Enacted in 2000, the Death in Custody Reporting Act requires the U.S. Attorney General to collect data on the death of any person who is under arrest, is enroute to be incarcerated, or is incarcerated in a municipal or county jail, state prison, or other local or state correctional facility, including any juvenile facility. In 2014, the Death in Custody Reporting Act was reauthorized and a new provision was added that requires reporting the name of the law enforcement agency that detained, arrested, or was in the process of arresting the deceased. In 2019, the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance required State Administering Agencies to collect mandated Death in Custody Reporting Act data quarterly from local entities and state agencies to be submitted to Bureau of Justice Assistance. Federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, must continue to report annually deaths that occur while in their custody. In discussing why Death in Custody Reporting Act requirements are important, this report indicates that the identification of the prevalence and circumstances of the deaths of persons while under the management of criminal justice agencies is crucial to understanding the circumstances of these deaths and developing policies that may help to prevent them. Additional online resources relevant to Death in Custody Reporting Act compliance are also provided in the report.

Hate crimes are viewed as distinct from other crimes because often the impact of the crime is felt not only by the victim but also by other members of the targeted group. Hate crimes can present a challenge for law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and other criminal justice personnel involved in the case. While there is a plethora of hate crime research in general, specific research examining youths' involvement in hate crimes and bias incidents (either perpetration or victimization) is less common. This literature review discusses the involvement of youths in hate crimes, both perpetration and victimization. The review provides definitions of hate crimes and related terms. It also provides an overview of the history of hate crime legislation in the United States, of hate crime rates and trends, of recruitment of youth into hate groups, and of interventions to prevent or reduce the occurrence of youth hate crimes. Finally, the review also discusses the consequences of hate crime and bias-based harassment of youth and examines the gaps in the literature. This review finds that there is information on estimated rates of youth hate crime perpetration and victimization, but there is little research on other areas of interest, such as specific characteristics of youth perpetrators and victims; on what leads youths to commit hate crimes (including risk factors that influence the commission of a hate crime); and on the relationship between hate crimes and other at-risk/problem behaviors (such as bullying, harassment, or violence) committed by youth.

The authors estimate the effect of losing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits at age 18 on criminal justice and employment outcomes over the next two decades. To estimate this effect, the authors use a regression discontinuity design in the likelihood of being reviewed for SSI eligibility at age 18 created by the 1996 welfare reform law. The authors evaluate this natural experiment with Social Security Administration data linked to records from the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System. They find that SSI removal increases the number of criminal charges by a statistically significant 20% over the next two decades. The increase in charges is concentrated in offenses for which income generation is a primary motivation (60% increase), especially theft, burglary, fraud/forgery, and prostitution. The effect of SSI removal on criminal justice involvement persists more than two decades later, even as the effect of removal on contemporaneous SSI receipt diminishes. In response to SSI removal, youth are twice as likely to be charged with an illicit income-generating offense than they are to maintain steady employment at $15,000/year in the labor market. As a result of these charges, the annual likelihood of incarceration increases by a statistically significant 60% in the two decades following SSI removal. The costs to taxpayers of enforcement and incarceration from SSI removal are so high that they nearly eliminate the savings to taxpayers from reduced SSI benefits.

In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) began exploratory data collection for the School Pension Survey (SPS). The SPS is a new data collection of elementary/secondary school teacher pension data collected at the school district level. The SPS was developed primarily in response to public demand for data on teacher and other school district employee pension costs—costs that are largely not included in education spending data released by NCES through its annual National Public Education Financial Survey and School District Finance Survey collections. The pilot SPS, collected for fiscal year 2017 (school year 2016–17), was designed to assess whether the SPS is a viable, efficient method of collecting school pension data. This report provides comprehensive detail on the pilot collection—including survey background, data collection methodology, availability of SPS data, analysis of data collected, data editing procedures, assessments of data quality, and factors supporting and limiting the collection of pension data through the SPS. The report notes that within the states selected for the SPS (Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Texas), comprehensive pension data were able to be collected for a high percentage of school districts, but that there are notable limitations to collecting pension data through the SPS.

Last year, the Biden administration announced it would implement a new income-driven repayment plan for federal student loans. This action would add a fifth income-driven repayment plan to the existing four, all of which offer loan forgiveness and let borrowers make payments based on their income rather than fixed payments based on their loan balance. This new plan would let borrowers make lower payments than any of the existing plans, but advocacy groups argue it does not reduce debt burdens enough. To inform this debate, the authors analyze and compare three IDR plans that reflect the different terms under discussion. The authors find that the administration’s proposed plan would reduce initial monthly payments by approximately $100 for the median associate and bachelor’s degree recipients and would substantially reduce total payments for low-income borrowers.

The federal Employer-Provided Child Care Credit can save employers with eligible expenses more in taxes than using a deduction alone, and employees can exclude some child care benefits from their taxable wages. For employers, the credit can offset actual federal income tax liability. Employers may also deduct child care expenses. To avoid duplication, the total amount deductible must be reduced by amounts claimed for the credit. For employees, certain child care benefits can be excluded from their wages, up to $5,000. If an employee's expenses exceed the exclusion limit, they may be eligible to claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit, but not for the same expenses. Factors that may limit the usefulness of this credit include that some employers are unaware of the credit; the credit may be too small to give a sufficient incentive to provide child care; childcare services may not be accessible to all employees (such as shift workers); child care may still be unaffordable to some employees, even when subsidized by their employer.

Digitization has the potential to create new pathways out of poverty and empower people in new ways, but it could just as easily, and perhaps more naturally, exacerbate inequalities, undermine trust in critical institutions, and erode social norms. The difference between a positive future state and a negative one will, in large part, be defined by whether digital public infrastructure is designed, implemented, and governed in service of the public good. This paper examines whether current measurement tools suffice in capturing the positive development impact of digital infrastructure and provide a lens through which to assess its potential downside risks. The inquiry focused primarily on payments, identity, and data exchange technologies – which together, are commonly referred to as the digital stack and recognized as foundational components of any national digital transformation. The report finds that there is no systematic method for evaluating whether a digital stack is designed, implemented, and governed to maximize positive outcomes. Additionally, the report identifies that current measurement approaches and tools are highly fragmented and inconsistent, focused primarily on availability and usage (not impact), and that measurement and evaluation is constrained by traditional funding and project administration silos as well as the lack of clear standards with which to measure underlying infrastructure.

Using a large sample of Florida restaurants, the authors document significant racial disparities in borrowing through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and investigate the causes of these disparities. Black-owned restaurants are 25% less likely to receive PPP loans. Restaurant location explains 5% of this differential. Restaurant characteristics explain an additional 10% of the gap in PPP borrowing. On average, prior borrowing relationships do not explain disparities. The remaining 10% disparity is driven by a 17% disparity in PPP borrowing from banks, which is partially offset by greater borrowing from nonbanks, largely fintechs. Disparities in PPP borrowing cannot be attributed to lower awareness of PPP loans or lower demand for PPP loans by minority-owned restaurants. Black-owned restaurants are significantly less likely to receive bank PPP loans in counties with more racial bias. In these counties, Black-owned restaurants are more likely to substitute to nonbank PPP loans. This substitution, however, is not strong enough to eliminate racial disparities in PPP borrowing. Finally, the authors show that the findings apply more broadly across industries in a sample of firms that were likely eligible for PPP.

News media have reported several incidents of youth being maltreated by staff employed at residential facilities. Some of these youth were in the child welfare system and some had special needs. States oversee these facilities, and often contract with private providers to operate them. Little information is publicly available about incidents of maltreatment in federally funded residential facilities for youth. The U.S. Government Accountability Office was asked to review this issue. This report examines (1) how selected states help prevent and address maltreatment in federally funded residential facilities, (2) the challenges selected states face in reporting and collecting maltreatment data, and (3) the additional steps suggested by stakeholders to address maltreatment and how relevant federal agencies are supporting state efforts. State agencies try to prevent the maltreatment of youth by requiring background screenings of facility staff, training staff, and increasing interagency coordination, among other things. When maltreatment occurs, states may respond in various ways, such as prohibiting a facility from taking in new residents or revoking its license. Differing interpretations of what constitutes maltreatment may result in facilities over- or under-reporting incidents, thereby complicating states' data collection efforts, according to state officials and other stakeholders. Stakeholders and discussion group participants, which were from various states, including Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin, suggested additional steps that states could take to identify and address maltreatment in residential facilities, including improved facility staff and state investigator training, improved oversight, and increased provider accountability.

Binge drinking is a critical public health concern, with alcohol-related deaths claiming 88,000 lives each year. In Florida, the prevalence of binge drinking and risk for alcohol-related traffic fatalities is highest among white males aged 18-34. This study evaluates Drunken Rewind, a targeted animated digital media campaign implemented in west Orange County, Florida. The Drunken Rewind intervention consisted of an animated series that merged best-practice health communications approaches with marketing strategies that resonate with the target audience. The series used a main character to deliver educational health content to increase knowledge and shift social norms around binge drinking. Digital metrics and comments were analyzed to assess receptivity towards the intervention. The series amassed over 900,000 views and 1,762 followers across four social media platforms. Viewer retention rate was between 67%-73% across three seasons. A total of 68.3% of comments on the videos were positive. This study adds evidence that a digital intervention aimed at reducing binge drinking can be feasibly implemented and positively received by a population that is difficult to reach with public health messaging. Additionally, this approach may be useful when applied to other health issues young adults perceive to have lower risk.

Food insecurity, which affects an estimated 15 million Americans, is the limited or uncertain availability of safe and nutritionally adequate foods, or the limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity has been consistently associated with poor health outcomes in children, including poorer overall health status, acute and chronic health problems, and limited healthcare access. This report describes the percentage of children aged 0–17 years living in food-insecure households during the past 30 days by selected sociodemographic and family characteristics using 2019–2020 National Health Interview Survey data. The report finds that in 2019–2020, 10.8% of children aged 0–17 years lived in households that experienced food insecurity during the past 30 days. The percentage of children who lived in food-insecure households varied by demographic group with higher rates for non-Hispanic Black (18.8%) than Hispanic (15.7%) children, and higher for both non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic children than for non-Hispanic White children (6.5%). Additionally, family characteristics, such as family structure and the number of children in the household, were associated with household food insecurity.