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In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional where the individual was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense. The Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller struck down mandatory sentencing laws in more than a dozen states, and […]

The Fund for Educational Excellence, an OSI grantee that works to support student achievement in city schools, is asking for nominations for its Heart of the School Awards, which will recognize school principals. Specifically, the Heart of the School Principals are looking to “recognize exceptional leaders who have demonstrated exemplary innovation, execution, and leadership, building […]

Over the last nine years, the Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, an OSI-Baltimore grantee, has been seeking removal of the governor from the parole process. This 17-minute documentary tells the story of why its Director, Walter Lomax, is so passionate about “unblocking the exit” for so many prisoners. Lomax, who was convicted of a crime he […]

It was only 16 words. And even in the Twittersphere, where the speech was endlessly picked apart, it didn’t seem to merit too many mentions. But it might have represented the biggest single departure in domestic U.S. policy in a generation. “I hope we can work together this year on some bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform.” […]

By Tara Huffman Baltimore’s primary elections, just three months away, promise a major turnover in city government. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has announced that she won’t seek re-election and the Baltimore Sun, among others, predicts major changes in the City Council. We anticipate that the Baltimore City Council will turnover more than 50 percent, and that the median […]

VICE posted a story today, “Can Baltimore Recover from its 2015 Murder Wave?” looking at how the city might rebound from the terrible violence of 2015. The story notes the troubling state of affairs in the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), which currently has 200 vacancies and a 30 percent homicide clearance rate–less that half the national average. […]

On December 29 and 30, local NPR affiliate WYPR dedicated its noon show Midday, hosted by Sheilah Kast, to OSI-Baltimore’s dynamic 2015 community fellows. On the show that aired on the 29th (which you can read about and listen to here), Kast interviewed Greg Carpenter, Dave Eassa, Brion Gill, Menes Yahuda, Meryam Bouadjemi. On the 30th (which you […]

In the latest installment of WYPR’s series, On the Watch, reporter Mary Rose Madden looks into the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights and the common conflict between police department transparency and individual officers’ privacy rights. “We have to protect police officers and afford them due process when they are involved in a critical incident when […]