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Justice by the Numbers: Meet the Statistician Trying to Fix Bias in Criminal Justice Algorithms

Katia Savchuk

February 01, 2019 |

Pacific Standard |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

Algorithm-based tools are more frequently being used by courts to determine the risk of an alleged offender so judges can better determine whether the person should be detained or not before trial. Although this methodology has shown promise, there are serious limitations when there is not enough data or biased data. One non-profit is working to change this by reevaluating the limitations and advocating for the release of individuals being unjustly detained.

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Frozen Assets

Katia Savchuk

January 01, 2019 |

Mother Jones |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Juneau, Alaska

In Alaska, the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program, which is meant to provide $1600 to every resident who has lived in Alaska for at least a year, has been proven to reduce poverty and increase quality of life; the program has even been credited for Alaska's status as the state with the second highest income equality in the country. The Fund is meant to disperse wealth from the state's natural resources - but despite it's overall success, decreasing profits from the oil and gas industries has put the Fund in peril as lawmakers cut payments instead of implementing income taxes to generate revenue.

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How a Tech Geek Is Using Machine Learning to Hold Human Rights Abusers Accountable

Katia Savchuk

December 28, 2018 |

Pacific Standard |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Patrick Ball, cofounder of the nonprofit Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), has helped use quantitative data to put numbers behind things that were before unprovable — i.e. the difference between genocide and random violence. Ball and HRDAG have analyzed existing data to come up with the "invisible" data, overlaying several sets of statistics with machine learning to come up with stats like the fact that you were eight times more likely to be killed by the army in the Ixil region in the early 1980s if you were indigenous. Ball also advises nine truth commissions, four UN commissions, and more.

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The Tiny NGO That Changed Reporting on Rio's Favelas During the Olympics

Katia Savchuk

August 24, 2016 |

Bright Magazine |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Catalytic Communications provides resources to reporters to help them move beyond stereotypical ideas and present a multifaceted perspective of life in favelas. This is especially important during times like the Olympic Games when thousands of journalists arrive to cover a country they often know very little about. CatComm provides journalists with tools such as a list of underreported subjects and community leaders to contact and has actively informed over 200 articles. CatComm is also developing tools for their model to be created in other cities.

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Innovative funding model allows urban poor to determine their own future

Katia Savchuk

October 08, 2012 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: South Africa, Cape Town

Though well-meaning, many poverty alleviation and development efforts treat the receivers of aid as subjects rather than capable people. Urban Poor Fund International, the first global fund to give poor people direct control over urban development spending, is having more than just a local impact.

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