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Left to Right: Damon Hewitt of Open Society Foundations, Somalia Samuel of Bertha Justice Institute, Iris Roley of Cincinnati Black United Front, Kevin Malone of San Diego Organizing Project, DeRay McKesson of Campaign ZERO, and Mari Mari Narvaez of Espacios Abiertos discuss consent decrees. On Saturday, OSI-Baltimore convened a strategy session that brought together local activists […]

In November, 2014, OSI-Baltimore granted $25,000 to Behavioral Health System Baltimore to be used in 2015 for a collaboration with the Baltimore Police Department and Baltimore City Health Department to launch a pilot program to train Baltimore police officers to administer naloxone, a life-saving drug that reverses opioid overdoses, and equip them with naloxone kits. […]

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. […]