This report presents recidivism statistics on state prisoners released in 2008 during the 10 years following their release. The report describes the recidivism patterns of state prisoners released in 2008 by demographic characteristics, commitment offense, and prior criminal history. This is BJS’s first recidivism study with a 10-year follow-up period. Data on prisoners released in 2008 from 24 states, including 5,100 prisoners from Florida, was used in the study. Florida was also among the 18 states included in the return-to-prison analysis which examined information on released prisoners who returned to prison within the state that released them on probation or parole violations or for sentences for new crimes. The report finds that the annual arrest percentage among prisoners released in 2008 declined from 43% in Year 1 to 22% in Year 10. However, about 61% of prisoners released in 2008 returned to prison within 10 years for a parole or probation violation or a new sentence. The largest portion (14%) of these arrests was made in Year 1 following release, and the majority (68%) of released prisoners were arrested for a public order offense (e.g. DUI/DWI or weapons) within 10 years.

Despite public perception that there is a direct connection between mental health and violence, research shows that this relationship is complex and that the presence of a mental illness doesn’t automatically predispose a person to violent behavior. As criminal justice professionals work to protect public safety, it’s important that their policies and practices reflect accurate information, not common misperceptions. This brief addresses these misconceptions, presents important information about risk factors for violence, and offers ways that criminal justice professionals can help mitigate such risks, including providing ongoing training and leveraging community resources.

The purpose of this study is to assess whether structural repairs to the homes of low-income owners are associated with a reduction in nearby crime. This cross-sectional study using difference-in-differences analysis included data from the City of Philadelphia Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP) from January 1, 2006, through April 30, 2013. The BSRP intervention includes a grant of up to $20,000 provided to low-income owners for structural repairs to electrical, plumbing, heating, and roofing damage. Eligible homeowners must meet income guidelines, which are set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and vary yearly. The unit of analysis was block faces (single street segments between 2 consecutive intersecting streets) with or without homes that received the BSRP intervention. The blocks of homes that received BSRP services were compared with the blocks of eligible homes that were still on the waiting list. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2019, to February 28, 2021. This study found that the BSRP intervention was associated with a modest but significant reduction in crime. These findings suggest that intentional and targeted financial investment in structural, scalable, and sustainable place-based interventions in neighborhoods that are still experiencing the lasting consequences of structural racism and segregation is a vital step toward achieving health equity.

This publication provides the first results of the 2017–18 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, Administrative Collection, the most comprehensive national study of student financing of postsecondary education in the United States. The study includes information for about 245,000 undergraduate students and 21,000 graduate students attending 1,900 postsecondary institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The collection also provides state-level estimates for undergraduate students in 30 states (including Florida). This report describes the percentages of students receiving various types of financial aid and average amounts received, by type of institution attended and institution state (for undergraduate students), and by type of institution, attendance pattern, graduate program, and income level (for graduate students). Selected findings include that 70% of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid. Sixty-two percent received grants, 39% took out student loans, 7% received work-study awards, 3% received federal veterans’ education benefits, and 5% had parents who took out federal Direct PLUS Loans. Among states with samples that support reporting, undergraduates in Hawaii had the lowest rate of any financial aid receipt (52%). Undergraduates in North Carolina (87%) and Louisiana (86%) had the highest rates. In Florida, 66% percent of undergraduates received some type of financial aid, with 28% receiving state aid. Of all undergraduates, 40% took out Federal Direct Loans; in Florida, 31% of undergraduates took out Federal Direct Loans. Additionally, in Florida 45% percent of undergraduates received Federal Pell Grants; nationally, 44% of undergraduates received Pell Grants. Fifty-eight percent of graduate students received some type of financial aid. Twenty-six percent received grants, 3% received graduate assistantships, and 41% took out loans. Forty percent took out Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and 11% took out Direct graduate PLUS Loans.

More than 300 colleges across the country are implementing guided pathways reforms, all of them facing unique challenges and circumstances as they take on whole-college redesigns. Guided pathways create clearer pathways to program completion, employment, and further education for all students. Often, these pathways map out course sequences for programs to ensure alignment with the requirements for jobs and further education in related fields or even map out the entire student experience at a college – from first contact to program completion to identify barriers to access and success.. This report, based on fieldwork Community College Research Center conducted at 8 of the 30 colleges in the first cohort of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Pathways Project, describes how institutions are managing the broad-based transformation of programs, student services, and related support systems involved in guided pathways reforms. In doing so, the report offers guidance on topics such as change management strategies, introducing guided pathways, and sustaining and institutionalizing student success reforms for others seeking to transform their institutions using the guided pathways model.

Across the United States, state departments of education, regional educational organizations, and districts are helping low-performing schools improve. Some popular approaches to supporting these schools involve (1) helping them collect and use data—such as climate surveys and comprehensive needs assessments—to guide their planning and (2) providing coaches to work with teachers, principals, and district leaders. Despite state and regional commitments to actively turn around low-performing schools, and despite there being specific strategies for doing so, there is very little information about the financial implications of these goals. The School Turnaround Cost Analysis Tool helps education leaders assess potential costs of some of the more popular and research-supported approaches. By entering user-specific parameters, such as the average principal salary in the region or the number of visits that a school should receive from a coach, users can get a tailored cost estimate.

Hundreds of higher education institutions are procuring algorithms that strategically allocate scholarships to convince more students to enroll. In doing so, these enrollment management algorithms help colleges vary the cost of attendance to students’ willingness to pay, a crucial aspect of competition in the higher education market. This paper elaborates on the specific two-stage process by which these algorithms first predict how likely prospective students are to enroll, and second help decide how to disburse scholarships to convince more of those prospective students to attend the college. These algorithms are valuable to colleges for institutional planning and financial stability, as well as to help reach their preferred financial, demographic, and scholastic outcomes for the incoming student body. Unfortunately, the widespread use of enrollment management algorithms may also be hurting students, especially due to their narrow focus on enrollment. The prevailing evidence suggests that these algorithms generally reduce the amount of scholarship funding offered to students. Further, algorithms excel at identifying a student’s exact willingness to pay, meaning they may drive enrollment while also reducing students’ chances to persist and graduate. The use of this two-step process also opens many subtle channels for algorithmic discrimination to perpetuate unfair financial aid practices. This paper offers a range of recommendations to ameliorate the risks of enrollment management algorithms in higher education, including examining the historical data that informs algorithms and employing human-led merit evaluations.

The acceleration of the shift to online and remote learning and working brings new opportunities, but it also brings the potential for further inequities in the labor market. Older workers stand to benefit greatly from the expanded access that online and remote learning and working provides. This report documents some of the barriers and opportunities that exist for older workers accessing online programs, with a focus on their digital skill levels. The authors analyze data from the 2017 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey to explore the digital skill levels of older workers and how older workers’ characteristics are associated with digital skill levels. The authors also analyze American Community Survey data to understand how older workers’ poverty status and access to broadband, internet, and computers and other devices is associated with digital skill levels. The analysis is complemented by information collected during interviews with leaders of programs to support digital skill training for older adults. The authors find that although many Americans lack digital skills, older Americans have lower levels of digital skills than the average American, and digital skill levels for older Americans from historically oppressed groups are lower still. There are opportunities to support the development of digital skills for older workers to allow them leverage their other skills and improve economic outcomes.

School segregation is determined not only by residential sorting and families’ preferences but by local policy choices such as the drawing of school attendance boundaries. This report examines the role of individual school attendance boundaries in perpetuating racial and ethnic segregation in urban school systems. The authors analyze census and school attendance boundary map data, evaluating the boundary lines dividing attendance rights between every pair of neighboring public schools in U.S. metropolitan areas. They find more than 2,000 pairs of neighboring public schools that are racially unequal, both in residential demographics and school enrollment. They also find that inequality between these schools—many of which are within the jurisdiction of the same school district—exists not only in terms of racial and ethnic demographics but with regard to school staffing, educational program offerings, student discipline rates, and mean student achievement on standardized exams. Unequal school attendance zones perpetuate racial and ethnic segregation and amplify inequality between students of color and their white peers. The findings show that in many cases, small changes to the attendance boundaries of neighboring schools could make a big difference for school integration.

Stressful life events in childhood include various forms of abuse, neglect, and household instability, such as violence exposure, parental incarceration, or living with someone with mental health, alcohol, or drug problems. These events are key social determinants of a child’s well-being and can have lifelong impacts on physical and mental health. This report presents sociodemographic disparities in stressful life events as reported by a knowledgeable adult, usually a parent, among children aged 5–17 years using the 2019 National Health Interview Survey data. Key findings include that in 2019, 6.8% of children aged 5–17 years were victims of or witnessed violence in their neighborhood with exposure varying by age, race and Hispanic origin, and level of urbanization. The percentage of children aged 5–17 years who had lived with a parent or guardian who served time in jail or prison increased with age and varied by sociodemographic characteristics. The percentage of children who had lived with someone who was mentally ill or severely depressed varied by race and Hispanic origin and urbanization level. And among children aged 5–17 years, 9.7% had lived with someone with an alcohol or drug problem, and the percentage differed by age, race and Hispanic origin, and urbanization level.

Medicare payments for most surgical procedures cover both procedures and post-operative visits occurring within a global period of either ten or 90 days following procedures. There have been concerns that fewer post-operative visits are provided than the number of post-operative visits considered when the procedure was valued. To help inform accurate valuation of procedures with global periods, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services required select practitioners to report on post-operative visits after select procedures with 10- or 90-day global periods. The authors of this report summarize patterns of post-operative visits for procedures furnished during calendar year 2018, building on a prior report that analyzed data for procedures with July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018, service dates. During calendar year 2018, 96.5% of procedures with 10-day global periods did not have an associated post-operative visit. Approximately two-thirds of procedures with 90-day global periods had an associated post-operative visit; however, the ratio of observed to expected post-operative visits provided for 90-day global period procedures was only 0.38. Underreporting of post-operative visits might be driving these low rates. However, in sensitivity analyses limited to practitioners who were actively reporting their post-operative visits, post-operative patterns were largely similar to the main analysis. Collectively, these findings suggest that a large share of expected post-operative visits are not delivered, and that underreporting is unlikely to fully explain the low ratio of expected post-operative visits provided.

Using every major nationally-representative dataset on parental and non-parental care provided to children up to age 6, we quantify differences in American children’s care experiences by socioeconomic status (SES), proxied primarily with maternal education. Increasingly, higher-SES children spend less time with their parents and more time in the care of others. Non-parental care for high-SES children is more likely to be in childcare centers, where average quality is higher, and less likely to be provided by relatives where average quality is lower. Even within types of childcare, higher-SES children tend to receive care of higher measured quality and higher cost. Inequality is evident at home as well: measures of parental enrichment at home, from both self-reports and outside observers, are on average higher for higher-SES children. The authors also find that parental and non-parental quality is reinforcing: children who receive higher quality non-parental care also tend to receive higher quality parental care. Head Start, one of the largest government care subsidy programs for low-income households, reduces inequality in care provided, but it is mainly limited to older children and to the lowest income households. This evidence is from the pre-COVID-19 period, and the latest year examined is 2019.

Exposure to intimate partner violence has been associated with adverse infant developmental outcomes; however, the influence of the number of father-figures (abusive vs. non-abusive) has on young infants’ risk for neurodevelopmental delays has not been examined. A secondary data analysis was conducted from the Domestic Violence Enhanced Perinatal Home Visits study of abused pregnant women (N = 239) and their infants’ neurodevelopment from baseline through 12-months postpartum. Although all women reported decreased violence from baseline to 12 months postpartum, there was a significant main effect between baseline intimate partner violence scores and infant risk for developmental delay at 12 months and a significant interaction between baseline intimate partner violence scores and multiple partner categories. Women in the single abusive partner category demonstrated a negative association between baseline intimate partner violence and 12-month infant risk scores. Whereas women in the mixed and multiple abusive partner groups demonstrated a positive association between intimate partner violence and infant risk scores. This study provides evidence that an infant’s neurodevelopment is impacted by exposure to violence in the home. Additional research is needed to examine the full impact, not only the effects of single and/or abusive partners on child development, but also the possible effect of multiple non-abusive partners on development.