Three Things To Read This Week
1. Summer Job Programs Reduce Violence.
Summer jobs programs for teenagers reduce violent crime, according to the results of gold-standard randomized controlled trials conducted in Boston, Chicago, and New York City.
These programs work by “giving teens something to do during the summer.” Yet, as Jennifer Doleac, a prominent economist and Vice President for Criminal Justice at the Arnold Foundation explains, they also work by providing participants with “a glimpse of a different path,” “something different to aspire to,” and “informal mentors who help teens learn how to interact with adults [and] handle workplace disagreements[.]”
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu “guaranteed all Boston Public School students who want a job can get one this summer.” As Cyrus Moulton reports for Northeastern Global News, Mayor Wu said she was persuaded to bolster the program because “the data shows clearly that summer jobs”: (1) “increase high school graduation rates”; (2) “decrease the likelihood of involvement with the court system”; and (3) “boost future employment opportunities.”
Alicia Modestino, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, echoed Mayor Wu, calling the program “wildly impactful” and emphasizing that the research from Boston shows that summer job program participants “demonstrate increased employment and wages, increased academic achievement and decreased involvement with the criminal justice system.”In Atlanta, Riley Bunch reports for the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the “number of registered students has more than doubled from this time last year” for the city’s “summer internship, [an] opportunity that provides thousands of young residents with the chance to work in some of the city’s biggest companies and even at City Hall.” This year, the summer jobs program reached “a historic high of nearly 5,000 high schoolers that have signed up.” The city has worked hard to enlist Atlanta’s business community—especially its “booming tech industry”—, which is reflected in the fact that “more than 150 employers taking part in the program over the last two years have paid out over $5 million in wages.”
While a key objective of the summer employment program is to “keep youth crime numbers down,” Mayor Andre Dickens underscores the broader vision: “it is not just about jobs; it is about hope, aspirations, and a solid commitment to Atlanta’s youth … “I may be the Mayor of Atlanta now. But it wasn't too long ago that I was just a kid from Adamsville looking for opportunities. I'm committed to creating those opportunities for young people all across this city.”In Little Rock, Arkansas, the local NBC affiliate called the city’s summer jobs program a path to “victory over violence.” Meanwhile, city officials say that while half of the goal is “helping youth stay away from violence during the summer … the other goal is to give them opportunities to help them in the future.” An eighteen year-old worker who is part of this year’s summer jobs program told NBC’s Tylisa Hampton that “the program is a lifesaver for him” and gives him “hope.” The teenager also explained why the program works: “It gives us something to do, it keeps us occupied, it keeps us from being outside all the time and being in the streets … From personal experience and experience of my friends and close family members, I have seen they were able to stay out of trouble a lot more.” Another teenager, who loves animals and is spending his summer working at the zoo, said the job “keeps me out of the streets, keeps me occupied, keeps my head clean and I want to stay out of trouble.”
Related: Cities across the country are launching—or expanding—summer employment programs this year. For example: Akron, Charlotte, Memphis, Newark, New York and Philadelphia.
2. Albuquerque’s New Behavioral Health Crisis Center Is “A Safe, Welcoming and Secure Place Where People Can Get Help And Support.”
Albuquerque’s “highly anticipated Behavioral Health Crisis Center [took] its first patients earlier this month. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, a sign of the growing attention that the city’s vision for a more comprehensive approach to public safety is commanding.
The Center, which Bernalillo County Commission Chair Barbara Baca dubbed “the beginning of a new chapter in New Mexico health care,” “contains three important services that assist patients with different needs.” As Makenzie McNeill reports for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Newsroom:
“The Crisis Triage Center provides medium-acuity crisis stabilization services with 16 single patient rooms”;
“The Peer-Based ‘Living Room’ offers low-acuity walk-in or referral services in a welcoming environment accessed by a separate public entrance and lobby”; and
The University of New Mexico Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Services [opened an expanded] new space [with] more room for adult patients and dedicated rooms for pediatric patients.”
As Tamara Lopez reports for Albuquerque’s local NBC affiliate, the new behavioral crisis center also has a dedicated space for [both] law enforcement [and the] Albuquerque Community Safety [department],” providing a viable third option—aside from jail or an emergency room—for where a first responder can bring a person who is experiencing a mental health crisis.
Zooming out, the new crisis center is another building block in Albuquerque’s effort to build a truly comprehensive public safety infrastructure. First, the city envisioned—and then built—a “third branch of public safety” that “deals with homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues” that didn’t exist in Albuquerque (or anywhere in America) just three years ago. Today, that department—not the police— “takes the majority of mental and behavioral health [emergency] calls.”
Most of the time, when a mental health professional from the Community Safety Department arrives on the scene, she is able to resolve the situation without the need to transport the person in crisis to protect their—or someone else’s—safety.
However, when a person does need more urgent care or monitoring, the existence of the new behavioral health center means that first responders from the Community Safety Department have a place to bring a person 24/7 that can handle short-term residential care, and ongoing mental health treatment.
That continuity of care makes it more likely that the person is headed down the path to recovery and less likely that a jail or involuntary hospital stay is part of their future.
Here are two photographs of the new facility taken by Jessica Baca for the Albuquerque Journal:
3. U.S. DOJ Highlights The Cost Of Sending Armed Police Officers To Situations Better Suited For Mental Health Professionals.
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice released the findings of a civil rights investigation into the Phoenix Police Department. The entire report is worth your time, but what we want to call attention to is the observation that “too frequently” 911 dispatchers send the police alone “when it would be appropriate to send behavioral health responders.”
The report acknowledges that the department is filled with officers who “treat people with behavioral health disabilities with empathy, respect, and compassion.” Yet, “PhxPD officers often approach individuals with behavioral health disabilities with a ‘force first’ mentality, and frequently “use Tasers against people who show signs of a behavioral health crisis” Indeed, officers:
“fire Tasers at people with little or no warning and when people pose no threat”;
“rarely attempt de-escalation before firing a Taser”;
“fire Tasers at people with their hands up, after they surrender, or when they are restrained”; and
“fail to recognize that a person’s [behavioral health] disability may impact whether they can understand commands or comply with them.”
Moreover, “in a significant number of use-of-force incidents we reviewed, including police shootings, officers knew or should have known the person had a disability and could have safely made reasonable modifications, such as calling in the assistance of a mobile crisis team…” Collectively, “these tactics can make force inevitable, place officers in jeopardy, and result in unnecessary arrest or institutionalization.”
Worse, the mindset and training that contributes to these faulty practices is a staple of the police department’s formal training sessions. As the DOJ report explains, the Phoenix police department “teaches and perpetuates false and harmful stereotypes that prime officers to escalate encounters with people with behavioral health disabilities.” For example, a “training given to all new officers erroneously teaches that people with bipolar disorder are ‘dangerous to responding officers. Prone to unprovoked violence.’”
Seeing a culture shift in real time.
In the past, findings from DOJ civil rights investigations tended to emphasize the need for more training; closer supervision of officers; and a more robust discipline structure for officers who prove themselves unable—or unwilling—to change.
Now, though, against the backdrop of dozens of cities adopting mobile crisis response teams, the DOJ emphasized that “the presence of officers can lead to more harm for people with behavioral health disabilities” and that sending mental health experts instead “hold[s] promise for changing the landscape of how people with behavioral health disabilities in Phoenix receive emergency services.”
That’s a stunning degree of recognition for the role of medical professionals in the public safety apparatus given how new mobile crisis teams are in the United States.
Phoenix leaders appear poised to make the needed changes.
The city recently launched its “Behavioral Health Units, civilian teams that can respond to behavioral health calls for service [and] there are now four BHUs operating citywide, seven days per week, 20 hours per day. The City plans to have nine BHUs available 24/7 by the end of 2024.”
Moreover, though the police department still handles the vast majority of mental health related calls for service, the report emphasized that in the instances “when we did see PhxPD request a mobile crisis team, the incidents were resolved without arrest or use of force.”
