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The Abstract
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> By Torie Ludwin, Arnold Ventures
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This week, Thomas Hanna, communications manager, introduces a newly launched network that centers communities in the fight to end gun violence.
While violence in many U.S. cities appears to be declining from its elevated 2020 and 2021 levels, many communities are still experiencing unacceptably high rates. What especially stands out is gun violence, which disproportionately affects people of color and lower-income families.
The roots of gun violence are myriad: decades of underinvestment in economic development and social services, the effects of mass incarceration, and detachment from political systems and power. What makes gun violence especially hard to address is that many communities are also often relatively distant from the established academic and research networks that have been set up to study, understand, and address violence across society. The voices and perspectives of these affected communities — the very people researchers hope to help — are often not adequately incorporated into, and do not lead, research efforts.
The Black and Brown Collective: Centering Community Solutions to Gun Violence, hopes to address this problem. Officially launched in July, this new organization is focused on using rigorous, culturally responsive, and equitable research to inform solutions to gun violence — specifically research led by scholars of color and with increased focus on community partnerships and voices. The planning of the collective was supported over the past year by Arnold Ventures and others, including the Joyce Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).
“We’re interested in changing the narrative about gun violence to inform solutions,” says Jocelyn Fontaine, vice president of criminal justice research at AV. “We need better research and public education around the causes, consequences, experiences, and potential solutions to this complex problem. We want safer communities, more justice, and a more equitable justice system response to the problem of gun violence. The Black and Brown Collective aims to help make those changes a reality.”
The collective has three main goals: to increase racial equity in gun violence research funding, to increase representation and build the pipeline of young Black and brown scholars, and to partner with and center the voices of the communities most affected by gun violence. That last goal includes forming partnerships with community groups and leaders.
“The communities that have been impacted by gun violence will be equal partners in identifying the problem and working in an equitable relationship with scholars on the research design, the dissemination, and the translation of research into policy interventions,” Dr. Joseph Richardson, co-chair of the Black and Brown Collective, explains.
The Black and Brown Collective is in the process of formalizing its internal structure and expects to hold a public launch in early 2024. Arnold Ventures celebrates the formation of the collective as part of its ongoing commitment to finding evidence-based solutions to the many pressing challenges facing our communities.
Read our story>
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By Thomas Hanna, communications manager
Welcome to bail theater in Georgia. Writing in the Washington Times, AV Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy John Koufos makes the case that assigning former President Trump $200,000 bail in Georgia demonstrates the absurdity of money bail systems and should convince all Republicans to support reform.
What Happened: When Trump turned himself into officials in Fulton County, Georgia in August, he was required to post $200,000 bail in order to remain free before trial. Since money bail is primarily designed to ensure defendants return to court, assigning this amount of bail to one of the most wealthy and well recognized individuals on the planet — and a man who is currently running for president — demonstrates how illogical and ineffective money bail can be.
Why It Matters: Trump’s case shows that using money bail simply creates a system where “a person’s freedom is largely dictated by access to funds,” Koufos writes. In other words, thousands of people charged with low level offenses who pose little risk to community safety or of not returning to court are locked up for weeks, months, or even years before trial because they cannot afford to buy their way out of jail. At the same time, people who may pose a safety or flight risk can purchase their freedom if they have access to wealth.
What’s Next: Many states and localities have reformed their money bail systems, and these reforms have been implemented, often with considerable success, by Republicans and Democrats alike. “Risk-based bail advances liberty, saves taxpayer funds, and strengthens public safety,” Koufos writes. “It is a distinctly conservative policy improvement, and the sight of the former commander-in-chief having to pay to secure his release from jail should be the moment when Republicans unite behind its advancement.”
Read our story>
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Disrupting the
Health Care Status Quo
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By Evan Mintz, director of communications
Consolidation isn't working. A new non-partisan coalition representing health care consumers, patients, employers, and doctors is working to raise awareness about the primary drivers of high and rising health care prices — which ultimately result in increased health care costs for consumers, patients, employers, and taxpayers.
What’s Happening: On Wednesday, the newly formed Alliance for Fair Health Pricing released a new report, “Health Care Consolidation: Background, Consequences, and Policy Levers.” The report reveals how hospital consolidation and limited market competition increase prices, impacting health care costs, wages, and economic growth, and the accessibility and affordability of health care.
Why It Matters: “The 180 million Americans with private insurance are increasingly burdened by high and rising health care costs,” said Erica Socker, vice president of health care at Arnold Ventures. “The evidence is clear that health care prices — particularly the prices charged by large hospital monopolies — are a primary driver of the unsustainable health care costs consumers and employers face.”
What’s Next: Momentum for health care reform is building on Capitol Hill. Several committees and members on both sides of the aisle have introduced and advanced legislation that would help rein in the costs of health care. This includes actions to increase transparency and competition in health care through policies like price transparency and site-neutral payment reform, which could help address the negative effects of health care consolidation.
Visit the Alliance for Fair Health Pricing>
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Criminal Justice
- A new report by a team of attorneys and researchers from nationally-known organizations like the RAND Corporation, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association and the Law Office of Lawyer Hanlon finds that public defense attorneys are being forced to handle far too many cases each year and suggests new, consensus-based workload standards aimed at improving the quality of public defense. The report’s findings were covered in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- The Marshall Project discusses how public pressure, inhumane jail conditions, and informal agreements reshaped the Cuyahoga County bail system.
- Virginia Public Media reports on a budget deal between Democrats and Republicans in Virginia that may allocate $250,000 to create a new Office of the Department of Corrections Ombudsman, which would be a step towards greater prison oversight and accountability in the state.
- MindSite News has published a new investigative series examining the shortcomings and impact of traditional 911 responses to mental health crises.
Health Care
Public Finance
- lan Cole of AV grantee the Tax Foundation outlines a path for the U.S. to effectively navigate international politics of Pillar Two of the OECD’s international tax agreement.
- William Gale and Semra Vignaux unpack the differences in the taxation of income from work compared to income from capital for the Tax Policy Center.
- Also for the Tax Policy Center, Howard Gleckman discusses how a higher standard deduction, as outlined in a recent GOP tax plan, would make restoring the full state and local tax deduction an even more regressive policy proposal.
- For The Wall Street Journal, Richard Rubin writes about the IRS’s announcement that the agency has begun using artificial intelligence to select large partnerships for audits. (free link)
Evidence-Based Policy
- The Hechinger Report covers recent findings from an AV-supported randomized controlled trial (RCT), which found that seventh-grade students who used an online math homework support tool, ASSISTments, reported significantly greater math achievement at the end of eighth grade when compared to students who did not use the program.
- A new report from a long-term study by Mathematica shows that KIPP middle schools have a positive, but not statistically significant, impact on students’ enrollment in four-year colleges. In exploratory analysis, the study also found that attending both KIPP middle schools and KIPP high schools led to large, significant improvements in students’ college enrollment and persistence rates.
- On Tuesday, New York state officials announced they’re expanding student success program, CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or ASAP, to 24 additional campuses across the State University of New York system. The program has been shown to generate sizable, significant improvements in student graduation rates and earnings.
Higher Education
- Four million borrowers have signed up for the Biden administration’s new income-driven repayment plan for student loans, the Washington Post reports.
- The U.S. Department of Education has released a new data strategy intended to improve transparency, privacy, and access to information, and to bolster the department’s capacity for evidence-based decision-making.
Infrastructure
- While housing prices soared across much of the developed world, Tokyo has remained reasonably affordable by adding a New York City’s worth of new housing units, writes New York Times editorial board member Binyamin Appelbaum. (free link)
- Also in the New York Times opinion section, a rumination of the magic of accessory dwelling units — also known as granny flats. (free link)
- In California, lawmakers voted to extend a state housing law that allows developers to leapfrog bureaucratic processes in cities that have fallen behind on state-mandated housing goals, the LA Times reports.
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Today is Cloud Appreciation Day, a day set aside to look at the sky and appreciate the view. At the worldwide Cloud Appreciation Society, people can contribute images of clouds to a Memory Cloud Atlas, featuring cloud photos mapped from around the globe. There’s also a Cloud-a-Day, society membership, and other ways to bring awe-inspiring glimpses of the sky to the digital device of your choosing. (Don’t forget, of course, the option to go outside and look up.) |
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- On Wednesday, Sept. 20, at Politico Live, join John Arnold and a suite of panelists for a breakfast discussion on site-neutral payments and billing transparency policies, and how they can help address health care costs. Attendance is in-person at the Conrad in Washington, D.C., or virtually. RSVP here.
- From September 20-22, Arnold Ventures will be at Comnet's annual conference in Atlanta. Come find us; we'd love to connect.
- On Friday, Sept. 22, at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, join us to hear Jen Doleac, Arnold Ventures’ executive vice president of Criminal Justice, speaking on a panel titled, “Let’s Fix the Criminal Justice System.” Buy tickets here.
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The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research will be awarding more than $3 million in funding, provided by AV, to study extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs). Access the RFP here.
The Pretrial Justice team has released a request for proposals that will help inform and advance the field’s collective understanding of the policies and practices related to pretrial release decisions, pretrial release conditions, and pretrial services.
The Higher Education and Evidence-Based Policy teams have created a request for proposals for rigorous impact evaluations of programs and practices (“interventions”) to promote college success in the United States.
The Criminal Justice and Evidence-Based Policy teams at Arnold Ventures are teaming up to learn more about what works in criminal justice reform in an ongoing request for proposals for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that will test programs and practices. There is no deadline for submissions.
The Evidence-Based Policy team invites grant applications to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of social programs in any area of U.S. policy. Details are here.
View our RFPs here.
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Have an evidence-based week,
– Torie
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Torie Ludwin manages digital, multimedia, and print branding projects for Arnold Ventures, including the Abstract.
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