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The Abstract
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> By Stephanie DiCapua Getman, Arnold Ventures
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I was among the more than 1 million Texans and 128,000 people in Harris County (Houston) who turned out on the first day of early voting, helping to obliterate the county’s previous day-one record of 68,000 in 2016. (That record was broken by 2 in the afternoon, and the trend continued on day 2.) I didn’t have to wait long: Harris County allows voters to cast a ballot at any polling location, added more polling locations, and even offers drive-thru voting (which has so far survived a last-minute court challenge by Texas Republicans). While some people stood in longer lines than mine, they may have been able to avoid the most crowded sites by using an innovative online tool that shows estimated wait times at each site.
But for too many people across the country, this isn’t the case. Some Georgia early voters were met with wait times of five hours or more, leading to claims of voter suppression — election officials cited voter enthusiasm and technology issues. In Texas, a federal appeals court upheld Gov. Greg Abbott’s order limiting counties to only one drop-off ballot location, forcing voters in larger counties to travel long distances to drop off a ballot. In Florida, those with felony convictions now face a “poll tax” of sorts, required to pay outstanding fines and fees after Republican lawmakers reversed the will of voters who approved restoring voting rights in 2018. And this close to Election Day, so many voting issues are still caught up in the courts. For those who want to keep track of it all, Five-Thirty-Eight is live-monitoring the 2020 vote and any problems that arise.
Bottom line: Vote, and I hope your experience is as it should be: hassle-free.
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Consequences of a Stymied Stimulus
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By Ashley Winstead, Director of Strategic Communications
There’s probably no greater example of the divorce between the needs of the American people and the priorities of the lawmakers who govern them than Congress’ inability to pass a new COVID-19 relief package. While Americans who are suffering record unemployment, food insecurity, and an eviction crisis await a second wave of aid, Congress and the Trump administration have prioritized politics, allowing infighting and rhetoric to skewer emerging compromises.
Why It Matters: It’s more than a second stimulus check that’s on the line. The next COVID relief package could also include a number of high-stakes relief measures that haven’t received nearly as much airtime, despite their urgent and even life-or-death consequences. Critical but lesser-known measures that are in limbo include protections against surprise medical billing, life-saving criminal justice reforms, funding for colleges, a life raft for local and state governments, and help for women and older Americans.
Bottom Line: Americans are done waiting. They need relief, and they need it now.
Read the story >
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Dialing the ‘Black Box’ of 911
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By Evan Mintz, Communications Manager
Every year, Americans place about 240 million 911 calls. And although the 911 system has been around for over 50 years, there’s very little information about the nature of those calls, how they are handled, and how police respond to them. A new AV-supported study by the Vera Institute of Justice helps to fill in the gaps.
What They Found: Vera researchers were granted full access to the 911 systems in Camden County, New Jersey and Tucson, Arizona, making numerous site visits to observe training, call-taking, and dispatch procedures. Among the key findings: A majority of 911 calls are non-criminal in nature.
Why it Matters: The shootings of Tamir Rice and Jacob Blake, and the murder of George Floyd (who would have been 47 this week) and many other unjust and unnecessary deaths, began with a call to 911. So much of our criminal justice system begins with those three digits, and failures within this system can set off a spiral of consequences that have too often ended in tragedy. Vera’s research not only offers some much-needed insight into police work, but it also points the way forward to needed reforms.
What’s Next: The Vera study includes recommendations for legislative changes, including safeguarding 911 revenue streams and developing national standards to guide 911 data collection and estimation procedures. Vera also released companion pieces to the report, providing a set of questions every community should be asking of their 911 data and a guide to 911 open-datasets for those interested in learning more but unsure of where to start. This information can help jurisdictions think critically about the most effective use of 911.
Read the story >
Related: Philadelphia police will start flagging 911 calls that involve a behavioral health crisis, reports WHYY.
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Our Nation’s Preexisting
Health Challenge
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By Adrienne Faraci, Communications Manager
In the midst of a pandemic, our nation’s preexisting public health challenge — opioid use disorder — is in dire need of attention. Communities of color have seen opioid overdose deaths increase disproportionately, and people experiencing homelessness and those involved in the criminal justice system are now unable to access the care they need, according to a new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center that tracks spending for opioid use disorder at the federal level.
What’s Happening: Public health experts are grappling with major questions around funding for evidence-based treatment and whether those dollars are being deployed to assist those who need it the most. The report looks at six states — Arizona, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington — to understand how spending varies in different geographies and communities across the country. “We know that our country has a history of deploying non-evidence-based responses to the issues of drug overdose and high-risk drug use,” says Sarah Twardock, AV Public Health Manager. “Our goal is to ensure that paradigm changes. Analyses like these can track how public dollars are being spent and inform what may need to change to improve the national response.”
Bottom Line: While the report shows that federal money is going to states that need it, it’s unclear whether populations most at risk are getting help. “All of America is being impacted. We need to close the gap for communities of color and improve access to treatment programs,” said Anand Parekh, MD, Chief Medical Advisor for the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Read the story >
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Lifting the Veil on U.S. Firearms
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By Evan Mintz, Communications Manager
We know surprisingly little about firearms usage in America. A new expert panel has set out to fix that. This week the AV–funded NORC Expert Panel on Firearms Data Infrastructure released a major report with recommendations that will give policymakers and the public a roadmap for improving the collecting and sharing of firearms data to reduce gun violence in the country.
Why it Matters: To put it bluntly, the U.S. doesn’t know a lot about guns. We don’t know where firearms used in violent crimes come from. We don’t know what laws and policies are effective at preventing gun violence. We don’t have basic research or data collection. We don’t even know how many people are injured each year due to gun violence. “We don’t have those answers because the federal government, which is the country’s biggest source of research funding, has significantly underinvested in this topic,” says Asheley Van Ness, AV Director of Criminal Justice. Last year, Congress approved one year of gun violence prevention research funding, but gun violence is one of the leading causes of death in America, and we’re still lacking basic research.
What’s Next: Experts and advocates need to start putting pressure on Congress and local governments to consider the recommendations, such as collecting more data on nonfatal firearms injuries and on how people obtain firearms used in criminal acts. Overlapping data needs to be standardized, too. “On the local level, there are 18,000 local law enforcement agencies. They all report into separate systems,” said John Roman, Senior Fellow in the Economics, Justice and Society Group at NORC at the University of Chicago. “We provide recommendations on how they can work together with the federal government to better collect and standardize their data.”
Read the story >
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How coronavirus patients are paying the price for Congressional inaction on surprise medical bills. New York Times readers shared their COVID-19 bills, including a Pennsylvania woman charged $52,112 for her air ambulance ride.
Related: Pharma plans to capitalize on a COVID-19 vaccine to boost its reputation and fend off efforts to make prescription drugs affordable.
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Some good news: Hundreds of thousands of Michiganders will be eligible to have their criminal records wiped clean under legislation signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, via Bridge Michigan.
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Holly Harris of Justice Action Network arguing in USA Today that protests must move from the streets to statehouses to pressure public officials to pass policing reform in the wake of the grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case.
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Five questions with AV’s VP of Criminal Justice Walter Katz, in which he talks about the protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder, what calls for defunding the police mean, and the role of philanthropy, via Philanthropy News Digest.
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A roadmap for the next administration on how to reverse the obstruction of consumer protection efforts and demand justice for student loan borrowers, via Student Borrower Protection Center.
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Five reforms on the ballot across the country that can "flip a switch on our democracy" by empowering voters and restoring civility.
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This weekend, I’ll be watching “Time,” a documentary by award-winning filmmaker Garrett Bradley. I’ve been waiting weeks to access this film — it was in select theaters but makes its debut on Amazon today. It pulled me in with its gut-wrenching trailer, rendered in contemplative black-and-white visuals, in which the protagonist of this story, Sibil Richardson, makes repeated calls to inquire about her husband’s case. Robert Richardson was sentenced to 60 years — essentially life — at Louisiana State Penitentiary for armed robbery, and Sibil is alone to raise their six children, including twins she gave birth to after his incarceration. His sentence is also theirs. “Success is the best revenge” is her mantra throughout this deeply personal look at a family broken by incarceration, and she does find success: as an entrepreneur, an advocate for criminal justice reform, and in her mission for justice.

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A discussion of big-picture, square-one reforms to policing — including how to reconceive of public safety — in an interview with Jeremy Travis, AV's Executive Vice President of Criminal Justice, on The Pattern Podcast by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress.
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Have an evidence-based week,
– Stephanie
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Stephanie DiCapua Getman develops and executes Arnold Ventures' digital communications strategy with a focus on multimedia storytelling and audience engagement and oversees daily editorial operations and design.
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