Archive

Urbanite, the local magazine that earned many fans for its attention to civic life before folding in 2012, returned this month for a special issue to address the aftermath of the uprising. OSI-Baltimore, which sponsored Urbanite’s Learning Issue in 2009, was proud to support the new effort with a grant that helped make its production […]

Zina Makar, a 2014 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow, is on the front lines of reforming Baltimore’s broken bail system. In Maryland, the legal standard for a “speedy trial” is 180 days, but many individuals are held for months or even years before going to court. Makar works as attorney at the Office of the Public Defender to challenge the wrongful […]

The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA hosted a great discussion yesterday about the role of police in schools. Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program, joined the conversation, along with Nikki Glass, Operations Director and Facilitator for Community Conferencing, Monique Dixon, Deputy Director of Policy for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (and former director of […]

Video of a speech by New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie has gone viral over the past couple days, garnering more than 4 million views on YouTube. In the six-minute clip, Christie compares treatment of his mother, a lifetime smoker, to that of drug addicts. “When she was 71, [my mother] was diagnosed […]

President Obama announced today that applicants for federal jobs will no longer be asked whether or not they have a criminal record. This is a great step in the right direction that will help citizens returning from the criminal justice system find employment and will reduce recidivism, an important component in OSI-Baltimore’s goal of reducing the […]

On Friday morning, WYPR will air the latest installation of its “On the Watch” series examining the culture and practice of policing in Baltimore, which is supported by a grant from OSI-Baltimore’s Baltimore Justice Fund. The new segment will air at about 5:51 and 7:51 a.m. “One Activist and One Cop Take On Police Reform […]

By Evan Serpick We’ve all seen the viral video of a school police officer in South Carolina thrashing a student in the classroom. There are many things to take away from this disturbing – and hardly isolated – incident. In a Washington Post column, journalist and child advocate Stacey Patton (who spoke at OSI’s Talking […]