Human traffickers exploit vulnerable individuals for commercial sex and forced labor in a variety of legal and illegal industries. While some estimates of the incidence of human trafficking exist, comprehensive data on human trafficking within the U.S. is not available. This report details the availability and limitations of different types of data related to human trafficking. At the federal level, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects data from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on certain crimes through its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. In 2013, the FBI began collecting certain human trafficking data as part of this program. The FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) collects detailed data about a number of crimes that may be used to improve understanding of the extent and nature of human trafficking (e.g., the relationship between the victim and offender). Other sources of non-comprehensive data on human trafficking include National Human Trafficking Hotline data, victim services data, and survey and study data. The authors suggest ways to improve data about human trafficking, such as adding data collection on trafficking victimization to the National Crime Victimization Survey and enhancing data collection by federal grantees serving trafficking victims.

Alabama relies on long prison sentences at a higher rate than most of the U.S. with nearly one in five prisoners serving life sentences. Nationwide, the average is one in seven. Yet, a growing body of research shows that incarcerating people for life is not generally necessary for public safety because most people age out of criminality. This report describes recent incarceration trends and spending in the state of Alabama. Key findings include that approximately 6,520 individuals are serving sentences of life with parole, life without parole, or virtual life in Alabama’s prisons. Per the authors, the costs of permanent incarceration for such large numbers of people is increasing. For example, five years of spending on the state prison system, including construction for a new mega prison, comes to $5 billion. By comparison, the combined General Fund allocations for agencies providing preventative services such as the Alabama Department of Public Health, for 5 years are $2.3 billion. The authors conclude that incarcerating older people, many of whom are too feeble to do harm, drains resources that could be devoted to preventing or solving crimes, yet laws and parole practices in Alabama have not adjusted to this reality.

Criminal justice system backlogs, or the number of unresolved cases in a jurisdiction, have long posed a challenge to the timely and equitable administration of justice. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, however, backlogs grew at an unprecedented rate across the nation and, six years later, continue to stymie criminal justice system operations. The sudden rise and persistence of those backlogs has led leaders in the field to call for reforms to improve system efficiency. Along these lines, “reform prosecutors” have established policies aimed at the more efficient use of limited criminal justice system resources, in addition to their core mission of reducing the justice system’s reliance on incarceration and other punitive measures, where appropriate, and expanding rehabilitative approaches to justice. This research note analyzes the pre-indictment backlog in Travis County, Texas, from 2018 through 2025, amid reforms implemented by District Attorney José Garza. Between April 1, 2024, and December 31, 2025, following reforms, the pre-indictment backlog declined by 64%. While the diversion rate in Travis County increased, serious reported crimes that threaten public safety declined by 10%.

To help manage $1.6 trillion in federal student loans, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) contracts with loan servicers for billing and communicating with student loan borrowers. Servicers also help implement complex program changes based on DOE’s instruction, and significant changes to student loans over the last several years have introduced new complexities into servicers’ responsibilities. This report examined DOE’s instructions to servicers for implementing program changes. Servicers reported challenges implementing DOE’s instructions for program changes and raised concerns about the number of clarifying questions needed to implement requested changes. The authors found that the lack of clear up-front instruction sometimes resulted in extensive back-and-forth between DOE and servicers. For example, one change request resulted in six rounds of questions and answers with servicers over a two-month period. Servicers said instruction could be improved if DOE coordinated with them early in the process, and although DOE officials noted the value of such coordination, they had no formal criteria for when to do so. The authors recommended that DOE implement formal criteria for determining when to conduct early coordination with servicers. For example, when dealing with complex changes, DOE could consider if early coordination with servicers could ease implementation challenges.

Over the past decade, free college programs have expanded rapidly across the U.S., with more than 20 states adopting some form of tuition-free postsecondary aid. This study examined Tennessee Promise, the first statewide tuition-free community college program in the nation. Tennessee Promise covers any gap between a school’s tuition and mandatory fees and a student’s existing grant and costs less than $1,000 per participant per year on average. The authors found that access to Tennessee Promise raised postsecondary enrollment among 18-to-19-year-old high school graduates by 5.4 percentage points, with somewhat larger effects for non-white students and those living outside metropolitan areas. Tennessee Promise was also associated with a 15% increase in associate’s degrees conferred at two-year institutions, and Promise-eligible individuals were approximately 2.7 percentage points more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree by age 24. Findings did not include evidence of increased labor force participation among participants, but did include delays in family formation, with Promise-eligible individuals 27% less likely to be married before age 21 and 17% less likely to have a child in the household by age 22. The authors conclude that the program pays for itself under reasonable assumptions about returns to college.

The use of network-based continuous improvement in education has grown substantially in recent years. The approach involves a network of schools using continuous improvement—a network for school improvement (NSI)—to iteratively test and refine strategies that address a common challenge while learning from one another. The study measured the effect of 34 NSIs by comparing outcomes for students in NSI schools to similar students in comparable non-NSI schools. NSI had positive impacts on some student outcomes and no impacts on others. For example, NSI had a positive impact on 8th grade math test scores equivalent to moving a student from the 37th to the 40th percentile but no effect on English language arts (ELA) test scores, attendance, or suspension rates. For 9th-graders, NSI had positive impacts on course-related outcomes, including a 0.11 point increase in GPA and improved course pass rates by 3 to 4 percentage points but no effect on suspension rates. Among college-track older students, the authors also found no effect of NSI on GPA, advanced course taking, math and ELA test scores, high school graduation, or college enrollment. The authors conclude that network-based school improvement is a promising approach for improving student outcomes.

Congress created the Opportunity Zone tax incentive to spur investment in low-income communities. This incentive appears to be mostly funding real estate development in urban areas with access to community support and infrastructure. Some states said it led to increased job growth and housing in their communities, but most were unsure about the incentive's overall effects. In 2025, Congress made this incentive permanent and added new reporting requirements that could help identify economic impacts. It also added more of an incentive to invest in rural areas. States were mostly unsure about the effects of investment on outcomes, but about 20% of states cited increased job creation and housing as effects. Stakeholders reported the incentive is primarily funding real estate development. According to state officials and Qualified Opportunity Fund representatives, zones that received investment tended to be in urban locations and have access to infrastructure and community support. Tax benefits for investments in newly defined rural zones could drive investment in those areas, but stakeholders were uncertain about the extent.

Since 2007, the Unites States Postal Service (USPS) has posted net losses nearly every year as letter mail, its core revenue source, has fallen. The USPS has now hit its statutory borrowing limit and could be out of cash within the year. This report describes the size and reach of USPS in light of calls to restructure its operations or overhaul its funding model. With about 600,000 workers, USPS is the third-largest employer in the U.S., behind only Walmart and Amazon. Among government agencies, only the U.S. Department of Defense employs more people than USPS. USPS’s network of approximately 34,000 post offices outnumbers every private chain in the nation, with nearly twice as many locations as McDonald’s and thousands more than Subway or Dollar General. Per the authors, because USPS locations exist to serve universal delivery, they reach places private retailers may not serve profitably. Moreover, the size of USPS reflects what the law requires of it, not how it chooses to operate. For example, where a private company might scale back or drop routes unprofitable routes, USPS cannot, as it is a public operation required by law to reach every address, and its scale is what meeting that requirement takes.

Child care subsidies provide an important support for families with low incomes, helping them to access affordable, high-quality, and stable child care arrangements. However, funding for child care subsidies is limited, and many eligible families do not receive assistance. This report examined eligibility for and participation in Georgia’s child care subsidy system in 2019. The authors found that 281,000 children—16% of all children in Georgia—in 155,000 families were eligible for subsidies, with approximately 25% of eligible children receiving subsidies. About 20% of eligible families had incomes below 50% of the federal poverty guidelines, and another 39% had incomes between 50 and 100% of the poverty guidelines. Approximately 59% of families with income below 50% of the poverty guidelines received subsidies. Participation in the child care subsidy program also varied across the state, with counties around major urban areas (Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus, Albany, and Valdosta) having higher participation rates than the rest of the state. The authors noted several possible reasons for the low overall participation rate among eligible children, including lack of awareness of the program, perception that the application process is cumbersome, and a desire for providers not affiliated with the program.

Postpartum anxiety and depression are common complications of pregnancy but often go untreated. Primary care offers an opportunity to provide mental health care services after the immediate postpartum period, but it is underused, in part because of ineffective transitions after delivery from obstetric care to primary care. This randomized clinical trial evaluated whether a behavioral economics-informed intervention to improve this transition was associated with increased mental health care utilization for pregnant and postpartum women with diagnosed anxiety, depressive mood disorder, or both. This intervention consisted of providing (1) messages on the value of postpartum primary care; (2) default scheduling (opt-out) for a primary care annual appointment at approximately 3 months postpartum; and (3) appointment reminders with tailored wording 1 month after the estimated delivery date and 1 week prior to the appointment. Outcomes included postpartum primary care utilization, receipt of mental health care services within primary care, and overall receipt of mood medication or mental health care services. The authors found that supported transitions designed to reduce administrative burdens and information gaps improve receipt of primary care-provided mental health care services. They conclude that this relatively low-cost intervention may be one strategy to facilitate ongoing access to mental health care supports and treatments beyond the immediate postpartum period.

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology offers great promise for medicine and public health, including the potential to yield transformative societal benefits. Yet this same convergence could introduce serious global health and national security risks. For example, as capabilities continue to advance, AI-enabled biotechnology might lower the technical, operational, and motivational barriers to creating biological weapons. The dual-use nature of biotechnology requires proactive mitigation measures to counter these threats. Key findings include that (1) Different threat actors require different prevention mechanisms. Resource-constrained individuals might be thwarted at material or information access chokepoints. (2) Prevention must evolve beyond access controls alone. Although restricting dual-use information and materials remains necessary, determined actors with sufficient resources can circumvent these barriers. (3) Aggregate signals matter. Threat actors operating across multiple nodes of the AI-biology ecosystem—probing different models, querying multiple synthesis providers, sourcing materials from separate vendors—produce signals that appear ambiguous when observed individually but form identifiable patterns of concern when analyzed collectively. (4) Invest early. Implementing this strategy’s mitigations will require investments in new research, institutional adaptation, legal clarification, and international coordination. Waiting until more advanced biological threats are undeniable will be waiting too long.