The Magic Word

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By Thomas Hanna, communications manager

What's Happening: Arnold Ventures’ criminal justice initiative is working at the intersection of health care and reentry. We sat down to talk with Vikki Wachino, founder and executive director of the Health and Reentry Project (HARP), one of our key partners in this new area of support.

Why It Matters: Research shows that there are significant benefits to community safety and individual well-being, including reductions in recidivism and crime, if people leaving incarceration are provided access to health and treatment services.

What’s Next: With AV’s support, HARP is launching two new projects in partnership with the National Academy of State Health Policy: A learning and action network that will help states explore the intersection between health care and criminal justice as well as an intensive effort with five states on implementation of Medicaid reentry waivers.

Read our Q&A with Vikki Wachino>

Infrastructure

• Want to know how governors are tackling the high cost of housing? Read the National Governors Association summary of its 2024 Winter Meeting, including a roundtable discussion on housing affordability featuring 11 governors and Charlie Anderson, Arnold Ventures' executive vice president for infrastructure.
   
• Reason provides a wrap-up of last week’s AV-supported YIMBYTown conference on making housing more abundant and affordable.
   
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has published a new report that show how market-rate rental constructions has freed up more affordable homes for individuals and families across the income spectrum.
   
• Bloomberg CityLab explains how regulatory red tape is undermining a White House effort to fund office-to-housing conversion.
   
• Granny flats — formally “accessory dwelling units” — can add new and affordable housing without changing the streetscape. So why are they controversial? Texas Monthly digs into the debate.

Public Finance

• Public Finance Program Integrity Fellow Doug Criscitello co-authored a new report from AGA Research entitled, “Fraud Mitigation Lessons from U.S. COVID-19 Response Aid.” The paper provides crucial information about the nature of fraud in the pandemic as well as recommendations for proactively preventing fraud in government programs going forward.
   
• Check out where the candidates for the 2024 presidential election stand on federal tax issues using Tax Foundation’s Tracking 2024 Presidential Tax Plans resource.
   
• In The New York Times, Ben Tankersley highlights new evidence around the economic impact of the 2017 tax reforms. (free link)
   
• James Alm, Richard Schmalbeck, and Jay A. Soled write for The Hill Opinion about the progress the IRS has made in modernization since the agency’s influx of funding in the Inflation Reduction Act.
   
• Katy Stech Ferek describes the state of play in the federal budgeting process for The Wall Street Journal after the House passed a package of six of twelve spending bills this week. (free link)

Criminal Justice

• In an op-ed for Greenville News, Ja’Ron Smith makes the case for evidence-based solutions to address crime, including properly staffed and trained police departments, alternative crisis response programs, and rehabilitation reforms like the First Step Act.
   
• Conditions inside federal prisons are continuing to deteriorate, with understaffing and other issues contributing to hundreds of deaths and the consistent overuse of solitary confinement, The Marshall Project reports.
   
• R Street Institute has released a comprehensive, 50-state analysis of bail reform that looks at the current state of pretrial justice, emerging trends, and prospects for further progress.

• State accreditors are supposed to ensure that colleges provide an adequate education to students, but they don’t always do their job. A blog post from New America explains how this hurts students and sticks taxpayers with the bill for unpaid student debt, and how the Department of Education can ensure these watchdogs meet their task.
   
• The Education Finance Council released a new policy brief on the value of providing wraparound services for college students, including specific references to CUNY ASAP as a successful model.

• In US News & World Report, Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano explains why Super Tuesday is less than super for the country's 6 million independent voters.

• On Wednesday, March 20, at 2 p.m. ET, the Arnold Ventures Evidence and Evaluation team will host a 45-minute webinar to talk more about its two new RFPs and the application process. Attendees may submit questions in advance and during the webinar. Register here.
   
• On Thursday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. ET, the Committe for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) will hold a half-day event entitled, "When the TCJA Expires: A Tax Policy Summit" at the Royal Sonesta Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. To see the agenda, which includes Arnold Ventures Executive Vice President of Public Finance George Callas, and to RSVP, click here.