TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: Karen Sage of Austin, facing a Tuesday runoff with Mindy Montford of Austin for the Democratic nod for a judgeship, touts her experience as a prosecutor overseeing a new unit focused on defendants with mental illness. With no Republican opponent in November, the winner of the runoff will likely be a shoo-in for Travis County’s 299th state District Court judgeship. In a mailer sent to voters April 3, Sage celebrates the new program, saying that jail “time for non-violent, mentally ill offenders has been reduced by 50 percent.”We wondered if Sage’s statement—echoed in a TV ad she debuted Wednesday—reflects reality. Sage’s campaign initially referred us to Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis County district attorney. Lehmberg confirmed that she asked Sage, an assistant district attorney, to helm the felony mental health unit, which was started in January 2009. Claire Dawson-Brown, the DA’s director of strategic prosecutions, said a magistrate started handling a special docket comprised of “mental health” defendants in late April 2009. To be in the program, Dawson-Brown said, defendants must usually be charged with a non-violent crime. They also must be diagnosed with major depression or considered bipolar, schizo-affective or schizophrenic, and seen as unstable in the jail. “It would be someone in a crisis situation,” she said, “or their mental illness is impairing their behavior.” Experts team to address the needs of the mental health inmates, Dawson-Brown said. She said participants get services they need in custody and when they return to the community. Besides Sage, who has a paralegal and a secretary, each defendant has an attorney familiar with mental health issues; she said the magistrate, a jail counselor and officials serving the local mental health and adult probation systems also play roles, with social workers sometimes getting involved. And how has the program affected jail stays? Sage said she reached her 50-percent reduction statement by comparing a baseline estimate that “mental health” inmates facing felony charges were averaging 106 days in jail before the program began to the 42-day average for participants in the program at the time she left the office in mid-December to run for judge. The decrease amounts to 60 percent. Dawson-Brown agreed that as of late 2008 and early 2009, the average Travis County jail stay for all its “mental health” defendants, including violent offenders, was 106 days. We pointed out that the baseline figure sweeps in the longer jail stays of individuals charged with violent crimes who aren’t automatically put in the new program, driving up the pre-program average and potentially skewing before and after comparisons. Dawson-Brown then gave us more detailed jail-stay information enabling an improved review of the change in average jail stays. Based on the new figures, we estimate that defendants who have been through the new program would have averaged 77 days in jail before the program began. The nitty gritty: We multiplied the number of affected defendants categorized by the level of felony they faced--ranging from first-degree felony charges to second- and third-degree felonies to state-jail felony charges--by the days that similarly charged defendants averaged in jail before the program began. Next, we totaled those defendant-days-in-jail and divided the total (19,432) by the number of defendants (253) to reach the pre-program estimate of an average of 77 days in jail. Through February, the magistrate had processed 253 defendants since the program’s start, according to Dawson-Brown, and they averaged 36 days in jail. Best we can tell, the average jail stay for defendants dropped by 41 days, or 53 percent.

SOLUTION: "Karen Sage Says that under a new program jail ""time for non-violent, mentally ill offenders has been reduced by 50 percent."

PROBLEM: It’s true that triatomine   bugs, which are often called “kissing bugs,” have been linked to Chagas   disease in the United States. Researchers with the American Society of   Topical Medicine and Hygiene   estimated that there were about 300,000 cases of Chagas disease in the U.S. by   early November 2014. The potentially fatal disease is caused by an   infection by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, or T. cruzi, and was   first diagnosed in the U.S. in 2007. Kissing bugs feed on the blood of sleeping humans and animals. After   they feed, infected bugs defecate, and T. cruzi parasites from their   feces are able to enter the body through the eyes, mouth, nose or an   open wound, according to the   Mayo Clinic. The   Mayo Clinic says it’s also possible to become infected by eating   uncooked contaminated food, blood transfusions, infected pets and   spending time in forests where infected animals like raccoons and   opossums live. Symptoms of Chagas disease are often mild or non-existent at first,   which is why it’s called “the silent killer.” As the disease progresses,   patients experience fever, body aches and swelling around the bite mark. More advanced symptoms include irregular heartbeat, an enlarged heart,   problems with digestion and bowel movements and strokes, according to   the   Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC). The   World Health Organization   estimates that 8 million people are infected with Chagas disease, most of them in   Latin America. Researchers from Baylor University collected 40 kissing bugs from 11   counties in south-central Texas and identified 17 patients from Houston   who were diagnosed with Chagas disease, the Washington Posts reported in   November 2014. “We   are astonished to not only find such a high rate of individuals testing   positive for Chagas in their blood, but also high rates of heart disease   that appear to be Chagas-related,” Nolan Garcia, a researcher with the   American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said. Posted  11/12/14    Comments

SOLUTION:  The Latin American “kissing   bug” has infected people in the U.S. with Chagas disease, which is also   called “the silent killer.”      

PROBLEM: The vehicle unveiled Wednesday by the county’s health department will begin visiting two east side Indianapolis neighborhoods next week. But it could eventually make stops in other neighborhoods, based on recommendations by police and health officials. Marion County’s hepatitis C cases soared 1,000 percent between 2013 and 2017, mostly due to intravenous drug use tied to the opioid epidemic. Public health director Dr. Virginia Caine says needle exchanges aim to reduce needle-sharing that can spread infectious diseases. The Indianapolis Star reports that Marion County will become Indiana’s ninth county with a needle exchange.

SOLUTION:
Indianapolis’ new needle exchange will enlist mobile vehicle.