Archive

A new story in the Maryland Daily Record reports on the dramatic reduction on the use of cash bail in Maryland (“With cash bail down and releases up, stakeholders turn attention to pretrial services“). Perhaps most notably, while the use of cash bail dropped from around 40 percent of criminal cases in 2016 to about […]

In its recent Biennial Performance Audit of the Baltimore City Health Department, the city’s Department of Audits noted several of the health department’s successes, including its Naloxone program, which reversed at least 1,439 overdoses in 2016 and 2017 alone. The audit also reported several failures to meet expectations, recommending that the department increase staffing levels […]

Pax Christi International, the global Catholic peace movement whose focus is “to transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity” has named the No Boundaries Coalition, an OSI-Baltimore grantee, the recipient of its 2018 Peace Award.  No Boundaries, a community advocacy organization that played a key role in ensuring that the Consent Decree was […]

On Wednesday, the Baltimore City Youth Fund announced its year-one grant awardees and among the recipients are several OSI-Baltimore grantees and organizations founded by OSI Community Fellows. Among the awardees was Afrikan Youth Alchemy Inc. (founded by 2009 Fellow Tre Subira), Baltimore Youth Arts (founded by 2016 Fellow Gianna Rodriguez), Intersection of Change (a part of […]

PARCC test results released today show that Baltimore City Schools had the region’s biggest increases, even as suspension rates have plummeted. “These results debunk the myth that suspension reductions result in chaotic schools in which children can’t learn,” says Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program, which has made working with Baltimore City […]

The Baltimore Book Festival is coming up September 28 to 30th, and Open Society Institute has been given the opportunity to curate an hour of programming on the main stage from 4 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 29th. The program will include a reading by Lady Brion (Brion Gill), a 2015 OSI Community Fellow, […]

Restorative Response Baltimore, an OSI-Baltimore grantee founded by 1998 OSI Community Fellow Lauren Abramson that offers conflict resolution and mediation, will hold its Summer Mix N Mingle event on August 25th. In addition to games, music provided by DJ Trillnatured, henna by Aayesha of Mehendi_Wali, and sweets by Kellz Kupcakes, the celebration will feature a […]

Yesterday, Mayor Jorge Marquez Perez from the Puerto Rican city of Maunabo visited Baltimore’s City Hall and met with Mayor Catherine Pugh as part of a mayoral exchange organized by Open Society Foundations. The program, launched in February, was created so that U.S. mayors could express solidarity and share expertise with their Puerto Rican counterparts as they […]

Like so many in Baltimore, we were deeply disturbed by the video that surfaced over the weekend of a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officer brutally beating an unarmed man. We appreciate the quick statements by Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle and Mayor Catherine Pugh, including the mayor’s statement that “We are working day and night […]

Tara Huffman, director of Open Society Institute’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program, was quoted in the Baltimore Sun today, talking about the case of Deniro Bellamy, a mentally disabled man who overdosed on morphine and fentanyl in Baltimore City jail and died while being held for a traffic violation. Huffman emphasized the need for pretrial […]