Aug. 6, 2013
EDGE 2013: Creating Direction for Peace and Justice (St. John’s, NL, August 21-23) – Dorothy Vaandering
You will have opportunity to engage with world-renowned speakers, insightful youth, and intriguing topics about the relationships adults have with YOUTH and the relationships they have with each other.
Consider your concerns and questions that you have struggled with regarding bullying, aggression and violence, creating cultures of care, building authentic relationships, supporting marginalized youth.
Imagine having 3 days to gather and share ideas–what a great way to get ready for 2013-2014 school year, regardless of your involvement with youth–parent, youth worker, educator, neighbour. http://www.edge2013.ca
Atlantic Cities (US) – Emily Badger
Moving Poor People into a Neighborhood Doesn’t Cause Crime
In the mid-90’s the federal government began to issue vouchers for housing subsidies rather than building massive public housing projects. Critics argued that the subsidies were simply going to make crime mobile bringing crime and violence to the new areas from the large public housing sites. Badger, quoting Michael Lens, an assistant professor of urban planning at UCLA, is suggesting that the evidence is that huge public housing creates an environment where conditions driving crime are created and that vouchers help by leaving those conditions behind. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/08/hard-data-proves-housing-vouchers-dont-cause-crime/6404
Examiner.com (US)
Death row inmate hanged: Billy Slagle dead 3 days before his execution
In Ohio, Billy Slagle had been refused all efforts to commute his death sentence, scheduled for Wednesday. The day before he was to go on suicide watch, he cheated the executioner by hanging himself in his death row cell. http://www.examiner.com/article/death-row-inmate-hanged-billy-slagle-dead-3-days-before-his-execution-video
Centre for Economic Policy Research (VOXeu.org) – Hans-Joachim Voth, Nico Voigtländer, Shanker Satyanath
Bowling for Adolf: How social capital helped to destroy Germany’s first democracy
We think of social capital as a product of social media but others see social capital as historic and deriving from other types of civic organizations. The authors of this commentary warn about a ‘dark side’ to social capital for democracy. http://www.voxeu.org/article/bowling-adolf-how-social-capital-helped-destroy-germany-s-first-democracy
The Economist (US)
Locked in: The costly criminalisation of the mentally ill
Tracey Albridge has cost the taxpayers $719,436 for her 100 arrests, 27 jail terms. Trouble is, there is no place else for her to go, even if she does not get treatment. The Cook Country Jail Sheriff Thomas Dart says, “Prisons and jails are the main mental-health facilities in the country,” something Sheriff Dart describes as an “abomination”. He is also angry about how fiscally reckless it is. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21582535-costly-criminalisation-mentally-ill-locked Related article: Chicago Sun Times – Southtown Star – Phil Kadner Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart launches help line for mentally ill http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/21742842-522/kadner-cook-county-sheriff-tom-dart-launches-help-line-for-mentally-ill.html
The Guardian (UK)
Lessons from Portugal: ‘Social enterprises are key to economic regeneration’
Central Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah thinks that Portugal, a country with desperate unemployment, has some solution for job creation using social enterprise approaches. http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/aug/05/social-enterprises-aid-economic-regeneration
The Chautauquam Daily (N.Y.) – Devlin Geroski
Verduin, Boyle speak on restorative justice for giving societies
Verduin, who founded Insight-Out, and Boyle, a Jesuit priest who founded the Homeboy Industries, advocated volunteer activism on both the political front and in the social arena while bringing the justice system to scrutiny using ‘smart on crime’ approach. http://chqdaily.com/2013/08/05/verduin-boyle-speak-on-restorative-justice-for-giving-societies
Arizona Daily Star – Editorial
‘Dream 9’ plight shines spotlight on dysfunction
The Dream 9 are the nine children raised in the US but without citizenship who deliberately left the US and attempted to provoke the injustices of the immigration system and the stalled federal legislation. Says the Star: “The Dream 9’s situation shines a spotlight on the dysfunctional nature of our current immigration system. It’s easy to take a hard line and say they broke the law and must pay the price. But the law here is far from right and wrong. As it is, the system is a mishmash of selective enforcement that mirrors the conflicting ethical and legal issues involved in immigration.” http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/dream-plight-shines-spotlight-on-dysfunction/article_419ccda6-47f9-54ed-8838-2ea0522733e4.html