Archive

In mid-August, the Baltimore Board of Education announced plans to increase the number of police present in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) – a decision that was met with mixed reactions. Leaders of the teachers’ and administrators’ unions both praised the move, citing the need for school police to be inside schools, building relationships with […]

Today, OSI grantee the Justice Policy Institute released “Defining Violence: reducing incarceration by rethinking America’s approach to violence,” which suggests that reforming the U.S. justice system’s approach to violent crime is key to lowering incarceration rates. While many reform efforts focus on non-violent crime, the report notes that just under half the prison population has been […]

On August 27th from 7-10 p.m., Gallery Four in Baltimore will host the opening of THESE EYES, an exhibition by the late artist, Shane McCallum, curated and organized by 2015 OSI Community Fellow Dave Eassa and his project Free Space. McCallum spent nearly 40 years in the Maryland prison system, where he turned to artistic […]

The Maryland Daily Record recently announced OSI-Baltimore 2014 Community Fellow Zina Makar will lead the new Pretrial Justice Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. The clinic will focus on bail reform and pre-trial detention, “one of the major sources of mass incarceration in Maryland.” During her fellowship, Makar partnered with the Public Defender’s […]

Tara Huffman, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program, joined the Marc Steiner show on Thursday and again on Monday to discuss the Department of Justice’s investigation of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), launched in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray (see OSI’s statement about the findings). On Thursday, she was joined by 2002 OSI Community Fellow […]

Student-led class in the Holistic Me afterschool program. Photo by Colby Ware   This week, Baltimore Board of Education announced plans to increase the number of police present in Baltimore City Public Schools. According to the Baltimore Sun, school officials, citing safety concerns and an effort to build relationships between officers and students, will reinstate […]

From the #unconvicted series. Photo by David Y. Lee Last week attorneys for the six officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray claimed, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun, the money they still owe to bail bondsmen as a condition of their pre-trail release is a “lingering injustice.” This week, […]

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), and member of both the OSI-Baltimore Advisory Board and the Open Society Foundations Global Board, penned an op-ed that appeared this weekend in the Baltimore Sun. In “After Freddie Gray: looking to the future,” Ifill suggests community engagement in law enforcement reform is crucial […]

Dr. Wen with Scott Nolen, director of OSI’s Drug Addiction Treatment program   This weekend, the New York Times published a letter from Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana S. Wen in response to a previously published Times article that suggested naloxone, a medication used to treat opioid overdoses, can encourage addition. “Those who say that saving […]