Mayors Challenge winners target justice, homeless, energy - battery energy storage system

PHILADELPHIA —
The idea at the juvenile justice center began with a handful of Philadelphia police officers who knew the way they interacted with teenagers had to change.
Judges of the Bloomberg Charity FoundationS.
The mayor's challenge is willing to bet that their ideas will work.
Bloomberg announced the nine winners of the challenge on Monday, which requires cities to develop innovative solutions for their biggest problems, and if they succeed, other cities may follow suit.
Each winner will receive a $1 million prize to implement these ideas.
Los Angeles plans to develop a project where people build houses on their properties and rent them out to the homeless.
Georgetown, Texas, plans to become the country's first energy-independent community by installing solar panels and battery storage on its buildings.
Philadelphia plans to set up a juvenile justice center where teenagers will be arrested instead of being taken to a police station built to deal with adults.
Teenagers can spend six hours in small, cold, wet and old cells, even if they have little contact with the police-partly to prevent them from accidentally committing crimes.
The center will aim to reduce youth contact with the police, but the police and many other partners hope that the center will also keep more children away from the criminal justice system and get in touch with transfer programs faster, and for-
Provide intervention services for housing, food, mental health counseling and other areas of need.
Captain Stephen Clark is in charge of overseeing the city's 24 police districts, located near the Port of Richmond near the city's opioid epidemic center.
He is a police officer who has come up with a seed idea to address the issue of teen arrest, and for months he has told everyone on the planning team that the idea of Philadelphia will be selected.
"There are a lot of violent crimes where I work now.
He said: "Our shooting victims tend to have significant arrest records that go back to their youth, so ideally we can intervene faster as well so they don't become shooting
"I didn't join the department and watched people die.
City officials, including the mayor who finally chose to submit ideas, also recognized the potential impact of the center.
"All you need to see is a 10-or 12-
One year old, sitting alone in a damp cell, he was afraid because he did something stupid, such as shop theft, because he understood that the child's first access to the justice system was critical, said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny: "This juvenile justice center is needed. ". Sgt.
John Ross from the department's strategic planning office also helped develop the central idea.
He said Philadelphia police have arrested nearly 4,000 teenagers each year, about 2,300 of them charged and eventually entered the criminal justice system.
For others, the charges were either dropped or eventually sent to a transfer program through the court, including drug abuse treatment, anger management, or other interventions.
The center and its services that will help connect children and families are expected to lower those two numbers, Ross said.
Finding a way to connect children and parents with intervention and transfer services without resorting to court will bring more trauma and shame to these teenagers, officials said
For Judge Bloomberg, Philadelphia's commitment to other criminal justice reforms
Reducing the prison population, improving bail procedures and increasing diversion programs indicate that the city will work to make the idea of the juvenile justice center work.
"We are increasingly putting a lot of problems on the mayor's shoulders, whether it's climate change, tackling opioid drugs or providing affordable housing," said James Anderson . " Head of government innovation programs at Bloomberg charity.
"I think one aspect of the idea that Philadelphia has put to the selection committee is that it stems from the front-line police who recognize the need to do something different in their interactions with these young people, key life
Change the moment.
It is commendable that the city was able to hear this from the front line and become a successful solution.
"Other Awards are awarded to Denver for placing air quality sensors around the school: N DurhamC.
Create incentive plans for drivers to take public transport;
Fort Collins, Colorado, helping landlords
Safer, more energy-efficient housingefficient;
Huntington, West Virginia embedded the metal health care profession with first responders to meet the needs of opioid users;
New York, New Rochelle, implementing virtual reality technology in the public planning process;
And South Bend of Indiana, which will help lowIncome and part
Time staff find reliable commuter transportation through ride sharing.