Prison drug treatment impact
Prison treatment programs can be highly effective in reducing recidivism and associated costs to society. Specifically, residential drug treatment (with community aftercare), including the Bureau’s Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program, costs on average $3,100, but produces a net cost savings of $5,230 per inmate through lowered costs for arrest, conviction, incarceration, and supervision, and avoided crime victimization. This results in a benefit of $2.69 for every $1 of taxpayer money spent (benefit-cost ratio). In-prison vocational ...
Unhealthy people earn less
People who are unhealthy earn lower incomes, put away fewer dollars in savings, and accumulate less wealth over the years compared to those who are healthy, a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found. The research, conducted by researchers at the University of Georgia and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, found bad health can explain up to 40% of variation in lifetime utilities. Here’s what else it found: • Healthy ...
The Ultimate Guide to Charitable Donations
You are interested in giving to charity. But you might not know exactly where to start. What are the rules around tax deductions? What organizations are true charities? And how can you be sure your money is being used effectively? This Ultimate Guide to Charitable Donations will walk you through all the ins and outs of charitable giving, specifically from an individual donor perspective. ...
Unhealthy American diet costs $50B a year
A lot has been said about personal choice and resulting health impacts. That your zip code is more likely to determine your health outcomes than your genetic code, is no longer rhetoric, but reality. A study conducted by Harvard Medical School estimates the cost of poor decisions, especially diet, costing Americans over $50 billion per year. Highlighting the study and the conversation previewed below are a few key points. Though personal decision and habit play ...
Public investments return up to 45%
Investments in public infrastructure bring high returns. Ongoing research over the past few decades shows that funding public assets brings a return on public investment of between 15-45%. While there appear to be more studies coming out ever year stating similar conclusions, why is it so hard to keep up with our crumbling infrastructure? Is it that we don't know how to invest in governments? Or that they simply can't pay us back with standard ...
Use the arts to revitalize your economy
As communities seek to rebuild in a Covid environment, they should start with the arts. People engaged in arts/culture organizations make up a higher-than-average proportion of the unemployed. And as people seek to "go out" for the first time in months, physical experiences like concerts, museums and shows may be an attractive opportunity. If you're a city looking to revitalize your economy, here are 4 ways to help embrace your arts sector today: 1. Make ...
New Government Profile Pages
Wouldn't it be nice to get a nice, concise report card for any municipality across the country? A place where you can easily search and digest that community's demographic, economic and government information? And wouldn't it be even nicer to compare those numbers against peers within the state and outside? Well now you can! ...
How much does it cost to create a job?
Unemployment has hovered around historically low values in the United States, at least up until the pandemic struck. But as jobless claims rise and more people move to the sidelines of the labor market, we need to re-imagine ways to open the economy back up, create jobs, and utilize all this excess capacity not being used now. So what does that cost? Many government, nonprofit and for-profit firms firms work in job-training, search assistance, and ...
Property tax value index by county
Are you getting enough bang for your buck? When it comes to paying property taxes, it's not easy to tell. SmartAsset analyzed this by comparing how good schools are, how safe the area is, and how high are the property taxes. They analyzed all 3,000+ counties across the U.S. by a metric called "tax value index." Schools are ranked from 10 (the best) to 1 (the worst) according to an average of math and reading ...
3 step pathway to stable homes
While many social programs help address specific problems for focused sets of people, they often fail to integrate with other programs addressing the myriad of problems people face. In poverty, families often cannot secure affordable housing, they fall behind on rent, move frequently and uproot children during important developmental years in their lives. This insecurity can lead to homelessness, sickness, and long-term mental-health issues for parents and children alike. So what can be done? Ana ...
