Archive

Congratulations to 2014 Community Fellow Zina Makar, who has been named the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the Bar Association of Baltimore City! As part of her Fellowship, Makar worked with the Office of the Public Defender to represent poor defendants by employing the power of habeas corpus—a legal procedure that keeps governments from […]

Last week, the Baltimore Sun ran a powerful op-ed by the development director and workforce development coordinator for the Youth Empowered Society (YES Drop-In Center), an organization started by 2011 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Lara Law. The piece drove home the challenges that homeless young people face in building stable lives and praised employers like Starbucks, who […]

In February, OSI-Baltimore announced the launch of Baltimore’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, a program first piloted in Seattle that re-directs people who would otherwise be booked for low-level drug offenses to treatment and other support services. OSI is the primary funder for the local program, which was developed in coordination with Behavioral Health […]

OSI-Baltimore, in collaboration with Baltimore City Public Schools, the Family League of Baltimore, and the Baltimore School Climate Collaborative, will begin the process of implementing restorative practices in all Baltimore City Schools over the next five years. The use of restorative practices in schools has been shown to support effective leadership and engaging classrooms; develop […]

Yesterday, Tara Huffman, director of OSI’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program was a guest on WEAA’s The Marc Steiner Show for a discussion about Baltimore’s  Consent Decree. Huffman explained where the consent decree stands, both legally and politically. Legally, the decree has been finalized and under the jurisdiction of the the court, “neither the City, nor the […]

On Monday night, James Forman, Jr. talked about his “superb and shattering” (per the New York Times) new book, “Locking Up Our Own: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in Black America,” as part of OSI-Baltimore’s Talking About Race series. Watch the whole event below. The event, at the University of Baltimore Law School’s Moot Court Room, […]

Yesterday, James Forman, Jr. was a guest on WYPR’s On the Record with Sheilah Kast to talk about his new book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America and to promote OSI’s Talking About Race event on Monday, where he’ll talk about the book witjh University of Baltimore Law School Dean Ron Weich, U.S. Court of […]

Earlier this week, 1999 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow David C. Miller, founder of the Dare To Be King project, was interviewed on WEAA’s “Keep it Moving with Marsha Jews.” Miller was featured with Leigh R. Allen, II, Vice President, Marketing & Development of Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO), Inc to talk about their “Who’s Got Your Back: […]