Personal Safety
Life, Prison, Then Life Again
The prison population is growing, and growing fast. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the number of incarcerated felons grew by 408 percent between the years of 1978 and 2014. Even more eye-opening: The number of incarcerated women in the United States ballooned 646 percent between the years of 1980 and 2010, according to a study from The Sentencing Project, a…
KCPT Crime Discussion Yields Many Proposed Solutions
If there was one main takeaway from a Tuesday evening crime caucus in Kansas City, Missouri, it’s that there is no consensus on the best way to stem the tide of violence plaguing the urban core. Along with audience members, a nine-member panel that included representatives from law enforcement, academia, community organizations, and politics discussed…
Children’s services tax on table for Jackson, Clay Counties
Jackson and Clay counties are hoping to join a handful of Missouri municipalities that have enacted a local tax to fund services for at-risk children and youth. The Jackson-Clay Children’s Services Fund Committee is hoping that voters will enact a quarter-cent sales tax that the committee estimates could generate as much as $40 million in…
In the Margins: A KC place for putting lives back together
And at a time when basic stability is most important, many felons have a difficult time finding necessities like work, health care and housing: People are notoriously reluctant to offer a job or rent an apartment to a former felon. Because of this, research shows that offenders without support systems can end up relying on a patchwork group of underfunded services including public mental health or rehab facilities, transitional housing and vocational assistance. A KC program aims to help.
Commentary | Standing in the Universe of our Police Chief
There is a new show on Netflix that I rapidly consumed called “Stranger Things.” I found it a compelling mishmash — “Poltergeist” meets “Stand By Me” with a little “Twin Peaks” thrown in for good measure. In it, for lack of a better way of putting it, there is a parallel universe called the “Upside…