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Efforts to Reduce Jail Populations in Philadelphia: Implementation Lessons from the Safety and Justice Challenge

March 31, 2023

Jail incarceration continues to be a main driver of the mass incarceration crisis in the United States and to negatively affect individuals, families, and communities. Racial disparities in local jail populations are significant, particularly to the detriment of Black communities. Involvement in the criminal legal system, even when brief, can have severe consequences, including barriers to sustaining employment and securing stable housing, poor physical and mental health stemming from chronic stress and limited access to adequate health care, and disruptions to family relationships and social support networks.To address these issues, Philadelphia implemented a multipronged reform plan supported by the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) to reduce its jail population and associated racial and ethnic disparities. Since 2015, Philadelphia has significantly reduced its jail population through these SJC efforts, which included closing a jail facility, launching a strategy across decision points in the criminal legal system, strengthening collaboration and cross-agency partnerships, launching a formal committee to represent community members' perspectives, and analyzing data to identify racial and ethnic disparities across decision points.This report describes Philadelphia's major SJC strategies, documents how it navigated challenges and advanced tangible reform efforts, and explores the perceived impacts of these strategies on its efforts to engage community members, reduce local jail use, and implement system reforms that advance equity.

Collaborative Outcomes from the Youth Justice and Employment Community of Practice

October 18, 2022

Established in mid-2021, the Youth Justice and Employment Community of Practice (CoP) is a partnership of the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC), and Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) formed to improve outcomes for youth with justice involvement by increasing collaboration among local workforce and juvenile justice systems. The CoP began during the middle of COVID-19 at a time when counterparts in each jurisdiction were seeking to reestablish pandemic-disrupted communication and collaboration. CoP participants met monthly to share knowledge and expertise on topics of importance to both systems. Based on work from the CoP, participating cities and counties produced notable improvements in building relationships, expanding partnerships, and promoting investments that benefit justice-involved young people in their communities. This report documents successes and offers recommendations for others seeking to improve outcomes for these young people.

Regional Trends in Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium

August 8, 2022

In June 2021, the National Endowment for the Arts published Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Digital Technology as a Creative Medium. This report is the culmination of a nearly two-year research study into artists whose practices are rooted in digital technologies. Launched in partnership with the Knight Foundation and Ford Foundation, with research conducted by 8 Bridges Workshop and Dot Connector Studio, the report explores the broad spectrum of tech-centered artistic practice, as well as the networks, career paths, and hubs of activity that support this work.Prior to the report publication, the Arts Endowment organized a series of seven virtual field meetings between June 15-24, 2021. These roundtable gatherings welcomed 116 artists, funders, administrators, academics, writers, educators, activists, and other field leaders, in addition to representatives from the Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Convenings focused on distinct geographic regions anchored by the cities of St. Paul, Minnesota; Detroit, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York; Miami, Florida; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and San Jose, California. Participants discussed challenges, existing assets, and practical steps for building the arts and technology field across the nation from the ground up. Through advancing regional conversations, the Arts Endowment sought to both strengthen regional arts and technology networks and develop an array of practical action steps for potential field supporters that complement Tech as Art findings and recommendations.

Philadelphia 2022: The State of the City

April 20, 2022

Two years into the pandemic, Philadelphia is showing signs of an economic and public health recovery, yet some serious challenges remain.

Considering Re-enactments: The Battle of Germantown in the Light of 21st–Century Gun Violence

March 30, 2021

In response to feedback from the local community and an era of gun violence in the United States, Cliveden initiated conversations with local and re-enactment communities about the relevancy and impact of the site's signature event, the Revolutionary Germantown Festival featuring re-enactments of the Battle of Germantown. The central purpose of the project was to gather reactions from key stakeholders and input from scholars to wrestle with the organization's interpretation of the American Revolution. How can Cliveden tell the authentic story of the Battle of Germantown that is relevant to the community and not an over-simplified version front loading violence? How can Cliveden include different perspectives in the re-enactment? With societal shifts over the past 40 years and an increase of violence, Cliveden was compelled to confront these questions to face the reality of gun violence in everyday American life. The hope was to discover the impact the current interpretation of Revolutionary-era history has on the communities Cliveden serves.Through eighteen months that included the start of a worldwide pandemic, Cliveden with project partners and consultants met both virtually and onsite with small groups to hear from constituents what mattered, what worked and what needed help. Data was also gathered using surveys and in-person interviews during a re-vamped Revolutionary Germantown Festival forced by COVID-19. Through this project participants listened and learned from one another. Cliveden looks forward to using the information gathered and the relationships forged and deepened during this project to expand the site's interpretation of the American Revolution. 

Disparate Debts: How Student Loans Drive Racial Inequality Across American Cities

June 29, 2020

This report examines alarming racial disparities in student debt burdens and borrower distress across American cities. The report highlights trends and offers new analysis of recent research by economists and city officials in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and San Francisco. The report finds student borrower distress is heavily concentrated in majority-Black and majority-Latinx neighborhoods, and offers stark new evidence of the role of student debt in exacerbating the nation's vicious cycle of inequality and racial wealth gap.

Predicting City Poverty Using Satellite Imagery

June 16, 2019

Reliable data about socio-economic conditions of individuals, such as health indexes, consumption expenditures and wealth assets, remain scarce for most countries. Traditional methods to collect such data include on site surveys that can be expensive and labour intensive. On the other hand, remote sensing data, such as high-resolution satellite imagery, are becoming largely available. To circumvent the lack of socio-economic data at high granularity, computer vision has already been applied successfully to raw satellite imagery sampled from resource poor countries.In this work we apply a similar approach to the metropolitan areas of five different cities in North and South America, starting from pre-trained convolutional models used for poverty mapping in developing regions. Applying a transfer learning process we estimate household income from visual satellite features. The urban environment we consider is characterized by different features with respect to the resource-poor training environment, such as the high heterogeneity in population density. By leveraging both official and crowd-sourced data at city scale, we show the feasibility of estimating the socio-economic conditions of different neighborhoods from satellite data.

Failing to Protect and Serve: Police Department Policies Towards Transgender People

May 7, 2019

American policing is in grave need of reform. Reports of racial and religious profiling, killings of unarmed civilians, and sexual abuse and other forms of misconduct by police across the nation are all too common. Over half (58%) of transgender people who interacted with law enforcement that knew they were transgender in the last year reported experiences of harassment, abuse or other mistreatment by the police according to the US Transgender Survey (USTS). Transgender people often feel, accurately, that they can do nothing about this mistreatment, knowing that they risk falling victim to additional mistreatment by those tasked with conducting and overseeing the complaint process.As we make groundbreaking advancements towards transgender equality, many members of our communities continue to be affected by disproportionate contact with, and often by bias and abuse within, policing and the criminal justice system. Transgender people face staggering levels of violence, homelessness, and poverty in the United States, with transgender people of color experiencing the greatest disparities. Thus, it is not surprising that, even though transgender people are more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-transgender people, over half (57%) of all USTS respondents feel uncomfortable calling the police for help when they need it.The purpose of this report is to promote stronger and more fair policies when it comes to police interactions with transgender people. This report focuses primarily on policies specifically governing police interactions with transgender people, including non-discrimination statements, recognition of non-binary identities in applicable policies, use of respectful communication, recording information in department forms, search procedures, transportation, placement in temporary lock-up facilities, access to medication, removal of appearance related items, training, and bathroom access. For each topic, model policies are provided that can and should be adopted by police departments in collaboration with transgender leaders in their communities.

Brotherly Love: Health of Black Men and Boys in Philadelphia

March 14, 2019

This report uses data from various sources to examine  the impact of social and economic factors on health outcomes for black men and boys living in Philadelphia.

Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and PBIS in the School District of Philadelphia

October 1, 2017

The report details a two-year exploratory, mixed-methods research study on the disciplinary practices and climate of schools serving Kâ8 students in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Findings reveal that SDP schools are making efforts to reduce suspensions and improve climate, but critical barriers to these efforts include resource limitations and philosophical misalignments between teachers and school leaders. The study identified three profiles among SDP schools serving Kâ8 students based on information about disciplinary practices and climate, and found that these profiles are predictive of suspension and academic outcomes. Students attending schools with collaborative climates and less punitive approaches to discipline have lower risk of being suspended and better academic outcomes. The report offers a series of recommendations for strengthening the implementation of climate initiatives, including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), in challenging urban settings.

Philadelphia Zoo Rail: Concept Development and Ridership Analysis

May 31, 2017

This study examines the potential for passenger rail service at the Philadelphia Zoo. The report includes a synthesis of previous planning studies, concepts for five future scenarios, and ridership forecasts using the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's Regional Travel Demand Model.

Trends in Smart City Development

January 5, 2017

This report examines the meanings and practices associated with the term 'smart cities.' Smart city initiatives involve three components: information and communication technologies (ICTs) that generate and aggregate data; analytical tools which convert that data into usable information; and organizational structures that encourage collaboration, innovation, and the application of that information to solve public problems.