Thankful to have had the chance to present and moderate a panel at the 2025 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Summit on “Safer States: Shoring Up the Public Safety Workforce." Adequately, staffing public safety roles — especially in law enforcement, corrections, and public defense — has become an increasingly urgent challenge across the country. These are some of the most critical, high-stakes, and high-stress jobs in government, and the people who fill them shape the daily experience of safety in our communities. Agencies across the country are facing historic workforce shortages. The challenge isn’t just keeping people on the job — it’s finding and hiring enough qualified candidates in the first place.
As Foundation for ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis Cracks, Fallout Spreads
I was happy to talk with KFF Health News on the important new developments debunking the faulty science of the "excited delirium" diagnosis. This diagnosis, which is not based in objective, credible science has been used as a finding for cause of death in numerous police killings of civilians, especially Black men. It had been …
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Harm reduction in São Paulo Brazil – Open Arms / Braços Abertos [Photos]
These are photos from São Paulo, Brazil in June 2016 related to their innovative program Braços Abertos ("Open Arms"). This was a harm reduction effort aimed to provide housing, job training, jobs, income, and health services to street-based crack users known as Cracolândia or "Cracklands." You can read more about the program here, as well …
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