• OSI’s Tara Huffman discusses dropped charges in Freddie Gray case on WYPR

    Tara Huffman, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program, joined WYPR’s Midday show to discuss the decision by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to drop charges against three police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. “Holding these officers accountable, bringing the charges, and pursuing justice in this frame was just one component of […]

  • OSI-Baltimore statement on the decision to drop charges in the death of Freddie Gray

    Media Advisory Contact Evan Serpick 410-234-1091 In a press conference this morning at Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray lived and was taken into custody in April 2015, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that her office would drop the pending charges against three officers in the death of Mr. Gray. The move comes after three other […]

  • What can Baltimore learn about policing from Camden, New Jersey?

    Photo by Mary Rose Madden In part 9 of On the Watch, WYPR’s OSI-funded series on community policing, reporter Mary Rose Madden goes to Camden, New Jersey, where homicides have dropped 24% in recent years, after the police department was disbanded and re-formed with a community policing model. Madden walks the beat with Camden cops […]

  • OSI Fellows weigh in on police, community, and philanthropy

    2012 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Lawrence Brown, left. In an interview on Washington D.C. NPR affiliate WAMU last week, just weeks after the most recent shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge. 1999 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow David Miller reflected on the relationship between police and young African American men. Miller’s project, Dare to Be King, supports organizations that provide services to boys of color, […]

  • OSI-Baltimore Announces Solutions Summit, December 10

    Media Advisory Contact Evan Serpick 410-234-1091 BALTIMORE – Just over a month after Election Day, OSI-Baltimore will convene Baltimore residents for a free full-day public event, called Solutions Summit, to create a consensus blueprint for the new mayor and city council. In the lead-up to the event, there will be three public half-day forums that will […]

  • OSI Celebrates opening of grantee Positive Schools Center

    (photo courtesy of the University of Maryland) On July 18, Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development (EYD) program helped celebrate the launch of the Positive Schools Center (PSC) of the University of Maryland School of Social Work, an initiative funded by a multi-year grant from OSI. The Center, developed by former OSI-Baltimore EYD Director Jane […]

  • Changes in Medicaid treatment options puts patients in danger

    This weekend, Baltimore Sun highlighted on its front page the potential problems in recent changes to the Maryland Medicaid Pharmacy Preferred Drug List (PDL), issues that Scott Nolen, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Drug Addiction Treatment program and others raised in a June 23rd op-ed in the Sun. On July 1, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) removed Suboxone […]

  • Congress approves $181 million for addiction and recovery response

    After passing in the House last week, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) passed in the Senate this week and is now headed to the president’s desk for signature. This is a major piece of legislation and the first drug-related law in nearly 40 years to pass with no criminal penalties attached to it. The […]

  • Opening reception for #unconvicted draws crowd, starts conversations

    OSI-Baltimore director Diana Morris. Photo courtesy of the Pretrial Justice Institute. Last night, despite soaring temperatures, a crowed packed The Living Well for the opening reception of #unconvicted, a photo exhibit documenting the plight of pretrial detainees. Many detainees spend weeks or month behind bars without being convicted of any crime because of the cash […]

  • Enoch Pratt CEO Carla Hayden confirmed as first female, first African American librarian of Congress

    OSI congratulates Dr. Carla D. Hayden on her historic confirmation as librarian of Congress. Hayden, who is the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and a former OSI-Baltimore advisory board member, is the first African American as well as the first woman to head the Library of Congress. After Dr. Hayden’s tenure on the […]