Three Things To Read This Week
1. Washington Post Editorial Board: “Summer Youth Jobs Programs …. Help Prevent Participants From Being Pulled Into The Criminal Justice System, Particularly For Violent Crimes.”From the Editorial Board:
“Every summer, teens and young adults across the country fill their bags, pack lunches and head to work — thanks to summer youth jobs programs. These initiatives, which have become ubiquitous nationwide, are beloved by politicians and constituents alike. They aim to perform myriad functions: helping connect youths to employment opportunities, offering them income and marketable skills, and dissuading them from risky behavior.
As summer jobs initiatives have risen to prominence nationally, there is a growing body of research evaluating their impacts …. with one consistent takeaway: These programs can help prevent participants from being pulled into the criminal justice system, particularly for violent crimes.
[To further bolster impact,] policymakers could, for example, prioritize young people who have been involved in the juvenile justice system or show behaviors linked to it, such as extended school absences. Policymakers could also bolster access in low-income communities by offering information sessions, support with applications and subsidized commutes…”
Related: Here is some of the research referenced above:
Boston: Researchers found that “those in the [summer job program] treatment group exhibited significant reductions in the number of arraignments for violent crimes (-35 percent) and property crimes (-57 percent) during the 17 months after program participation.”
Chicago: Researchers found that a summer job program “dramatically reduces violent-crime arrests, even after the summer”, dropping violent crime arrests by 33-42%.
NYC: Researchers found evidence that “participation [in a summer job program] decreases arrests and convictions during the program summer… [and an important benefit of the program is] that the effect is concentrated among individuals with prior contact with the criminal justice system.”
2. Expanding Access To Narcan:
Narcan “Should Be In Every Emergency Box In Every School In America Because It Can Save Lives.” That’s U.S. Representative Buddy Carter, a Republican who previously worked as a pharmacist, describing on Fox News a key strategy to combat the opioid overdose crisis in America—which, according to a recent report from The Washington Post, is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-49. Carter told Fox News: “I keep Narcan in my backpack, I take it everywhere I go. Thankfully I haven’t had to use it and I hope I don’t—we ought to have Narcan available.”
“New York’s First Narcan Vending Machine Is Working.” Writing for New York Magazine, Wilfred Chan details access to Narcan in a local vending machine saved a life:
“One afternoon in the middle of June, Elan Quashie had just finished restocking the vending machine outside of the Brownsville nonprofit where he works when a co-worker told him a man was slumped over next to it. Quashie suspected that the man was overdosing on fentanyl … After calling for an ambulance …. Quashie punched some buttons on the vending machine to get a pack of Narcan nasal spray. He pushed one dose into the man’s nose, and then, when that didn’t seem to revive him, another. The unconscious man finally stirred awake …. New York’s first naloxone vending machine had only been installed on the sidewalk days earlier, and it had probably saved his life.”
As Elan Quashie told New York Magazine, though, easy access to Narcan via a vending machine provides opportunities for anyone in the vicinity of a person overdosing to help save a life: “Even if I wasn’t there, anyone could have used the machine and done that in real time.”
“Camden County To Equip Bus Drivers With Narcan, After Installing Kits In Most Schools.” Writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Melanie Burney details Camden County, New Jersey’s new pilot program that provides Narcan to school bus drivers who can administer the life-saving medicine to students. The county has already installed Narcan emergency boxes in “nearly every public, private, and parochial school in the county… [as well as to many] churches, boarding houses, apartment complexes, shelters, food pantries, courtrooms, and social service facilities” around the county.
“Amid The Nation’s Deadly Opioid Epidemic, Summit County Stocks Life-Saving Antidote In Public.” For Summit Daily News, Ryan Spencer reports on a new overdose prevention program in the Colorado mountain county that has “more than 300 public, indoor locations” scattered throughout the county “stocked with life-saving naloxone so that it is close at hand no matter where someone may need it.” Summit County is taking a unique approach to making Narcan kits more accessible—by placing them next to already existing defibrillator kits, on the logic that: “overdoses and sudden cardiac arrest sometimes go hand in hand.”
3. Cities Are Expanding Their Mobile Crisis Response Programs:
“Philadelphia City Council paves way for $3 million funding bump for mobile crisis response services.” For WHYY, Philadelphia’s local NPR station, Nicole Leonard reports that “city council members and crisis providers say the additional money allocated in the new budget will address staffing issues and improve response times by establishing bridge teams to help cover high-volume periods. The $3 million boost is in addition to the $6 million dollars originally budgeted for the mobile program.” City Council Member Kendra Brooks put it more crisply: “Over 200 Philadelphians each day seek mental health support, and this funding will help ensure trained mental health providers will be able to respond to every call.”
San Diego County Expanding Lauded Mobile Crisis Response Team With $4 Million Boost. As part of a nearly billion dollar overhaul of county mental health services, San Diego County announced a $4.6 million boost that “includes mobile crisis response teams that send mental health experts rather than law enforcement when appropriate to respond to someone in crisis… and covers walk-in crisis stabilization units that give people who are experiencing mental-health episodes a safe, calm place to get around-the-clock help rather than being taken to jails…”. These resources will continue to scale the success of the mobile crisis response program in San Diego County, which already boasts 16 teams—each composed of a mental health clinician and two other healthcare experts—that have responded to thousands of calls involving acute mental health crises since launching in 2021.
Santa Cruz County Injects “$5.1 Million Over The Next Three Years … To Overhaul The Way Mental Health Crises Are Handled In The County” Including Making “Crisis Response Teams Available 24 Hours [Per Day].” For Santa Cruz Local, Jesse Kathan reports:
“The new program … will make mobile crisis teams available 24 hours within the next three years … The plan also calls for increased staff for the county’s mobile crisis response [, which currently includes] two non-law enforcement teams that respond to mental health crises … Both teams respond to psychiatric crises with a licensed mental health worker such as a therapist or a social worker along with non-licensed crisis workers. Both teams now respond to calls 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Within three years, crisis response teams are expected to be available 24 hours …
[Moreover,] a new dispatch system is planned to simplify crisis response. The new system will enable dispatchers to send a mobile crisis team if needed, regardless of which number people call. The improved dispatch system will also involve more cooperation between dispatchers, mobile response teams, and psychiatric facilities ….”
