Archive

Listen to Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City Health Commissioner on NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook, discuss the opioid crisis with Dr. Andrew Kolondy, co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and others (discussion begins near the 12:56 mark, with Dr. Wen’s interview starts around […]

2013 OSI-Baltimore Fellow Kate Anderson made the news recently for her work with Disability Rights Maryland (DRM). In 2015, DRM, AARP Foundation Litigation (AFL), and Consumers for Accessible Ride Services (CARS) filed a class action lawsuit against MTA Mobility, a paratransit system, regarding violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This week, a federal court approved […]

OSI-Baltimore director Diana Morris joined Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and other leaders at police headquarters today for a press conference to announce the launch of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. (Watch the full press conference here.) LEAD aims to reduce the number of people […]

Listen to University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law professor Doug Colbert and WYPR Statehouse reporter Rachel Baye discuss prospects for bail reform in Maryland with Tom Hall on WYPR’s Midday (discussion begins about 15:30 mark). In a survey prepared by the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI), with funding from OSI-Baltimore, 70 percent of […]

Check out WBAL’s profile of Thread, a non-profit that provides underperforming high school students with a family of volunteers that help with academic advancement and personal growth. In 2004, Sarah Hemminger started the Incentive Mentoring Program; as a 2009 Community Fellow, Hemminger was able to expand the program that eventually became Thread. Each student in […]

A new report by Common Cause finds that the bail bonds industry has donated almost $300,000 to Maryland state officials since 2011 – $87,000 in 2016 alone – ranking third behind only California and Florida. Read the full report, “Pay to Play,” here. Read the Washington Post story on the report here. Maryland’s General Assembly is under […]

Over the last three months, WYPR’s On the Record has interviewed each of OSI-Baltimore ten 2016 Community Fellows about their projects. The interviews are collected here. Melissa Badeker (aired Nov. 17) will expand the efforts of the Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap to equip and assist teachers and families with re-purposed supplies essential to student learning. Badeker will also […]

In an op-ed in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun, “‘Solutions Summit’ action plan represents will of Baltimore residents,” the co-chairs of OSI’s Solutions Summit encouraged the city’s leaders and residents to work together to advance the 16-point action plan that emerged from the Summit. While this action plan doesn’t touch on all of the city’s issues and […]

Yesterday, Tara Huffman, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program, joined Michael A. Wood, Jr., retired Baltimore police officer and USMC veteran, and Ralikh Hayes, organizer with Baltimore Bloc on the Marc Steiner show for a discussion on the consent decree between the city and the Department of Justice announced last week. Huffman stressed […]