Media Advisory Contact Evan Serpick 410-234-1091 Today the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the findings of its investigation into the “patterns or practice” of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), launched in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray. The report concludes that “there is reasonable cause to believe that BPD engages in a […]
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Sun editorial highlights the “lingering injustice” of cash bail
Wednesday, August 10, 2016From 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, […]
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Ifill urges continued action on criminal justice reform
Tuesday, August 09, 2016Sherrilyn 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 […]
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Health Commissioner Wen in New York Times: Stop stigmatizing addicts
Monday, August 08, 2016Dr. 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 […]
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Presidential commutations highlight importance of reentry services
Monday, August 08, 2016President Barack Obama meets for lunch with formerly incarcerated individuals who have received commutations, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., March 30, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Last week, President Obama commuted the drug sentences of 214 federal prisoners— many of them serving time for non-violent drug offenses involving possession or […]
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OSI announces new date, keynote speaker for Solutions Summit
Friday, August 05, 2016OSI-Baltimore has several important announcements regarding our Solutions Summit. Due to a conflict with a meeting of Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus, the summit has been moved to December 10, 2016, which is also International Human Rights Day. We are also VERY proud to announce that the keynote speaker for the summit will be Sherrilyn Ifill, […]
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WYPR highlights growth, shifts in urban debate leagues
Thursday, August 04, 2016(Watch video here) This morning WYPR ran a great story about the changing dynamics of high school debate teams. The Eddie Conway Liberation Institute, run by the advocacy group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (part of the Baltimore United for Change coalition, and OSI-Baltimore Justice Fund grantee) teaches students the core debate skills of in-depth, critical policy […]
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OSI Fellow receives Fulbright scholarship to study opioid addiction
Wednesday, August 03, 2016Andrew Gaddis, a medical student at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and 2011 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow, was recently awarded a Fulbright scholarship that he’ll use to study the effectiveness of opioid replacement therapy. Gaddis will spend his Fulbright year at Insite, a supervised injection facility (SIF) in Vancouver. “I want to become a […]
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Movement for Black Lives releases policy platform
Wednesday, August 03, 2016This week, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a coalition of organizations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, released “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice.” With this broader platform that includes calls for reparations, an end to the death penalty and retroactive forgiveness of student loans, the […]
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OSI’s Tara Huffman discusses dropped charges in Freddie Gray case on WYPR
Thursday, July 28, 2016Tara 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 […]
