Misconduct impacts the safety and security of inmates, correctional staff, and correctional institutions. The impact of institutional misconduct extends beyond an inmate’s period of incarceration into their return to the community through post-release recidivism. This brief provides an analysis of the Bureau Responsibility and Values Enhancement (BRAVE) program by examining misconduct and recidivism outcomes for those who participated in at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beckley, between 2008 and 2014. Operating as a modified therapeutic community, the goals of BRAVE were to facilitate institutional adjustment, reduce incidents of misconduct, enhance opportunities for interactions with staff, and identify and treat psychological disorders that may contribute to criminal activity and poor institutional adjustment. Evaluators did not find that BRAVE participation had a statistically significant effect on misconduct or recidivism. Approximately 88% of the control and treatment groups engaged in any act of misconduct at any point during their incarceration. Across the levels of misconduct, the percentage of persons engaging in any 300-level misconduct, the third highest level, was the highest, with 75.9% of the control group and 77.5% of the treatment group engaging in any 300-level misconduct. Regarding recidivism, 145 (31%) of the control group and 167 (37.1%) of the treatment group were arrested after being released from custody. The lack of statistically significant findings suggests the need for further research looking at outcomes such as changes in criminal thinking and reductions in associated symptoms.

Among those who study or practice in the American criminal system, it is well known that almost all criminal convictions are accomplished through guilty pleas. That is, in state and federal courts, about 98% of defendants are convicted by plea, with the remaining 2% convicted at trial. This article examines case law and novel research studies to capture judge’s views on the issue of the applicable burden of proof at pleas. This lead to the identification of four different approaches: proof beyond a reasonable doubt (BARD) is the standard for guilty pleas, admitting guilt through a guilty plea alone satisfies any evidentiary burden that might exist, BARD is not the standard for pleas as it is waived, and a burden of proof remains, but it is something less than BARD. While inconsistency itself is a serious concern in a system built around the requirements of due process and equal protection, the findings of this article point to the use of insufficient burdens of proof at pleas of guilty as a significant contributor to false pleas of guilty by the innocent. Therefore, this article concludes that the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard should be uniformly, consistently, and meaningfully applied in both the trial and guilty plea settings, and that the standard be non-waivable for pleas.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is responsible for managing federal student aid programs and overseeing contracted student loan servicers. The servicers process loan payments, provide borrowers with information on repayment plans and forgiveness options, and maintain loan records. In April 2024, FSA implemented new contracts for its student loan servicers that set performance standards on six metrics, including accuracy and call quality. Under these contracts, FSA enforces financial penalties if servicers do not meet performance standards related to these metrics. This report examines the extent to which recent staffing reductions have affected how FSA carries out its responsibilities to oversee loan servicers. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that in February 2025, FSA stopped assessing student loan servicers on accuracy and call quality due to a lack of staff capacity. FSA staff reported that between January and December 2025, the number of staff at FSA dropped from 1,433 to 777, a reduction of 656 personnel. However, prior to FSA discontinuing the performance oversight, most servicers did not meet the performance standards for accuracy and faced corresponding financial penalties of about $850,000. While the FSA no longer evaluates servicer performance on accuracy and call quality, it continues to evaluate other performance metrics, such as call abandon rate and customer satisfaction, which are characterized as less labor-intensive to monitor.

In early 2024, more than 60 state and federal policymakers, ed tech innovators, school system leaders, and advocates convened for an artificial intelligence (AI) forum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This group focused on the opportunities AI offers and the greater role the education community must take in guiding how AI is used to transform teaching and learning. The discussions and work sessions centered on three integral themes: how technology can help prepare young people for, and make our schools responsive to, a radically different future, how to move beyond fragmented tool adoption toward more coherent and integrated school designs, and how the world is changing rapidly, and so, too, must education. Key findings include that without clear guidance from educators and policymakers, AI development has prioritized point solutions over integrated school design, sustainable impact requires aligned policies, infrastructure, pedagogy, and technology—not disconnected apps, AI should operate in the background to expand capacity, not replace educators or reduce learning to efficiency gains, innovation zones, redesigned assessment and workforce models, and sustained learning agendas are necessary to move beyond pilot projects toward system-level change, and leaders need an “ambidextrous” approach that supports today’s students while redesigning systems for an AI-shaped future.

Regional Partnership Grants (RPG) support partnerships among child welfare agencies, substance use treatment providers, and other social services systems in order to improve the well-being, permanency, and safety outcomes of children who are in or at risk of out-of-home placement due to a parent or caregiver’s substance use disorder. RPG projects implement a slate of services and programs for families in their communities. This brief describes the findings from in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with parents enrolled in services provided by two RPG projects. Parents’ experiences highlighted the intergenerational nature of chronic adversity and how that contributes to ongoing challenges for families enrolled in RPG projects. Parents identified several ways that RPG services could further support better adult recovery and family functioning outcomes. These included 1) developing child welfare system requirements, timelines, and practices that account for relapse as part of the recovery process; 2) training child welfare staff to understand the underlying circumstances that contribute to parents’ substance use, so that parents—knowing the staff understand their life experiences and challenges—are empowered to reach out to staff when they need support; 3) including substance use treatment services that provide emotional support, peer support, and therapeutic services for the entire family; 4) connecting families to community resources; 5) assisting parents with setting goals and building their confidence to achieve their goals; and 6) providing individualized coordination between the substance use treatment provider and the child welfare staff on each parent’s case. The findings from this exploratory study offer a preliminary understanding of parent experiences which will be expanded upon in a future large-scale study.

As states and municipalities across the United States grapple with the housing crisis, tenant opportunity to purchase TOP) policies are being increasingly considered as tools to prevent displacement. These policies give renters (and potentially other organizations, such as non-profits), the first opportunity to purchase their building if it is put up for sale. However, without the necessary supports, including financing and technical assistance, it is difficult for these policies to achieve their intended impact. This report explores the scope and financing needs for a proposed policy in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It then builds on the experience of technical assistance providers in Washington, DC—the city with the oldest tenant opportunity to purchase policy in the nation—to identify challenges and lessons for other jurisdictions considering similar policies. Key takeaways from the report include that as of April 2023, if offered for sale, approximately 92% of units in Minneapolis would be eligible for tenant purchase, with a total assessed market value of more than $17 billion. A tenant opportunity to purchase policy requires a robust tenant technical assistance ecosystem to be successful. This ecosystem includes tenant organizers, development consultants, legal-aid providers, and government partners, all of whom play a crucial role in supporting tenants through the complex process of forming a tenant association and potentially purchasing a building. Jurisdictions should provide sufficient operating support for tenant service providers. Interviewees cited the limited capacity of tenant services providers as a key challenge across all stages of the process. By providing grants and other funding to local tenant services providers, jurisdictions can play a key role in ensuring providers can support tenants.

Since the widespread introduction of large language models, there has been a wave of research and a deluge of predictions about what artificial intelligence (AI) will mean for the labor market, and when. There has also been research—and considerable speculation—about how AI is affecting the labor market right now. This brief reviews a selection of recent research on AI and the labor market. Researchers find that evidence from recent research on how AI is affecting the labor market today is inconclusive, and claims about harmful impacts on particular groups of workers are premature. Specifically, much of the recent research on AI and the labor market has focused on labor demand: that is, how AI will change the jobs, skills, or tasks employers will pay workers to do. This research takes the form of ranking or classifying occupations (or industries) by the extent to which they are likely to be affected by AI, and then analyzing how trends or patterns of occupations more likely to be affected by AI differ from those of occupations less likely to be affected by AI. Most of this research focuses on occupations or industries, rather than skills or tasks, since existing labor-market data is more available for occupations and industries. In addition, the commercial diffusion of the current generation of large language models is so recent that any lasting economic impact would likely take years to show up in employment, output, or productivity data.

Medicaid, a joint federal and state program, is the largest source of health care coverage in the United States, the largest source of funding for mental health services, and a large source of funding for substance use disorder services. This report is designed to help new staff within state behavioral health agencies understand Medicaid and its intersection with behavioral health to support stronger collaboration with state Medicaid agencies. This document highlights effective strategies for partnering with Medicaid authorities to improve behavioral health care, including fostering cross-agency collaboration and strengthening understanding of how Medicaid can expand access to services. The report offers relevant stakeholders tips to improve collaboration. These tips include becoming knowledgeable about Medicaid and key budgetary, political, and staffing constraints, and keeping your knowledge base up to date; promoting information sharing between internal offices, external agencies, and managed care organizations, setting up regular meetings, and assigning liaisons who can increase the flow of communication; conducting joint training on topics relevant to serving the needs of people with behavioral health conditions; and pursuing initiatives that require the braiding of Medicaid and state funds and leverage relationships with managed care organizations for coverage and funding of services.

Children’s sleep duration and quality are important parts of their overall well-being, and adequate sleep is associated with improved mental and physical health. This report uses 2024 National Health Interview Survey data to describe the percentage of children ages 2–17 years with regular bedtimes, as well as the percentage of children who complain of being tired during the day. Estimates are presented by age group, sex, disability status, family type, and family income. Key findings include that in 2024, about 86% of children had a regular bedtime most days or every day. The percentage of children with a regular bedtime increased with increasing family income. About 8% of children complained of being tired most days or every day. Asian non-Hispanic children were less likely to complain of being tired compared with Black non-Hispanic, White non-Hispanic, and Hispanic children.

This report identifies the specific drugs most frequently involved in drug overdose deaths in the United States from 2017 through 2023. Among drug overdose deaths with mention of at least one specific drug, the most frequently mentioned drugs included: fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, morphine, methadone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, diphenhydramine, cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, gabapentin, and xylazine. Fentanyl ranked first across all years and was the most common concomitant drug found with other top drugs, ranging from 99.0% of xylazine-involved drug overdose deaths to 48.3% of oxycodone-involved drug overdose deaths. Cocaine and methamphetamine were also frequent concomitant drugs. Trends in age-adjusted rates across the 2017 to 2023 period varied by drug, but notably the rate for heroin-involved deaths sharply declined, while the rate for fentanyl-involved deaths increased and then stabilized between 2022 and 2023. In 2023, the most frequently mentioned drugs in unintentional drug overdose deaths were fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, while the most frequently mentioned drugs for suicide-related drug overdoses were diphenhydramine, oxycodone, and bupropion.