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June 10, 2022
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One strategy for addressing persistently high recidivism
rates among individuals leaving prison is to incorporate
interventions into the parole supervision process. This
report presents findings from the Changing Attitudes and
Motivation in Parolees (CHAMPS) study, which examined the
implementation of a pilot of one parole-based
intervention, known as the Next Generation of Parole
Supervision (NG), in three sites: Dallas, Denver, and Des
Moines. The goal of the NG program is to improve parolee
outcomes by providing parole officers with the knowledge
and strategies needed for conducting effective regular
supervision meetings with parolees. This implementation
evaluation used a range of qualitative and quantitative
data, including assessments of the knowledge and skills of
parole officers trained in NG compared with a second group
of officers who continued with parole practices used prior
to the introduction of NG. The evaluation found that
although there was some variation in policies and
practices across sites, parole officers in the CHAMPS
sites generally were already familiar with many of the
concepts of NG, so changes in officers’ supervision
practices were limited. Only in Dallas did NG-trained
parole officers engage in practices that were
substantially different from those observed among
untrained officers. The results in Dallas suggest that
coaching may be important in the effective implementation
of an intervention that involves changing parole officers’
skills and practices. Changes became more noticeable once
coaching was introduced; however, despite coaching for the
entire study period in Des Moines and Denver, little
change was observed in these cities. Overall, this study
indicates that parole officers are amenable to changes to
improve supervision practices; however, consistent
implementation of changes in policy and practices is
challenging.
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Source: Office of Justice Programs, NCJRS
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Community organizations and service providers can be key
partners for addressing public safety challenges and
reducing justice system involvement. Thirty-six states
have engaged in the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which
is data-driven approach to managing criminal justice
populations and investing savings in strategies to reduce
recidivism and improve public safety. Most states have
invested in strategies administered by justice system
agencies, including community corrections, in-prison
programming, problem-solving courts, and local
corrections. However, a subset of states has also made
investments to improve community-based capacity to advance
prevention and treatment efforts outside of justice system
agencies. This report focuses on 10 states’ (Alaska,
Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska,
North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah)
capacity-building strategies to provide and enhance
services related to safety and well-being that (1) are
available in the community (not in a justice system
facility or setting) and (2) operate independently from
criminal justice system agencies. The authors identify
common themes among these approaches and explore lessons
learned from the successes and challenges of JRI community
collaborations that can inform similar efforts. These
themes include strong and ongoing communication across
partnerships, collaborations between government agencies
and local organizations can be mutually beneficial but
require intentional investment, and that traditional and
innovative partnerships can both be productive. The report
appendix contains profiles that provide additional details
on these states' community capacity-building approaches.
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Source: The Urban Institute
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Indeterminacy in prison sentences means that the actual
time served is unpredictable, as a sentence for a criminal
offense is given as a range. When prison sentences are
highly indeterminate, many months or years of
time-to-be-served can be unforeseeable in individual
cases. The mechanics of indeterminacy in prison sentencing
vary enormously from state to state, and are not well
understood. In many states, time-served policy is largely
administered at the back end of the sentencing system. If
prison policy is aimed toward retribution or public
safety, it is back-end officials who ultimately choose how
best to achieve those goals. This raises critical
questions of whether they are well-positioned to be
stewards of the public interest, and whether their
procedures are adequate to the task. In each state, it is
important to consider the institutional structure for
release decisions, how and by whom time-served discretion
is currently being exercised, and the range of
possibilities for future changes in existing decision
patterns (in both desirable and unwanted directions). The
report ranks Florida, along with Arizona, Kansas, Maine,
North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, District of Columbia,
and the federal system, as having very low indeterminacy.
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Source: Robina Institute, University of Minnesota
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Helping students gain early momentum is essential not only
for improving student success rates and for closing equity
gaps but also for countering declining community college
enrollments. To build back enrollments, community colleges
need to substantially increase retention as well as
recruitment, particularly among students from underserved
groups. The Community College Research Center has
developed a framework called Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan
(ACIP) for colleges to use to enrich entering students’
experiences in exploring, choosing, and planning a program
of study. The ultimate aim of the ACIP framework is to
increase retention among students, especially those who
are likely to stop out in response to prevailing college
practices. This brief describes the motivation, research
evidence, and equity implications that underlie the ACIP
framework as a useful strategy for colleges. The Community
College Research Center’s research on efforts by colleges
to redesign onboarding following the guided pathways
model, together with other recent research on the
experiences of community college students, suggests that
colleges can help incoming students make the most out of
college through the four ACIP practices: (1) Ask every
student about their interests, strengths, aspirations, and
life circumstances with the aim of helping them explore
programs of study and career paths aligned with their
goals; (2) Connect every student with faculty, peers,
alumni, and employers in fields of interest to them and to
college and community resources that can help support
their needs; (3) Inspire students by ensuring that they
are able to take at least one well-taught, college-level
course on a topic that interests them in their first term;
and (4) Develop an individualized education plan for every
student that is aligned to jobs and/or fields of interest.
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Source: Community College Research Center
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Every year the federal government establishes poverty
thresholds for families and individuals. Currently, the
poverty threshold for a family of four is $27,750. If a
family’s annual income is below the poverty threshold, the
family is considered to be living in poverty. If a
family’s annual income is 50% below the poverty threshold,
the family is living in deep poverty. This report suggests
three evidence-based strategies that have the capacity to
enable educators, in collaboration with the families and
the communities they serve, to create learning
environments in which students living in deep poverty are
supported and successful. These strategies include (1)
providing adequate and equitable funding; (2) partnering
with community agencies and allocate resources to provide
an integrated focus on academics, health and social
services, youth and community development, and family and
community engagement; and (3) developing practices that
focus on healthy attachments, understand and address
trauma, build on children’s strengths, and access
community resources.
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Source: Learning Policy Institute
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Numerous National Transportation Safety Board accident
investigations have indicated prescription/over-the-county
(Rx/OTC) medication impairment as a contributor to
transportation safety events and associated injuries and
fatalities. This report includes background research and
analysis on the need for new standards, recommended
practices, guidance documents, or procedural
considerations in the areas of prescription and
over-the-counter medication risk management.
Standardization can also improve other Rx/OTC policies and
procedures. For example, a Medical Review Officer (MRO)
may issue a significant safety soncern based on an
employee’s legal use of a prescribed medication that is
likely to impact the employee’s ability to perform their
job functions safely. When the MRO issues a sedication
safety soncern, employees have up to five business days
from the date of a verified negative test result to have
the prescribing physician contact the MRO to determine if
the medication can be changed or if it does not pose a
significant safety risk. There is no current federal
guidance in place to determine how an employer is required
to respond to a MRO safety concern. Gaps that exist in
current standards, recommended practices, or guidance
documents available to the industry to address Rx/OTC use
are identified, and findings are included that address the
development or issuance of voluntary standards, protocols,
guidelines, or recommended practices related to Rx/OTC
risk management and associated topics.
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Source: Federal Transit Administration
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In the United States, older adults are at particular risk
of having unmet transportation needs as individual
mobility challenges mount and driving ability declines
with age. Furthermore, these risks are occurring in an
economic environment of rapid change in transportation
technology and in a societal environment that does not
always support or prioritize older-adult mobility. This
report provides an overview of — and weighs solutions to —
the equity concerns surrounding older-adult
transportation. Next, a framework is presented for
communities to explore and assess how well they are
serving the transportation needs of older adults as a
population and specific older-adult subpopulations. Last,
ideas for future exploration and action are presented,
such as door-to-door ride hailing assistance, older-adult
accessible automated vehicles, and public transit
ambassadors.
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Source: RAND Corporation
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Federally chartered regional commissions were established
with the purpose of reducing economic distress, primarily
in rural areas. For each of the three active federally
chartered regional commissions that serve more than one
state—the Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional
Authority, and Northern Border Regional Commission—the
authorizing legislation explicitly requires the commission
to assess annually which places within their service area
can be classified as distressed, and to spend at least
half, but often more, of their grant resources in those
places. Given the large proportion of rural places in
their coverage areas, the use of distress by the
commissions offers insights and lessons for reaching
vulnerable rural communities. However, while this
terminology is used liberally in federal statutes and
regulations, no common definition of economic distress
exists. To examine the implications for rural development
of defining distress in different ways, this analysis
draws upon the various regional commission definitions, as
well as others used by federal agencies, to analyze the
tradeoffs and impacts of different approaches and offer
insights into the ability of vulnerable communities to
access critical federal funding. The authors propose three
considerations to help refine the meaning and use of
distress and improve the effectiveness of rural policy
including developing a normative framework for defining
distress, improving transparency about the specific
communities receiving funds, and engaging potential
recipients to learn from their experiences with differing
distress definitions.
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Source: Brookings
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With unprecedented global aging, societies must undertake
all-of-society efforts to maximize the benefits and
minimize the burdens of aging populations. This report
describes a realistic vision of healthy longevity that
could be achieved by 2050. The vision includes full
inclusion of people of all ages, regardless of health or
functional status, in all aspects of society and societies
characterized by social cohesion and equity. To achieve
the vision, the report recommends changes that need to be
made to health systems, social infrastructure, physical
environments, education, work, and retirement. In some
cases, the recommended changes benefit older people most
directly, such as increasing older-adult workforce
participation, and educational opportunities that promote
lifelong learning, but when older people thrive, people of
all ages benefit. As life spans increase over time and
older adults make up a larger proportion of the population
than they have in the past, societies have the opportunity
to reap gains if good health is maintained for more of the
years of life than has thus far been the case. If taken
up, the recommendations of this report can support
individuals of all ages in all corners of the globe to
live long, meaningful, and purpose-driven lives by 2050.
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Source: National Academies
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Although transitions between health care systems are
common when patients move between jobs or insurers, they
are especially difficult to navigate when patients with
mental health conditions leave an integrated system, such
as the Military Health System (MHS). The authors
synthesize evidence from studies of interventions that
facilitate transitions between mental health care systems,
such as the transition from the MHS to the Veterans Health
Administration (VHA). The authors searched multiple
research databases, reference-mined bibliographies of
existing reviews, and consulted with experts to identify
existing evaluations of transition support interventions.
Seventeen studies evaluating different approaches met
inclusion criteria. Studies reported on different
outcomes, and few could be combined in aggregated
analyses. Analyses showed that care transition
interventions can increase outpatient mental health
service use, but the overall body of evidence is limited.
The authors found no consistent effects of care transition
interventions across studies and outcomes, but
interventions may increase outpatient mental health
service use. The authors note that additional research on
interventions for care transitions among patients with
mental health conditions is needed.
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Source: RAND Corporation
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Medicare beneficiaries can receive services through
traditional Medicare (TM) or through Medicare Advantage
(MA), in which private plans contract with Medicare to
provide covered services. Unlike in most commercial plans,
including MA, TM lacks a cap on out-of-pocket spending.
This brief analyzes the implications of introducing a
$5,000 spending cap on overall spending by TM enrollees
and Medicare, beneficiary out-of-pocket, supplementary
coverage plan, and Medicaid spending. The authors estimate
that in 2023, about 4.5 million TM enrollees will incur
more than $5,000 in cost-sharing expenses. These enrollees
average about $10,500 in cost-sharing expenses (paid by
Medicaid, by supplementary plans, and out of pocket by
beneficiaries), and thus a $5,000 cap is expected to
reduce per capita cost-sharing payments by about $5,500.
The $5,000 cap would reduce these beneficiaries’
out-of-pocket expenses by about $1,300. The spending cap
is estimated to reduce total supplementary plan spending
by $12.3 billion and could apply downward pressure on
Medigap premiums, potentially benefitting many enrollees
with existing Medigap coverage and others currently unable
to afford it. Finally, the spending cap would increase
Medicare spending by about $39 billion in 2023 and would
likely require an increase in Parts B and D premiums to
help finance the new policy.
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Source: Urban Institute
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