Category Archives: Grey Literature

The Social Security Administration (SSA) reported in January 2014 that it is behind schedule in assessing the continued eligibility of recipients in its two disability programs, Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI),and has accumulated a backlog of 1.3 million continuing disability reviews (CDRs). From fiscal years 2000 to 2011, the numbers of adult and child CDRs conducted fell about 70 percent. Children make up about one fifth of all SSI recipients, and GAO reported in 2012 that many …

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IPRT was strenuously opposed to the super-prison plans from their inception, drawing on national and international experience which shows that penal expansion does not address overcrowding, and only serves to increase prison populations: if prison places are built, over time ways are found to fill them.

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Practical Policies to FulFill the Freedom to Vote For all americans Millions to the Polls outlines sixteen policies and practices that would make registration more accessible and seamless, lead to more effective and efficient election administration, and strengthen protections for voters’ rights.

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Women account for a minority of all those coming into contact with criminal justice agencies, and their specific circumstances and needs are often overlooked or misunderstood by a system which has largely developed in response to men’s offending profile and behaviour. Most women who enter custody under sentence serve short prison sentences for petty but sometimes persistent offending, and many have themselves been victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. 1 Many are mothers so the consequences of criminal sanctions …

Canada Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series An Overview of the Working Lives of Older Baby Boomers

Hispanics in the U.S. experience high rates of adolescent childbearing, high school dropout, and poverty. Research finds that these issues are linked. With the goal of decreasing poverty rates, this project has sought to identify promising approaches to reducing early childbearing among Latino adolescents. To inform this work, Child Trends researchers have synthesized evidence from research studies, trend data, and evaluations of intervention programs. We have also conducted qualitative interviews with parents, teens, and program designers and practitioners. The findings …

SDF is delighted to publish the report on Scotland’s First Harm Reduction Café held in Glasgow in November last year. The event was a great success and we received a lot of positive feedback on the night and subsequently. To mark the event and capture some of the atmosphere, learning and other outputs from the café, we have produced a report which will hopefully inspire and assist others to organise such an event. Along with partners at Turning Point Scotland …

The Irish Youth Justice Service has published its action plan ‘Tackling Youth Crime – Youth Justice Action Plan, 2014-2018′ as a successor to its 2008 ‘National Youth Justice Strategy’. This wide-ranging document covers many aspects of the criminal justice system in Ireland as it affects young people. In particular, it details statistics on rates of offending among young people, overall ‘high-level goals’ of the Youth Justice Service, and differentiates the responsibilities of the Ministers for Children and of Justice respectively.

This research report presenting the findings from an evaluation of the step up programme. The evaluation compares the experiences of the first two groups of trainees to use the programme.

From the time our children are born, we imagine a bright future for them: a solid foundation of education and development in their early years, excellent health care, high school graduation, a good college education and a career path that launches them toward lifelong achievement and economic self-sufficiency. As parents, nothing will stop us from doing everything within our power to make that happen. And as Americans, our concern extends beyond our own doorsteps. We want success for children in …

Long-term compulsory rehabilitation cannot be justified on the grounds of effectiveness or ethics. The practice has also been associated with a number of human rights violations. It is absolutely essential that any treatment system is developed and used in full respect with human rights principles, medical ethics and global evidence, within the framework of a public health approach. Evidence also shows that, when a crime is committed to support drug dependence, it is feasible to offer the offender a choice …

This report compiles the most robust and up-to-date child protection data that exists across each of the four nations in the UK. It sets out 20 different indicators. Each indicator looks at the question of “how safe are our children?” from a different perspective. It also includes a section summarising the factors that influence a child’s risk of abuse or neglect. The report allows us not only to understand how many children are being abused and neglected, but also to …

The EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) has released today its first comparative analysis of regional drug strategies across the world (1). The paper explores the drug strategies and action plans adopted over the last five years by six intergovernmental organisations, engaging 148 countries in four continents (2). ‘When seen in the light of the current international drugs policy debate’, states the paper, ‘regional drug strategies may provide an important contribution for assessing the drugs problem at international level’.

This regional report is the first situation assessment for Latin America put forward under the Global SMART Programme. It forms one of the key steps in providing consolidated up-to-date analysis, based on the information shared by Member States. It is hoped that the information on drug trends presented in this report will make a practical contribution to addressing the significant threat posed by the illicit manufacture of, trafficking in and use of ATS, and to a lesser extent of NPS, …

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic and Sexual Violence

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Canada

The federal investment in early learning and child care is administered through 45 programs that provide or may support related services to children from birth through age 5, as well as five tax provisions that subsidize private expenditures in this area. Among the 45 programs, 12 have an explicit program purpose of providing early learning or child care services. These programs differ in size, target population, and structure. For example, most of them obligated less than $500 million each in …

In 2011, Human Rights Watch released a shocking report on how Vietnamese citizens struggling with drug addiction were being beaten, tortured and forced to work in compulsory drug detention centers. Vietnamese officials reacted defensively, dismissing the report as “groundless” and asserting that the drug centers are an effective, humane method of dealing with a growing drug problem. But new interviews with recently released drug center detainees confirm that forced labor, torture, and other human rights abuses continue in the centers, …

Women who commit crime comprise a relatively small yet increasing group within the Criminal Justice System in Ireland. On any day the Probation Service is working with almost 1,300 women offenders in the community1 ; either assessing or supervising them on a range of probation type orders, community service or post release supervision. Almost 14% or 1 in 7 new referrals to the Probation Service are for women offenders (1,206 new referrals)2 . On any day there are around 150 …

Each year, the federal government spends around $40 billion for rental housing programs serving households with lower incomes. As the stock of housing assisted with federal funds ages and the number of families experiencing housing affordability problems grows, the federal government faces a number of management challenges and policy issues in its efforts to support affordable rental housing.

Even part-time childcare costs outstrip the average mortgage. For a family of two children, the cost for one child in part-time nursery care and one in an after school club is £7,549 a year compared to the average UK mortgage of £7,207.

In March 2014, country delegations will gather at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to review progress and challenges in international drug control since the agreement of a Political Declaration on drugs in 2009. Given that the Political Declaration aims to “eliminate or reduce significantly” the use, supply and demand of controlled drugs by 2019, this meeting represents an important opportunity for honest evaluation and an acknowledgement that these targets are not being achieved. With a United Nations …

Almost universally, including every Australian state and self-governing territory, sexual relations between a parent and child constitute child sexual abuse (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989), although definitions of the crime and penalties vary by jurisdiction. Despite cultural taboos against incest and pervasive social opprobrium, complicity and silence about this offence impedes research advances (Sacco 2009). Studies in correctional settings typically include all subtypes of sex offenders and focus on high-risk extrafamilial offenders, leading to inconsistent …

Over the last 50 years, the composition and work patterns of the American household have changed dramatically. During this period, the proportion of unmarried and never-married individuals in the population increased steadily as couples chose to marry at later ages and live together prior to marriage. At the same time, the proportion of single-parent households more than doubled. These trends were more pronounced for individuals with lower levels of income and education and for certain racial and ethnic groups. Over …

The rise in methamphetamine use has provoked a barrage of misinformation and reckless policies, such as mandatory minimum sentences, increased penalties for minor offenders and major restrictions against certain medicines. This new report, titled Methamphetamine: Fact vs. Fiction and Lessons from the Crack Hysteria, reveals the extreme stigmatization of users and dangerous policy responses that are reminiscent of the crack hysteria in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to grossly misguided laws that accelerated mass incarceration in the United States.

Over the last year, the all party parliamentary group (APPG) on Social Mobility has taken a look at one of the most knotty and seemingly intractable social policy challenges we face as a country. Why do some talented children grow up to fulfil their ambitions and become leaders in any number of fields, while others never realise their full potential? What can be done to help more people succeed in life? How do we create a UK in which a …

Levels of overall, authorised and unauthorised absence by school type, with statistics on persistent absentees and pupil characteristics.