Tagged With "Ben David New Hanover County DA"
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Illness, incarcerated: As residents with mental illnesses cycle from the streets to cells, county officials struggle to create a new system (santamariasun.com)
The county’s current plan of action for decriminalizing mental illness is the Stepping Up Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of mentally ill inmates nationwide. The initiative brings together leaders in mental health, law enforcement, and criminal justice to help provide nonviolent mentally ill offenders with treatment, not jail time. The Sun spoke with mental health experts and county representatives who are vying to improve law enforcement’s approach to mentally ill offenders. At...
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In California, Criminal Justice Reform Offers a Lesson for the Nation [nytimes.com]
LOS ANGELES — A police officer is shot dead in Whittier by a gang member . A mentally ill homeless man walks into a steakhouse in Ventura and stabs a man to death in front of his family. In Bakersfield, a man angry over his divorce goes on a shooting rampage , killing his ex-wife and four others. In the aftermath of these high-profile killings, some police officers, district attorneys and politicians were quick to use them as examples to show that criminal justice reform had let dangerous...
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In Sacramento County, Collaborative Program is Creating Hope (publicceo.com)
At the Northern California Construction Training Center in Sacramento County, you can find a number of probationers hard at work learning new crafts. And over the sound of hammers and buzz saws, a four-letter word is frequently heard. That word is H-O-P-E. For many of those taking part in this career training, it’s the first time they’ve had any hope in a long, long time — thanks to a joint program created by the Sacramento County Probation Department, County Office of Education and the...
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Incarcerated Girls Finally Get Their #MeToo Moment with Spirit Awakening Foundation's Latest Event [prnewswire.com]
LOS ANGELES , March 27, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- TIME'S UP for Hollywood , but what about incarcerated young women who have been victims of sexual abuse? As social media provides growing platforms for women to speak up about workplace discrimination and sexual abuse, many voices still remain unheard in the background. Spirit Awakening Foundation continues its 22-year legacy of arts-based, trauma-informed work in Los Angeles County by helping incarcerated girls break the silence and...
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Indigenous groups release booklet for workers in the criminal justice system (cbc.ca)
A new booklet designed for people working in the criminal justice system aims to give more context and understanding when working with Indigenous people involved with the system. It provides information about the Indigenous groups in Atlantic Canada, a brief history of Indigenous-Crown relations and The Indian Act, as well as how generational trauma, such as the residential schools, are still having an effect today. Bringing Balance to the Scales of Justice was designed by the Mi'kmaq...
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Initiative connects Oregon inmates with their children (Wilsonville Spokesman)
By Jake Thomas, January 24, 2020, for Oregon Capital Bureau Portland nonprofit and Oregon Department of Corrections say effort would improve visitation areas and support families. Portland inmate Irvin Hines says visits from his children can be stressful. The father of three children ages 5, 14 and 21, Hines is in custody at Portland's Columbia River Correctional Institution . He described the thin mat he and his young son had to sit on in a corner of the facility's cafeteria. He also talked...
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Inmates can't afford to communicate with their children or families - Another example of an unjust justice system
In an oddly placed story, the Arts and Entertainment section of the Star Tribune in Minnesota covered the cost of phone calls for inmates after the FCC decided that it would not support caps on cost for inmates to make calls. The article starts out talking about the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black, but this issue isn't fiction, it's impacting families all over the United States. In criminal justice reform this issue could easily get lost when larger issues like mental health are so...
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Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
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Introducing NEW Becoming Trauma-Informed & Beyond Community
Earlier this year @Dawn Daum wrote to us when she was ready to share ACEs science with people in the organization she works in to make a case for moving towards more trauma-informed care for the benefit of the staff and those they serve. She was frustrated because almost all the training and resources she found were geared towards schools, clinical staff or to organizations working with children and families rather than ACE-impacted adults in the workplace and who are...
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Jail & Prison Resources
Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies Source: NCJRS Description: A guide to assist corrections administrators is addressing employee stress. Link: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183474.pdf Art Behind Bars...
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Jeff Sessions Is Throwing the Brakes on Criminal Justice Reform [PSMag.com]
This summer marks nearly three years not only since the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, but also since a major transformation began in the American criminal justice system. Police departments are increasingly implementing training regimens to combat racial bias and requiring officers to wear body cameras, with some 95 committing to do so in the future in January of 2016; district attorneys are increasingly prosecuting police officers...
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Juvenile Law Center (advancing the rights and well-being of children in jeopardy)
Trauma and Resilience: A NEW LOOK AT LEGAL ADVOCACY FOR YOUTH IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE AND CHILD WELFARE SYSTEMS While rates of trauma are high for all youth, they are particularly high for youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This...
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Kelly Orians: Getting Out and Staying Out (dailygood.org)
Kelly Orians is a staff attorney at The First 72 Plus , a New Orleans nonprofit founded by six formerly incarcerated people to help other formerly incarcerated men and women navigate the first 72 hours of their release. She is also the co-founder of Rising Foundations , a partner nonprofit that provides pathways to self-sufficiency for formerly incarcerated people, with an aim to stop the cycle of incarceration in low-income communities through small business development and home ownership.
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Kids Under 12 Can No Longer be Sent to Juvenile Hall for Most Crimes Starting in 2020 [capradio.org]
By Steve Milne, Capital Public Radio, December 20, 2019 One of the last pieces of legislation from former California Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office would end the prosecution of pre-teens who commit crimes, other than murder and forcible sexual assault. Right now, California has no minimum age for sending children to juvenile hall. Beginning in the new year, counties will no longer be allowed to process kids under 12 years old through the juvenile justice system. Instead, they will...
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LA County opens review of bail system that hurts the poor (scpr.org)
In a move long sought by civil rights activists, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Wednesday ordered a comprehensive review of the county’s bail system. In a move long sought by civil rights activists, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Wednesday ordered a comprehensive review of the county’s bail system. “Getting out on bail correlates much more to a person’s ability to pay, than to any likelihood of appearing in court or relative risk to the safety of the public,”...
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LA County Supes Seek Better Care And Outcomes For Pregnant And Post-Partum Incarcerated Women And Girls And Their Babies (witnessla.com)
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to identify ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups. The motion, authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directs the Department of Health Services and the sheriff’s department, in coordination with other relevant county departments to report back to the board in 90 days with data on the number of pregnant women and girls in sheriff’s department or probation custody,...
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Law Enforcement & Corrections Resources
Cops, Kids, and Domestic Violence Source: National Child Traumatic Stress Network Description: Law enforcement training DVD and support documents (which can be used independently). Link: Video – ...
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Lessons from Five Years of Accelerating Change [ModelsforChange.net]
National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems After two decades of funding cutting-edge research on adolescent behavioral and brain development and pioneering new juvenile justice practice models, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation decided to reinforce those successes with a more direct approach to promoting systemic policy reforms. The Foundation launched the National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems (National Campaign) in in November 2010. This...
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Listening to Killers: Bringing Developmental Psychology into the Courtroom in Murder Cases
Only 1/1000 have an ACE score of 9 or 10. In his new book, James Garbarino, shows us how we as society create killers through overwhelming ACEs . He is empathetic and paints a portrait of the reality most killers are...
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Making It Right Again (lionsroar.com)
By bringing victims and perpetrators together, she’s helping repair harm and turn lives around. Meet restorative justice expert sujatha baliga. A graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe, baliga completed her law degree at the University of Pennsylvania and became a public defender, but she says the legal system began to feel like it was designed to not get at the truth. She began to look for a path to justice that “excavates from the deepest level who has been harmed, what do they need, and whose...
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Making Prison Visitation Programs Trauma Informed
While reading the Trauma Informed Oregon newsletter I came across Shannon's story - so powerful! Please read ... From Shannon Turner, MSW, LCSW At the time of writing this blog, there are two million, two hundred-twenty thousand, three hundred adults currently incarcerated in the US. In thirty-five states analyzed in a study, one in every ten inmates has served at least ten years in prison. My brother is one of the over two million inmates currently incarcerated in the US. Outside prison...
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Massive jail expansion is finished. Can the programs change the lives of inmates? (modbee.com)
Stanislaus County leaders said a new minimum security jail facility, now complete at the Public Safety Center, is designed for programs to change the criminal patterns of inmates and ensure fewer come back after their release. Public tours of what’s called the REACT center held this week touted the classrooms in each housing unit, a family reunification room and sitting areas with multimedia screens. So far, the array of programs to assist inmates with addiction, behavioral issues and the...
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Study: About 4 Percent of Women Are Pregnant When Jailed (nytimes.com)
About 4 percent of women incarcerated in state prisons across the U.S. were pregnant when they were jailed, according to a new study released Thursday that researchers hope will help lawmakers and prisons better consider the health of women behind bars. The number of imprisoned women has risen dramatically over the past decades, growing even as the overall prison rates decline. But there had been a lack of data on women's health and no system for tracking how frequently incarcerated women...
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Successful Reentry: Partnerships on Outside Critical for Ex-Offenders Making New Start (publicceo.com)
Hundreds of people committed to helping former offenders successfully return to their communities were energized and ready to get back to work after a recent event, when one state official paused to point out how far California has come in the past few years. “This is a mammoth shift,” Linda Penner proclaimed about how California’s governmental agencies are working with community-based organizations (CBOs) to ensure successful reentry from incarceration to the community. As chair of the...
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Suicides in California Prisons Rise Despite Decades of Demands for Reform [sfchronicle.com]
By Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy, San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2019 The suicide rate inside California prisons, long one of the highest among the nation’s largest prison systems, jumped to a new peak in 2018 and remains elevated in 2019, despite decades of effort by federal courts and psychiatric experts to fix a system they say is broken and putting lives at risk, a Chronicle investigation has found. Last year, an average of three California inmates killed themselves each month...
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Taking on the Private Prison Industry’s Corporate Backers [BillMoyers.com]
In the months since President Trump took office we’ve heard a lot about crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and the return of law and order. In fact, as The Atlantic recently reported, the administration is scaling up use of high-tech methods of tracking down what it deems the criminal immigrant class . In addition, the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions has walked back an Obama-era vow to step down use of private prisons, and his “ four-sentence memo rescinding...
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Teaching in America’s Prisons Has Taught Me to Believe in Second Chances [jjie.org]
In 2007, I gave someone a second chance. I was in Danbury (Conn.) Federal Correctional Institution recruiting women for a new program for people returning from prison that I was running in New York City. A woman approached me and handed me her portfolio. It was basically a detailed resume of her accomplishments, skills and goals for the future. Over a two-year period before this, I had visited at least six female facilities in New York and Connecticut and met hundreds of women looking to...
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The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years [vox.com]
America puts more people in jail and prison than any other country in the world. Although the country has managed to slightly reduce its prison population in recent years, mass incarceration remains a fact of the US criminal justice system. It’s time for a radical idea that could really begin to reverse mass incarceration: capping all prison sentences at no more than 20 years. It may sound like an extreme, even dangerous, proposal, but there’s good reason to believe it would help reduce the...
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The Importance of Connection | Alissa R. Ackerman | TEDxCSULB (www.YouTube.com) & Commentary
Cissy's note: The TedTalk below is given by one of my good friends, Alissa. When she first told me about the restorative justice work she was doing with Dr. Jill Levenson, speaking with convicted of sexual offending, where she shared about her experiences as a survivor of sexual assault, (aka, without her "professional shield," as she says), I was concerned. Was it safe, wise, and helpful? What would the impact be on her? Part of me felt that it's not the place of survivors to help...
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The man in charge of Sacramento's new anti-gun violence program was once a shooter himself (sacbee.com)
Thirty years before Julius Thibodeaux became the leader of Sacramento's controversial new anti-gun violence program, Advance Peace , he was a shooter himself. He pulled the trigger on his first victim when he was 15 — over a $5 dispute. Now, he has been hired by the city of Sacramento to run Advance Peace as it expands here . The program matches dangerous young people with elders who have lived similar lives. Often felons like Thibodeaux, these mentors have criminal infamy that still carries...
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The Most Successful Prison System in the World is Also the Most Radically Humane (wake-upworld.com)
“Every inmate in a Norwegian prison is going back to the society. Do you want people who are angry — or people who are rehabilitated?” ~ Are Hoidel, Director of Norway’s Halden Prison. A Revolutionary Model While the typical prison in the U.S. relies heavily on concrete, coils of razor wire, barren land free of any trees or plant life and lethal electric fences, along with towers manned by snipers, a maximum security correctional facility two hours north of Oslo, Norway has stunned...
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The prison that gives inmates the KEYS to their cells: 'Knock-first' policy is aimed at creating a 'respectful' environment for offenders [Daily Mail]
Inmates at Britain’s first ‘respectful’ jail have been given the keys to their cells – with prison officers having to knock before entering. Wrexham’s HMP Berwyn, the largest prison in England and Wales, says the move is a ‘rehabilitative’ approach to offenders. Prisoners have been given more privacy, with the ability to come and go from their cells as they please – as well as being able to lock themselves in at any time. The ‘knock first’ policy is aimed at creating a respectful environment...
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The Problems With California’s Broken Bail System Are Vividly Illustrated As A 26-Year-Old Pregnant Mother Is Bailed Out Of An LA Jail For Mother’s Day (witnessla.com)
Since its inception in May 2017, the #FreeBlackMamas program has spread to an impressive number of cities across the nation. According to program organizers, in slightly more than one year, over 14,000 people have donated to bring nearly 200 mothers home to their families and communities in the cities of Oakland, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, Montgomery, Memphis, Durham, Atlanta, Houston, New York City, Little Rock, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Kinston, Birmingham, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St.
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The Regulated Classroom Goes to California
Have you ever had the experience of becoming the living embodiment of an illustrated children’s book character? Yeah, that’s happened to me. I am Froggy. The Froggy that goes to school Froggy. In the children’s story, Froggy feels anxious about his first day of school. His healthy and natural nervousness (the body’s stress response system is activated by novelty) manifests in his dream. In his dream, he misses the bus and shows up to class in his underwear. I am feeling “Froggy.” Two...
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The Unfinished Business of Juvenile Justice [JJIE.org]
Lawmakers in New York, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas are currently debating proposals that would move 16- or 17-year-olds (or both) out of the adult criminal justice system and into the juvenile court. This development comes after seven states raised their age of jurisdiction over the past decade. In those states, as a result, half the number of youth who were previously automatically sent to adult courts now appear before a juvenile court judge — an outcome that increases the...
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There’s a good reason this police trainer tells new recruits that they are racist (washingtonpost.com)
(Image Credit: Michael Schlosser, director of the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois, offers new recruits training on interactions with minority communities. (L. Brian Stauffer) Michael Schlosser wants new police officers to understand one thing before they go out in the field: They’re influenced by racial bias. This strategy is a major component of a three-year-old diversity education course at the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois, where officers...
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These Black Lives Matters protesters planned a march. The police threw them a cookout instead.
Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post just posted an inspiring story with a message of hope for communities struggling with tension between police and community members: Activist A.J. Bohannon had organized more than 1,000 Black Lives Matters protesters to march the streets of Wichita on Sunday. But then, days before, he received a call from the new police chief with a different idea. Instead of having an event that drew a hard line between protester and police, why not bring them all...
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These puppies have a ‘magical’ effect on a state prison. Can they help inmates change? (sacbee.com)
A program called Tender Loving Canines is among the new and restored rehabilitation courses popping up in California state prisons since Gov. Jerry Brown began emphasizing programs that help inmates prepare to reenter society. Hector Amezcua The Sacramento Bee Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article111664572.html#storylink=cpy When a pair of puppies stepped into a state prison’s highest security yard on a scorching summer day, dozens of felons...
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Throwaway Kids: 'We are sending more foster kids to prison than college’ (kansascity.com)
For the past year, The Kansas City Star has examined what happens to kids who age out of foster care and found that, by nearly every measure, states are failing in their role as parents to America’s most vulnerable children. https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/article238206754.html Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/article238206754.html#storylink=cpy
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TIC: News and Notes for the Week of October 21, 2019 [dhs.wisconsin.gov]
ACEs, Adversity's Impact There is only one boat: The myth of normalcy by Dr. Gabor Mate Understanding historical trauma to strengthen community Childhood trauma linked to early, premarital childbirth and poor health for women Early life racial discrimination linked to depression, accelerated aging When mothers are killed by their partners, children often become 'forgotten' victims. It's time they were given a voice Children's language skills may be harmed by social hardship Does racism...
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Trauma informed education in juvenile justice settings
Jane Stevens contacted me about posting our presentation delivered at the correctional educators conference this last spring. We have been delivering online professional development to all of the educators in the Ohio Juvenile Justice setting in order...
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Trauma-informed training for Lancaster County corrections and parole officers seeks less use of force [LancasterOnline.com]
Police in a northwest Pennsylvania town responded about six years ago to a disturbance at a mental health center. The officers confronted an upset client. When he became combative, he was cuffed and spent five years in prison, said Audrey Smith, a psychologist in Meadville, Crawford County. Not long ago, the man returned to the center and became agitated. Back came the police. But this time, officers took a gentler approach. “They let the guy have a smoke,” Smith said, “and got him to an...
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VA Supreme Court Reviews Order Restoring Voting Rights to 206,000 Ex-Felons (nonprofitquarterly.org)
In May, NPQ reported that Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe had issued an executive order to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 ex-inmates in time for the November election. Nonprofits and advocacy groups have been instrumental in educating and alerting ex-inmates about shedding their formerly disenfranchised status. However, Republican legislators pushed back on McAuliffe’s order almost immediately, and now they are taking the issue to the state Supreme Court to determine if the...
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Violent Crime: A Conversation [themarshallproject.org]
Over the last two years, there has been a great deal of arguing about the prevalence of violent crime in America and how the national crime rate is changing. The president and attorney general say it’s soaring. Criminal justice reformers aren’t so certain. A Who’s Who of crime researchers and experts gathered to tackle the question at the Smart on Crime Innovations conference at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City last month. The panelists were Thomas Abt of Harvard’s...
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Why Jails Are Booming (citylab.com)
A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that the populations of local jails are swelling for reasons that have little to do with crime. State prison rates have come down modestly overall, reports the Sentencing Project , and some states can boast double-digit decreases since the turn of the century. City and county jails, meanwhile, have been bloating. Roughly two-thirds of states have seen jail populations at least double since 1983 a dozen have seen jail populations triple.
Calendar Event
2018 National Conference on Juvenile Justice (San Diego)
Comment
Re: Trauma Informed Education in Juvenile Justice
Here is the powerpoint I delivered. The presentation when well. Lots of interest. I am working with a professional development organization called PESI. They are a non-profit corporation that delivers a lot of professional development. I have my original course on supporting and educating traumatized students submitted to them and it should be available in less than two weeks
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Re: Trauma Informed Education in Juvenile Justice
Jennifer Thank you for your interest in our work Hi Robert, I'd like to hear more about this effort -- specifically, when you say 'educators' do you mean staff who teach within the detention facility? Most of the individuals who took the training are direct teaching staff. Many counselors and administrators took the training as well. And, were any of the detention staff trained in TI as well? What do you mean by TI? No no detention staff were trained. The focus was on improving teacher...