and makes us wary of others. To thrive in prison, I learned to embrace organizing for social change and discovered the rewards in thinking of others first. Contributing to a collective has helped me find deeper purpose in...

By Christopher Blackwell, Photo: Unsplash, The Progressive Magazine, July 28, 2023 The noise in solitary confinement is ceaseless. You’re startled awake throughout the night by the repetitive slam of heavy steel doors and the shrill jangle of guards’ keys hanging from their belts, by the sound of their walkie-talkies crackling through the vast empty space. Once you’re awake, the light that never sleeps takes over—the long fluorescent bulb mounted above you burns bright. You cover your head...

Megan Dunn (right), hugs Stacey Fuller, her former peer adviser. Dunn has been arrested on charges related to illicit drug use. While in Walker County’s jail, she says, she was once placed in a holding cell known as the “drunk tank,” a concrete room that lacks water, a bed, or a toilet. (Renuka Rayasam / KFF Health News) By Renuka Rayasam, California Healthline, July 19, 2023 Megan Dunn, who has struggled with addiction since her teens, points to the moment her life went “deeply downhill.”...

Phoenix police continue to use an obscure and controversial ordinance to target people for "manifesting prostitution." Max Erwin By Katya Schwenk, Phoenix New Times, July 14, 2023 In January, a 23-year-old woman sat in Phoenix Municipal Court listening to a prosecutor lay out the evidence against her. On the night of her arrest, she was scantily dressed, the prosecutor told the judge. She also had condoms in her purse and got into a car with a man In Phoenix, that was enough to charge her...

By Jeremy Loudenback and Sara Tiano, Illustration: Christine Ongjoco, The Imprint, July 7, 2023 Amid historic reforms to California’s youth justice system, the state’s newly signed budget funnels investments into higher education for young people in lockups, while strengthening oversight of juvenile court schools, educational institutions inside of youth detention facilities . Due to a budget shortfall, the investment is modest and the funding is among the few spending proposals focused on...

A packed dorm at the Fred C. Nelles Correctional Facility in the 1990s, an era when California’s youth prisons held roughly 10,000 teens and adolescents. Photo by Joseph Rodriguez. By Nell Bernstein, The Imprint, June 30, 2023 California’s three remaining youth prisons closed their reinforced steel doors for good today, marking the demise of what was once the nation’s largest network of youth prisons. The closure of the state’s youth prison system , resulting from decades of activism,...

Danny Allen, right, playfully touches the head of Dyryan Bolton, 2, who happened to walk by as Bolton was chatting with long-time Central City resident Charmaine Baker-Fox on Friday, July 7, 2023. Allen has played a key role in the New Orleans Health Department's "violence interrupter" program. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com ) By Missy Wilkinson, NOLA.com, July 10, 2023 Danny Allen came of age in the Calliope projects during the epic, crack-fueled bloodshed of the...

Javon Lomax, We Build The Block director of restorative practices and youth development, in the Brownsville In Violence Out offices in Brooklyn, New York. Lomax is the facilitator of the Heal the Ville healing circles. Samantha Max/WNYC By Chip Brownlee, The Trace, July 11, 2023 Each meeting begins with participants sharing the highs and lows of their week: pictures of a sonogram for a coming baby, a recent trip down South to visit family, flaring allergies, too many or too few hours at...

Jose Catalan, who is currently incarcerated, poses for photos after his graduation ceremony at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif. on May 25, 2023. Catalan earned his bachelor’s degree in communications through the Transforming Outcomes Project at Sacramento State. JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS By Jamiles Lartey, The Marshall Project, July 8, 2023 Education has been Sheron Edwards’ escape during his more than 20 years in state and federal prison. He’s earned certifications from three...

N'Kosi Barber manages Project Fire, a trauma recovery program for young victims of gun violence at Chicago's Firebird Community Arts. Akilah Townsend for The Trace By Justin Agrelo, The Trace, July 7, 2023 It’s a chilly Sunday afternoon in February, and N’Kosi Barber is taking great care to stay focused. “Never pick up glass,” he says, referring to pieces on the floor. Glass can be deceptive, he explains. It may look cold, but it can be several hundred degrees hot. Since 2015, Barber, a...

Sonoma State police chief Nader Oweis. Credit: Rosie Padilla/EdSource By Rosie Padilla, EdSource, July 6, 2023 Sonoma State University’s police department is looking to improve accountability by leveraging technology to solicit feedback from those who interact with police officers. A new application called Guardian Score aims to offer the campus community a convenient way to leave feedback about their interactions with law enforcement. The two came together this past year, and now the...

Deanna Mirabal, 61, poses for a photo as she looks out a window of a reintegration home where she lives in Los Angeles on April 16. Mirabal spent almost 40 years incarcerated for a murder that she said she did not commit. (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times) By Selene Rivera, Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2023 When Deanna Mirabal was released from prison seven months ago, after 38 years of being locked up, anxiety overtook her instead of happiness. The world that she left behind at 19 was...

John A. Davis Juvenile Hall in Martinez. CREDIT: COURTESY CONTRA COSTA COUNTY By Betty Márquez Rosales, EdSource, June 15, 2023 For the first time in nearly three decades, people incarcerated nationwide will have expanded access to the federal Pell Grant on July 1 to help pay for the cost of college education programs. “From a purely symbolic perspective, it’s incredibly powerful … that we are trying to find ways to give them the resources to succeed,” said Keramet Reiter, director of the...

Scientists are studying police camera footage to understand why some car stops of Black men escalate and others don't. Hill Street Studios/Getty Images By Nell Greenfieldboyce, National Public Radio (NPR), May 29, 2023 When a police officer stops a Black driver, the first 45 words said by that officer hold important clues about how their encounter is likely to go. Car stops that result in a search, handcuffing, or arrest are nearly three times more likely to begin with the police officer...

Youth Voices Rising writer Daniel Bisuano. Courtesy of Bisuano. By Daniel Bisuano, The Imprint, May 24, 2023 Growing up, very few things existed outside of the couple blocks I knew by my home, or the prison’s four walls and metal door that often seemed like a nightmare. I do not know how often people like me grow up in circumstances where fight or flight response is not constant or the cops were the good guys . I felt it was always a “us vs. them” situation. See, the cops always oppressed...

Melanie Snyder, Consultant for Reentry, Trauma, Resilience and Trauma-Informed Care, leads Chester County’s Reentry Coalition kick-off meeting. (Submitted Photo) By Michael P. Rellahan, Daily Local News, June 2, 2023 There is a scene in director Martin Scorsese’s classic gangster film, “Goodfellas,” where Henry Hill, the lead character, is released from prison after spending years behind bars. As he walks free, he looks outward and sees the figure of his wife, Karen, standing by a car,...

By Kirstie Ganobsik, Photo: Adobe Stock, HelathDay, June 5, 2023 Many men will put off going to the doctor unless they are really sick, but men's health screenings help catch problems before symptoms appear. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Library of Medicine offer several men's health screening and preventative care recommendations . Many of these recommendations are guided by the U.S. Preventive Services Task...

By Trudy Ring, Photo: Shutterstock, Advocte, April 22, 2023 LGBTQ + people and people living with HIV experience alarming rates of abuse in the criminal legal system, says a new report from Lambda Legal in partnership with Black and Pink National. The report, “Protected and Served? 2022,” is based on a survey of more than 2,500 people who had interacted with police, courts, jails, prisons, and other governmental institutions, and it includes quantitative data as well. It “provides an...

Youth Voices Rising writer Spring Keosoupha. Courtesy of Keosoupha. By Spring Keosoupha, The Imprint, May 17, 2023 Based on my personal experience, I do not believe that children and youth should be incarcerated or detained. When this happens, it does harm to them that will last throughout their lives. Incarceration impairs their development and limits the life outcomes for adolescents. Resources could be better used to rehabilitate youth by offering them services and support. Many youths...

From American Hospital Association, Photo: Screenshot from article, American Hospital Association, May 15, 2023 The Health Resources and Services Administration announced a new toll-free number (1-833-TLC-MAMA) and promotional toolkit for its National Maternal Mental Health Hotline for pregnant and postpartum individuals with mental health concerns. Since its launch on Mother’s Day 2022, the hotline’s professional counselors have provided free and confidential emotional support, resources...

By Kilee Thomas, Image: from article, KOCO 5 News, May 8, 2023 An Oklahoma expert discussed the impact of gun violence on mental health in the wake of mass shootings. Recently, there are more and more headlines of mass shootings and public tragedies. It never gets easier, and for some, these tragedies can have an effect on their everyday life. Public shootings have increased at schools, concerts, parades, and, most recently, outlet malls. For some, the fear is debilitating. [ Please click...

A Books Not Bars demonstration pushes for closing the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, among the last three youth prisons to close in California. Photo provided by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. By Nell Bernstein, The Imprint, April 25, 2023 Long before the “school-to-prison pipeline” was a well-worn phrase and even law-and-order Republicans had traded “tough on crime” for “smart on crime,” a tireless group of parents trekked, over and over, to the California state...

The Mississippi Supreme Court in April 2021 Credit:Rogelio V. Solis/AP By Caleb Bedillion and Taylor Vance, ProPublica, April 14, 2023 Poor defendants in Mississippi are routinely jailed for months, and sometimes even years, without being appointed an attorney due to the state’s notoriously dysfunctional public defender system. The Mississippi Supreme Court now says this practice must end. The state’s highest court approved a mandate on Thursday that criminal defendants who can’t afford...

By Rudy Perez, Photo: Aaron/LA Photography/Shutterstock, Housing Matters, April 12, 2023 Every year, nearly 10 million people are released from prisons and jails in the United States. Formerly incarcerated people face significant barriers to reentry, such as challenges securing stable employment, housing, public benefits and access to education and the denial of voting rights. Because of the revolving door of homelessness and incarceration , many people in jail or prisons either experienced...

NTTAC offers an array of learning events at no cost to participants, including mental health professionals, primary care providers, peers, educators, systems leaders, and other youth-serving professionals. Please join us on April 27, 2023 for our upcoming NO-COST ACEs Event: Joining in this session will be a young adult with lived experience, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and a community organizer. Together the panelists will bring their varying perspectives to discuss preventing...

Crime scene tape cordons off a street near the Old National Bank in Louisville. Five people were killed in the attack. Photograph: Luke Sharrett/Getty Images By Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, April 11, 2023 One in five Americans has lost a family member to gun violence , an alarming survey published on Tuesday claims. The research came out one day after five people were killed by a gunman at a Louisville bank, at least the 15th mass shooting of the month, and 146th this year, according to...

From Prevent Child Abuse America, Illustration: From website, Prevent Child Abuse America, Accessed: April 6, 2023 Have you ever found yourself thinking about the ways in which you can make a difference in a child’s life? Here is a list of ten ways to help prevent child abuse that are simple, every day actions that can make a big impact. After you read these tips, check out Connect the Dots to learn more about how you can make a difference and to connect with others in your community who are...

By Amy Joyce, Caitlin Gibson, and Elizabeth Chang, Illustration: Elise Tel/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, March 29, 2023 Parents do what they can to keep their children safe from all sorts of dangers. We lock them in car seats, make them wear helmets. We teach them how to cross a street safely. But many feel powerless when it comes to gun violence. They don’t know if their teen might get caught up in a fight that involves a gun instead of a fist. They don’t know if their child...

By Ben Conarck and Adam Williams, Photo: Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner, The Baltimore Banner, March 30, 2023 A years-long evaluation into the effectiveness of Baltimore’s flagship gun violence intervention program, Safe Streets, found that several of its outposts significantly reduced nearby shootings, resulting in fewer homicides, despite “relatively modest” costs to the city and challenges in staffing the inherently dangerous work. The report , led by Johns Hopkins professor Daniel...

People protested against hate crimes targeting Asian Americans in New York City in 2021. JOHN LAMPARSKI/NURPHOTO, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS By Weihua Li and Jamiles Lartey, The Marshall Project, March 25, 2023 Hate crimes reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies rose from more than 8,000 in 2020 to nearly 11,000 the following year, according to updated statistics released last week. Crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Sikhs and bisexual people all more than doubled.

By Adilia Watson, Illustration: From article, The Imprint, March 16, 2023 Achild’s mother thrown to the floor. A mom screaming “I love you!” as she’s shoved into a squad car. Cops drawing guns. Cuffs out. A beloved pet shot. The house torn apart, toys broken. These are the images that can stick with kids when their parents are arrested. But in upstate New York, a network of law enforcement, court officials, social service providers and community activists are hoping to alter these...

By Mensah M. Dean, The Trace, March 14, 2023 An unexpected knock at the door in December caught Zeem off guard. He had not been expecting the visit from a social worker, a representative from the District Attorney’s Office, a mentor — called a credible messenger — two police officers, and a mother who had lost a child to violence. They were from the city’s program for Group Violence Intervention, and they had come to offer the initiative’s services to Zeem, whose past included dealing drugs...

A memorial to Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., in 2020. Credit... Xavier Burrell for The New York Times By Glenn Thrush, The New York Times, March 8, 2023 The police department in Louisville, Ky., engaged in a far-ranging pattern of discriminatory and abusive law enforcement practices, the Justice Department said on Wednesday after conducting a two-year investigation prompted by the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by the police in 2020. In a damning 90-page report , investigators painted...

Santa Clara County has maintained near-zero rates of incarceration for girls and young women for several years. Soon, four new counties will follow suit. Photo: Santa Clara Probation Department By Betty Marquez Rosales, EdSource, March 3, 2023 Four California counties will soon be offering girls and young women in youth jails more community-based alternatives to being detained. The initiative follows a pilot in Santa Clara County, established in 2018, which found that most incarcerated youth...

By Emma Williams, Image: Screenshot from article, Prison Policy Initiative, February 27, 2023 Family separation due to a parent’s incarceration has impacted over 5 million children and has profound negative impacts on a child’s well-being. But some states are addressing this crisis. We reviewed recent legislation and found that, in response to pressure from advocates to address the crisis of family separation by incarceration, 12 states and the federal prison system have taken legislative...