The Florida Department of Corrections defines recidivism as a return to prison as a result of either a new conviction or a violation of post-prison supervision, within three years of an individual’s prison release date. This report provides an overview of three-year recidivism rates from 2009 to 2019 of individuals released from prison in Florida. The follow-up periods are calculated from the prison release date to the date of readmission to prison. The department found that the three-year recidivism rate has decreased from 26.2% in 2009 to 21.2% in 2019, a 19.1% decrease. In addition, the recidivism rate for the 2019 release cohort remained consistent with the rate for the 2018 release cohort (21.2%). Major factors that influence an individual’s likelihood of recidivism include gender, age at release, criminal offense, supervision conditions, gang affiliation, and number of prior prison commitments.

Public perception of the courts is evolving. Each year, the National Center for State Courts surveys the public to assess confidence in state courts, emerging trends, and opportunities for judicial innovation. The 2024 report highlights modest gains in public trust, growing support for artificial intelligence and technology in courts, and increasing interest in alternative legal service providers to bridge the justice gap. Key findings include that public trust in state courts is showing small gains for the second year in a row; state courts are earning a stronger job approval rating for the fourth in a row; few see state courts providing help for self-represented litigants; respondents expressed a hunger for justice system innovation— ranging from the use of artificial intelligence to more problem-solving dockets.

The academic literature on prosecutors is divided: Some commentors believe that prosecutors should use their ability to decline to bring charges more aggressively, decreasing the overall number of criminal cases and helping to address the problem of mass incarceration. Others believe that broad prosecutorial nonenforcement poses significant risks to our constitutional order and to public safety. While the visibility of this debate has increased-spilling over from the pages of law reviews into political campaigns and headlines-the terms of that debate are, at times, unclear. Prosecutorial nonenforcement is a multi-faceted phenomenon, and discussions about its costs and benefits can obscure necessary tradeoffs between important values and principles. This article provides a three-tiered taxonomy of nonenforcement decisions, identifying different nonenforcement methods, justifications, and decisionmakers. It also explains how different features of nonenforcement implicate conflicting values, such as individualization and consistency. By providing this taxonomy and highlighting these tradeoffs, it seeks to improve the terms of the debate surrounding prosecutorial nonenforcement. In so doing, it demonstrates that, although abstract discussions about nonenforcement can be valuable, they are no substitute for an assessment of the substance of those decisions.

Students enrolled in the voluntary prekindergarten program through grade 10 participate in progress monitoring in English Language Arts and Mathematics, aligned with the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) for kindergarten through grade 10 and with the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards for children 4 years old to kindergarten. First administered in school year 2022-23, the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST), which includes voluntary prekindergarten through grade 10 English Language Arts and voluntary prekindergarten through grade 8 Mathematics, is a progress monitoring assessment administered three times per year: the beginning of the year, in the middle of the school year, and at the end of the school year. This report provides an overview of students’ FAST and B.E.S.T. scores for English Language Arts and Mathematics for third graders and higher. Key findings include grades 3-10 English Language Arts performance increased 20 percentage points from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year (33% scoring Level 3 or above to 53% scoring Level 3 or above), with larger improvements among the elementary grade levels (grades 3-5) compared to middle and high school grade levels (grades 6-10); and Grades 3-8 Mathematics performance increased 42 percentage points from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year (14% scoring Level 3 or above to 56% scoring Level 3 or above), with larger improvements generally among the elementary grade levels compared to the middle school grade levels. All improvements in mathematics were substantially larger than the improvements in English Language Arts.

Summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) have the potential to serve as critical bridges to promising careers, especially for young people who hail from disadvantaged backgrounds or reside in underserved areas. Summer jobs can provide early exposure to professional environments, equipping participants with essential skills for the workplace, including communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. However, there is still much to learn about what makes these programs most effective, underscoring a need for funders, policymakers, and practitioners to identify and share best practices for meaningful summer employment experiences. Common challenges include the limited duration of summer, constrained program budgets, difficulties establishing employer engagement, and obstacles to collaboration with schools. As part of an evaluation of a JPMorganChase philanthropic effort to support SYEPs throughout the United States, MDRC conducted over 30 interviews with staff members at grantee programs in 2023 and 2024. This brief is the synthesis of those conversations as well as 13 interviews with policy experts, along with a literature review. High-quality summer youth employment programs have strong relationships with employers, job-readiness training, and mentoring and advising (including by work-site supervisors), in combination with mechanisms to facilitate learning year-round, such as school partnerships. Recommendations for a successful SYEP are to partner with schools to lengthen the time horizon for training, draw on materials and knowledge from more established programs to make the most efficient use of valuable staff member time and energy, establish employer-relationship teams to connect with hard-to-reach employers in high-demand sectors and make creative job placements, and focus on the value that a summer program can add when approaching schools that already have their own internship programs.

The nation’s 29.8 million non-employer businesses – those with no paid employees and subject to federal income tax – made up $1.7 trillion or about 6.8% of the 2022 U.S. economy. Most non-employers are self-employed individuals operating small unincorporated businesses, which may be the owner’s principal source of income. Florida had the greatest per capita rate of non-employer establishments, boasting 13.3 such establishments for every 100 people. Wyoming and Georgia tied for a distant second (with 10.8 each), followed by Texas, Vermont, and Colorado (10.0 each). West Virginia was the state with the lowest per capita rate, with 5.3 non-employer establishments per 100 people. California, which had the most non-employer establishments, was home to nearly 500,000 more such entities than second place Texas (3,023,525), with Florida (2,968,201) rounding out the top three. North Dakota had the lowest total number (59,106) of non-employer establishments, followed close behind by Alaska (60,471). While low population states Wyoming and Vermont also had small numbers of non-employer establishments (62,751 and 64,930, respectively), each boasted a relatively high per capita rate — 10.8 and 10.0 per 100 people, respectively — compared to the national average of 8.9. The three largest industry sectors for non-employer businesses in 2022 by number of establishments were Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (4,013,209); Transportation and Warehousing (3,854,720); and Real Estate, Rental and Leasing (3,145,367).

The U.S. does not have a federal paid sick leave policy. As a result, many workers must choose between losing earnings and attending to childcare responsibilities. To date, 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted or announced paid sick leave mandates that provide up to seven days of paid leave per year that can be used for family responsibilities and healthcare. In this study, researchers estimate the effects of state-paid sick leave mandates on parents’ time spent providing childcare using time diaries from the 2004–2023 American Time Use Survey. Findings from difference-in-differences estimators suggest that post-mandate, parental time spent providing childcare increases by 5.8%. Effects are stronger among women with younger children.

This navigation tool displays state-by-state credentialing and licensure requirements for current and aspiring behavioral health professionals. The tool is intended for those interested in a job or career in the fields of mental health and substance use. There are many options to start and grow a behavioral health career -- all with different requirements for entry and maintenance, which often vary by state. This guide will help users understand the basic requirements to enter the career field in each state.

Between 2022 and 2023, deaths from drug overdose (drug poisoning) in the United States decreased. Drug overdoses are a persistent health problem and a large contributor to unintentional injury, which is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. This report describes changes in age-adjusted drug overdose death rates between 2022 and 2023 by state (and the District of Columbia) and selected types of drugs. The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States decreased 4.0% from 2022 (32.6 deaths per 100,000 standard population) to 2023 (31.3 deaths per 100,000 standard population). The jurisdictions with the highest rates in 2023 were West Virginia (81.9) and the District of Columbia (60.7), and the states with the lowest rates were Nebraska (9.0) and South Dakota. Between 2022 and 2023, age-adjusted rates of drug overdose deaths decreased in 20 states, including Florida, and increased in six states in the same period. The age-adjusted rates of drug overdose deaths did not change significantly in 25 states in the same period. Lastly, nationally, between 2022 and 2023, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths decreased for deaths involving any opioid and synthetic opioids other than methadone (which includes fentanyl) and increased for deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential (which includes methamphetamine) and cocaine.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect, and household challenges and are a public health issue. ACEs may trigger toxic stress, a prolonged activation of an individual's stress response system that can lead to long-term disruptions in brain development and immune, hormonal, and metabolic systems — especially when ACEs occur in the absence of protective factors, such as nurturing relationships and safe, stable environments. Federal studies found that people who have experienced ACEs are significantly more likely to have many common chronic physical health conditions in adulthood, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. In fact, nine of the ten leading causes of death in the United States are linked to ACEs. ACEs are common: As many as 64% of California adults have experienced at least one ACE. ACE-associated health conditions lead to an estimated financial burden to California of $1.5 trillion annually — $24.6 billion in direct medical costs alone, in addition to the high cost of lost healthy life-years. To address these pressing challenges, in 2020, California launched ACEs Aware, the first initiative in the nation to identify and address ACEs in health care settings. Clinicians who have taken a certified training course are now able to be reimbursed for ACEs screening and response for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. ACE screening can be reimbursed for children annually and for adults only once per provider (because adults can no longer accumulate ACEs). An evaluation of the ACEs Aware program in California has findings that include that (1) ACE screening is feasible, is acceptable, and benefits patients; (2) ACE screening of Medi-Cal beneficiaries has scaled rapidly, but important gaps persist; (3) training that teaches the fundamentals of ACE screening and trauma-informed health care has increased clinician knowledge and skills; (4) additional training is needed to sustain trauma-informed health care practice over time; and (5) there are multiple barriers that will require investment in infrastructure to address, such as having more automated processes to ensure consistent screening by identifying eligible patients and collecting screening results prior to the visit.