February 12, 2021
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Across the United States, judicial waiver laws authorize
or require juvenile court judges to remove certain youth
from juvenile court jurisdiction to be tried in criminal
court. This fact sheet is based on the U.S. Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention -sponsored
report, Juvenile Court Statistics 2018, and was developed
with support from National Institute of Justice. It
presents national estimates of cases waived by juvenile
court judges to be handled by criminal courts from 1985
through 2018. In 2018, juvenile courts in the United
States handled 744,500 delinquency cases. In more than
half (57%) of these cases, petitions were filed
requesting an adjudication or waiver hearing. Of the
petitioned cases, approximately 1% were waived. Juvenile
courts waived an estimated 3,600 delinquency cases to
criminal court in 2018. Between 1993 and 2018, petitioned
person offense cases were more likely to be judicially
waived than petitioned cases involving other offenses.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice
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New York’s recent bail reform law, which was passed in
April 2019 and amended in July 2020, was expected to
reduce the footprint of jail incarceration by limiting
the use of money bail. The new law mandated pretrial
release for the vast majority of non-violent charges and
required that judges consider a person’s ability to pay
bail. A comprehensive impact evaluation is necessary to
understand the successes and limitations of these
reforms, as well as their unintended consequences. This
report—the first of a six-part series—explores the early
impact of bail reform on jail populations by examining
statewide incarceration trends between January 2018 and
June 2020. The report also explores early impacts of the
COVID-19 outbreak on jail admissions and populations. The
report finds that bail reform led to a substantial
reduction in jail incarceration, driven mainly by a
decline in pre-trial admissions for low-level and
nonviolent charges. However, despite the overall
decreased incarceration rate, existing racial disparities
may have been aggravated both in New York City and
statewide jails.
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Source: Vera Institute of Justice
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This report series provides an overview of states
approaches prison-release discretion and the relationship
between rules for prison release and prison population
size, including an assessment of each state’s degree of
indeterminacy. States that have a low degree of
indeterminacy provide a short window from first release
eligibility to the maximum prison term, thus making the
total prison stay length more predictable. In contrast,
states with a high degree of indeterminacy have long
windows spanning years, or even decades depending on the
individual sentence. Overall, the authors rank the
Maryland prison-sentencing system as one of moderate
indeterminacy. Eligibility for discretionary parole
release occurs at the 25% mark of the judicial maximum
term for most non-violent offenders, and at the 50% mark
for most violent offenders. For a small subgroup of
nonviolent prisoners, Maryland has an administrative
release mechanism that allows for release at first
parole-release eligibility without a hearing. Maryland’s
department of corrections administers diminution credits
that may be deducted from judicial maximum terms to
produce earlier dates of mandatory release. Total
deductions may be as much as 50% of the statutory maximum
term for prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses and
40% for prisoners convicted of non-violent offenses.
Compared with most other states, these are generous
allowances. Mandatory release dates are movable
milestones in most Maryland prison sentences, and have
the capacity to cut off a large percentage of judicial
maximum terms. At the back-end of Maryland’s
prison-sentencing system, the department of corrections
exerts definitive control over a larger segment of the
prison-sentence timeline than the parole board, although
both are important decision makers. The department’s
ability to wield its full releasing power depends to a
great extent on program availability, however, because
awards of diminution credits often require program
participation.
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Source: Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal
Justice, University of Minnesota
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This report presents selected findings about the
employment and educational outcomes of bachelor’s degree
recipients 10 years after they completed their degrees.
These findings are based on data from the 2008/18
Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study. The study
is the third follow-up in a nationally representative
longitudinal study of students who completed the
requirements for a bachelor’s degree during the 2007–08
academic year. The first follow-up, which was conducted
in 2009, one year after their graduation, explored both
undergraduate education experiences and early
post-baccalaureate employment and enrollment. The second
follow-up, conducted in 2012, examined bachelor’s degree
recipients’ labor market experiences and enrollment in
additional degree programs through the 4th year after
graduation. This third follow-up, conducted in 2018,
explores labor market experiences, financial aid debt and
repayment, and post-baccalaureate enrollment through the
10th year after graduation. Finding include that during
2018, about 10 years after completing the 2007–08
bachelor’s degree, 63% of graduates owned a home and 86%
had a retirement account. Twenty percent of graduates
reported a negative net worth, and 14% reported they did
not meet essential expenses, such as mortgage or rent
payments, utility bills, or important medical care, in
the past 12 months. Over half (59%) of 2007–08 graduates
who were working in 2018 were doing so in the same state
where they had earned their bachelor’s degree.
Eighty-seven percent of working graduates considered
their 2018 job a part of a career they were pursuing, 84%
had employer-offered health insurance benefits, and 48%
were supervising others on the job. Median earnings in
2018 varied among 2007–08 bachelor’s degree recipients
who were working full time, with those in engineering
fields ($93,000) earning about twice the median
annualized salary of those in business support and
administrative assistance fields ($46,000).
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Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S.
Department of Education
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Detentions and suspensions are common practices of school
discipline, despite evidence that they are largely
ineffective and disproportionately affect children from
racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, particularly
Black children, and children of lower socioeconomic
status. However, few studies have examined suspension and
detention rates among race, ethnicity, and family
structure (single parent versus secondary caregiver) when
controlling for typical behaviors associated with
detention and suspension such as externalizing symptoms,
age, sex, family income, family education, family
conflict, and special education needs. Caregivers of
11,875 children between ages 9 and 10 years from the
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study
completed a questionnaire assessing their child’s
demographics, family information, emotions and behaviors,
and past-year school discipline history. Data were
analyzed with logistic regression, implemented with a
generalized estimating equations model. The authors found
that 5.4% of children received a detention or suspension.
Controlling for typical predictors of behaviors, Black
and multiracial Black children had up to 3.5 times
greater odds of receiving a detention or suspension than
White children; there were no disciplinary differences
for Hispanic or Asian children compared to White
children. Children from single-parent households had 1.4
times the odds of receiving detentions or suspensions
than children in homes with a secondary caregiver. The
authors find that disciplinary actions that can impair
typical childhood development, lead to academic failure
and dropout, and cause significant emotional and
psychological distress disproportionately affect Black
children, multiracial Black children, and children from
single-parent homes.
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Source: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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What works to help rural students succeed in higher
education? A series of podcasts gathered experts from
across the country to examine the realities of rural life
and to address the educational challenges facing rural
communities, such as low college enrollment rates,
inadequate access to broadband internet, and lack of
funding for rural education. This report summarizes the
podcast series and focuses on four main issues: How are
rural colleges adapting to the coronavirus pandemic? How
are states approaching public-private partnerships to
improve educational outcomes? What is the impact of
racial diversity in rural America? How are communities
and colleges pursuing economic development and preparing
students for jobs in the modern economy?
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Source: MDRC
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Quality Start Los Angeles (QSLA) is the voluntary quality
rating and improvement system for early learning
providers in Los Angeles County who serve children from
birth to age five. The goal of this developmental
evaluation was to determine whether selected components
of the QSLA model were feasible, appropriate, and being
implemented as designed. The evaluation focused on two
topics: (1) the QSLA assessment process and tier ratings
and (2) QSLA coaching. Like other rating systems
nationwide, QSLA aims to assess, improve, and communicate
the quality of early care and education settings. QSLA
was founded in 2016 by a consortium of seven
community-based agencies and provides services to a
diverse set of early learning settings, including
center-based providers and family child care providers.
As of June 2020, more than 800 early learning provider
sites participated in QSLA, which represents
approximately 10% of the licensed sites in Los Angeles
County. Report recommendations include continuing to
offer quality assessment supports that are tailored to
providers' needs. Both providers and technical assistants
felt that the supports helped providers navigate and
manage the assessment process. Also, clearly explaining
the details of the assessment process, including what to
expect from assessment support and the assessment site
visit, and create clear channels of communication for
providers to learn about the tier ratings. Continuing to
provide coaching services that are tailored to providers'
goals. Providers and coaches cited the provider-driven
nature of the coaching process as a strength. And
finally, considering ways to involve assistant teachers
and other support staff in the coaching process.
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Source: RAND Corporation
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As directed by the Legislature, OPPAGA examined the
Department of the Lottery and assessed options to enhance
its earning capability and improve its efficiency.
Lottery transfers to the Educational Enhancement Trust
Fund declined in Fiscal Year 2019-20 to $1.914 billion,
$13.3 million (0.7%) less than the prior year. This
decline is primarily due to lower sales of draw games
such as the multi-state POWERBALL and MEGA MILLIONS
jackpot games, which were affected by the COVID-19
pandemic. The Department of the Lottery continues to
outperform the legislative performance standard for its
operating expense rate, which is the third lowest in the
nation. Several additional game and product distribution
options are available to further increase transfers to
education. However, some options could represent expanded
gambling. In June 2020, the department launched a new
mobile app. Among its features, the app allows players to
check winning numbers and jackpots; check past winning
numbers, prize levels, and payout amounts; and find
Florida Lottery retailers. The department also
implemented additional responsible play initiatives,
which included providing employee and retailer training
and pursuing certification for its responsible gaming
programs. The department continues to implement its
retailer integrity program, which includes analyzing data
to identify suspicious patterns of behavior, following up
on customer complaints, and conducting operations to
identify retailers/clerks who steal winning tickets. The
department further enhanced player protection by
including a ticket scanning function in the new mobile app.
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Source: Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government
Accountability
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Under Florida law, a driver must stop immediately at the
scene of a crash on public or private property that
results in property damage, injury or death. In 2019,
preliminarily, there were more than 105,000 hit and run
crashes in Florida. Leaving the scene of a crash is a
felony and a driver, when convicted, will have their
license revoked for at least three years and can be
sentenced to a mandatory minimum of four years in prison.
In Florida, between 2015 and 2020, there were 600,185
hit-and-run crashes that resulted in 1,298 traffic
fatalities. In 2020, 212 (83%) of the 255 fatalities from
a hit-and-run occurred during dawn, dusk, or nighttime
conditions. This data dashboard from Florida Highway
Safety and Motor Vehicles allows the user to filter data
on hit-and-run crash fatalities by year and county. The
data presentation shows rate of hit-and-run crash
fatalities by time of day and month.
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Source: Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
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Using detailed transaction-level data from financial
accounts, this paper shows that the revenues of small
businesses and the consumption spending of their owners
both decline by roughly 40% following the declaration of
the national emergency in March 2020. However, through
May 2020, the vast majority of this average decline in
revenues is due to national factors rather than to
variation in local infection rates or policies. Further,
there is only a modest propensity for business owners to
cut consumption in response to their individual business
losses: Comparing owners in the same county but whose
businesses operate in industries differentially impacted
by local infections and state-level policies, the authors
show that each dollar of revenue loss leads to a 1.6 cent
decline in the consumption of the owner at this early
stage of the pandemic. This limited pass-through appears
to be explained by three factors: (1) the liquidity of
households and businesses entering the crisis –
consumption is twice as responsive for small business
owners who operate with low liquidity; (2) emergency
federal programs – median account balances in both
business and checking accounts decline in March but
rebound in April and May when the transfer programs
begin; (3) pandemic induced declines in the ability to
spend on consumption – spending on travel, restaurants,
or personal services dropped dramatically.
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Source: National Bureau of Economic Research
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The Veteran’s Affairs (VA) MISSION Act of 2018
established a new community care program, the Veterans
Community Care Program (VCCP), aimed at providing care to
veterans when it could not reasonably be delivered by
providers at U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA)
medical facilities. The act also requires the VA to
exclude from participation in the VCCP providers who lost
a license for violating medical license requirements in
any state or who the VA removed from employment for
quality of care concerns or otherwise suspended from VA
employment. This report examines, among other issues, VA
and contractor processes to implement these eligibility
restrictions on provider participation in the VCCP. The
authors reviewed the VA’s contracts and contractor
policies related to VCCP provider credentialing,
interviewed VA and contractor officials, and assessed the
provider credentialing requirements and processes. In
addition, the authors collected data on former VA
providers and compared these data to the database of VCCP
providers. The authors make three recommendations to the
VA, including that theVA require its contractors to have
credentialing and monitoring policies that ensure
compliance with VA MISSION Act license restrictions and
that it assess the risk to veterans when former VA
providers with quality concerns continue to provide VCCP
care. The VA generally agreed with the authors’ three
recommendations.
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Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office
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Behavioral health disparities, in which socially
disadvantaged groups—such as racial/ethnic minorities,
women, and sexual-orientation minorities—experience
greater risk for certain mental health and substance use
problems, are well documented in the general population.
Less is known about whether similar behavioral health
disparities exist among military service members. To
investigate this issue, the authors examined (1) whether
minority-group service members are more likely to
experience mental health and substance use problems
relative to their majority counterparts in the military
and (2) whether minority–majority group differences in
behavioral health in the military are similar to or
different from those in the civilian population. Key
findings include that minority service members experience
behavioral health disparities, but patterns vary. For
instance, racial/ethnic minority service members report
mostly lower rates of behavioral health problems relative
to white service members, although non-Hispanic black and
Asian service members are more likely than non-Hispanic
whites to report a suicide attempt. In addition, authors
found that military women exhibit greater prevalence of
mental health conditions but lower prevalence of
substance use problems relative to military men. The
authors also found that minority–majority group
differences in behavioral health in the military are
similar to those in the civilian world, but there are a
small number of differences such as that non-Hispanic
black and Hispanic service members have higher rates of
suicide attempts than their white peers, whereas an
opposite pattern was found among racial/ethnic minority
civilians relative to their white peers. The authors make
several recommendations including that to support the
behavioral health of female service members, U.S.
Department of Defense (DoD) should consider addressing
gender disparities in mental health outcomes and that DoD
should ensure that prevention programs and behavioral
health treatments address the specific needs and
stressors experienced by minority service members to
ensure optimal readiness in the military.
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Source: RAND Corporation
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This report uses data from the updated Social Genome
Model to track the well-being of children from birth
through age 30. The authors find that although almost
half of all children are born into disadvantaged
circumstances (such as being born into a family with low
income), about 60% of all children are on track for
healthy development while growing up and are economically
stable and healthy by age 30. Stark differences emerge by
race and ethnicity. Black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic
children born into advantaged circumstances are less
likely to be on track at age 30 than their non-Black,
non-Hispanic counterparts born into disadvantaged
circumstances. Over half of children are on track at
birth (51%) by the authors’ definition, and nearly three
in five (59%) are on track by age 30. Just under
two-thirds of children are on track at each life stage
from ages 5 through 14 (prekindergarten through early
adolescence), with the share on track falling below 60%
in adolescence and in the transition to adulthood. The
most common factors indicating children are off track at
birth are parents’ marital status and family income. In
the prekindergarten, early elementary, and middle
childhood stages, no single factor plays an outsize role
in keeping children off track. Among early and other
adolescents, cognitive/academic performance is the most
important factor keeping them off track. In the two adult
life stages, income plays the largest role.
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Source: Urban Institute
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This Commonwealth Fund brief synthesizes two Urban
Institute reports on the public health insurance
landscape for pregnant and postpartum women and the
potential of a postpartum coverage extension to close
coverage gaps. Authors offer several findings. The
current system of publicly supported coverage options for
pregnant and postpartum women is a complex patchwork that
varies tremendously by income, immigration status, and
state, leaving many new mothers uninsured. Approximately
123,000 of the nation’s estimated 440,000 women uninsured
during the first year postpartum would likely be newly
eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP) if pregnancy-related coverage were
extended for 12 months. Together with existing Medicaid
and Marketplace coverage, such an extension would mean
70% of uninsured women would likely be eligible for some
type of publicly subsidized coverage during the
postpartum period. Extending pregnancy-related
Medicaid/CHIP coverage for 12 months postpartum could
increase the number of Americans with insurance during
the postpartum period while expanding access to needed
health care.
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Source: Urban Institute
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OPPAGA is currently accepting applications for a part-time, academic year
Graduate Student Position.
OPPAGA is an ideal setting for gaining hands-on experience in policy analysis
and working on a wide range of issues of interest to the Florida Legislature.
OPPAGA provides an opportunity to work in a legislative policy research offices
with a highly qualified, multidisciplinary staff that includes public administrators,
social scientists, accountants, MBA graduates, and others.
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Government Program Summaries (GPS) is a free resource for legislators and the public that provides descriptive information on over 200 state government programs. To provide fiscal data, GPS links to Transparency
Florida, the Legislature's website that includes continually updated information on the state's operating budget and daily expenditures by state agencies.
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A publication of the Florida Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability
PolicyNotes, published every Friday, features reports, articles, and websites with timely information of interest to policymakers and researchers. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed by third parties as reported in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect OPPAGA's views.
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PolicyNotes provided that this section is preserved on all copies.
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