Executive Summary Amid a significant spike in deaths among individuals experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, including a rise in overdose deaths, expanded harm reduction practices and substance use treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown promising results in reducing death and harm from opioid use. The interventions include providing emergency shelters for higher-risk adults and […]
Introduction Late one night in September 1980, New York City police officers chased Benjamin Quarles to the back of a grocery store. There, officers detained Quarles and frisked him, finding an empty shoulder holster. After securing Quarles with handcuffs, one officer asked him where the gun was. Quarles nodded toward some empty cartons and replied, […]
Executive Summary Asthma rates in the United States are intimately connected with environmental policy choices. Weak regulation or non-compliance with pollution control has resulted in uneven air quality across the country and corresponding elevated health risks. The disease burden has fallen primarily on nonwhite communities, and particularly nonwhite children, who—due to America’s racialized housing geography—tend […]
Executive Summary American voters believe our legal system should prioritize helping and supporting people over incarcerating them—and probation and parole programs must be reformed to serve that function, new polling shows. Voters want fewer people in jails and prisons, and fewer people subject to surveillance and control by law enforcement. Instead, they want probation and […]
INTRODUCTION The United States is in the midst of a housing crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic catastrophe are making it worse. Over 40 million people may soon be at risk of being thrown out of their homes at a time of great uncertainty. While the recent federal eviction moratorium keeps some people […]
Executive Summary This election has put the basic tenets of our democracy at stake. The vote will place unprecedented stresses on our system of electing a president. Whether the system will be able to withstand these pressures is another matter. American history suggests that our system is vulnerable to periodic breakdowns. Ordinarily the risk of […]
Executive Summary In the race for Maricopa County Attorney between Democrat Julie Gunnigle and Republican Allister Adel, both candidates have claimed the mantle of “reformer,” as polls consistently show broad support for policies that will reduce Arizona’s reliance on prisons and hold police officers accountable for misconduct. In the state’s most populous county, appearing to be the most “tough […]
Executive Summary Arizona helped deliver the election to Donald Trump in 2016. However, over the past four years, Republicans have seen a 148,000 voter enrollment advantage trimmed to under 100,000, resulting in historic gains for Democrats in the State Legislature and the election of Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema in 2018. In Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county, the Democratic candidates […]
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON PROBATION Introduction This nation’s probation system was devised as an alternative to incarceration that permitted convicted individuals to remain in their communities while participating in rehabilitative interventions. By addressing the root causes of crime, targeted interventions were able to keep individuals out of jail on two fronts—by avoiding incarceration initially and reducing […]
Executive Summary New polling from The Justice Collaborative Institute and Data for Progress indicates that most voters believe that President Trump will use vote-by-mail to try to commit voter fraud and steal the election, and that he will try to stop the counting of ballots if he is ahead on election night. Nearly half of […]
Executive Summary A new Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows that Maricopa County residents would be more likely to vote for a Maricopa County Attorney (head prosecutor) if she supported ending the prosecution of marijuana possession offenses, commuting sentences currently being served for marijuana possession, and expunging previously convicted possession convictions. […]
Executive Summary A Data for Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows that 40% of likely voters, including 53% of Democrats, would likely attend a protest if the Trump campaign takes legal action to stop votes from being counted.
Executive Summary New polling from The Justice Collaborative Institute and Data for Progress shows bipartisan majority support for restoring voting rights to people who have returned home from prison. The polling also shows that more people support than oppose abolishing felony disenfranchisement entirely. In a national survey of 1,195 likely voters, 62% of respondents support enfranchising […]
Executive Summary New polling from Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute shows bipartisan support among Maricopa County voters for a County Attorney who will embrace new police accountability measures and support new protections against police violence. Our research found that: 59% of voters, including 52% of Republicans, are more likely to vote for […]
Executive Summary In the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a powerful nationwide movement emerged calling to divert money from the police as a solution to police brutality and the systemic racism inherent in current policing methods. In the movement’s view, diverting money would mean passing local policies that take funds originally earmarked […]
Executive Summary A Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows that nearly half of likely voters (47%) believe that they will know the winner of the presidential election on election day. These results are alarming because President Donald Trump continues to suggest, and media outlets continue to repeat, that the winner of […]
Executive Summary A Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows a bipartisan majority of Maricopa County voters—including 71% of Democrats and 51% Republicans—are more likely to vote for a county attorney who pledges to not prosecute women for seeking an abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. These results make clear that Maricopa County […]
Executive Summary A new poll from The Justice Collaborative Institute and Data For Progress shows that in the event of a contested election that comes down to a single swing state, such as Pennsylvania, Republican voters would trust the Republican-controlled legislature of that state even if the Democratic Secretary of State and major media outlets […]
Executive Summary A Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows extreme partisan polarization when it comes to who voters trust to call the results of the 2020 presidential election, including the presidential candidates themselves and the mainstream media. Republican voters overwhelmingly trust President Donald Trump to call the results of the presidential […]
New polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the creation of a CCC-like program to tackle today’s economic, social, and environmental crises.
Executive Summary “If you are in denial about climate change, come to California,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in August. The record-setting wildfires that have devastated the American West this year have forced thousands of people from their homes and caused toxic chemicals to leach into drinking water. In the middle of a pandemic, the air quality and excessive heat […]
Executive Summary The United States currently faces three deepening and converging crises. The first and most obvious is the health crisis produced by COVID-19, which has killed more than 200,000 people nationwide and resulted in acute social isolation for millions of Americans. Second, the state and local lockdowns imposed to stem the virus’ spread have […]
Through a loophole in the 13th Amendment, governments and corporations profit from cheap, incarcerated labor. This analysis is part of our Discourse series. Discourse is a collaboration between The Appeal and The Justice Collaborative Institute. Its mission is to provide expert commentary and rigorous, pragmatic research especially for public officials, reporters, advocates, and scholars. The […]
Executive Summary Addressing wage theft is an essential part of providing economic security for working people, and if done correctly with robust enforcement, local wage theft ordinances can provide significant protections. These ordinances are also popular among voters. New polling from Data for Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute shows overwhelming bipartisan support for local […]
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CIVILIAN EMERGENCY FIRST RESPONDERS Introduction In the best of times, local communities struggle to meet the health needs of highly vulnerable people, including those who struggle with mental health or substance use disorder, poverty, or housing insecurity, or otherwise lack access to traditional health care resources. Because most communities do not have […]
Executive Summary Law enforcement officers are often sent to respond to emergency calls related to crisis situations that do not actually require, or are even made worse by, a law enforcement response. Some of these calls relate to mental health or substance use disorder crises, check-ins for health and safety, a lack of housing or […]
Executive Summary As peaceful protesters throughout the United States challenge the police killings of Black women and men, they are confronted today with fully militarized police forces, equipped with M4 rifles, sniper scopes, camouflage gear and helmets, tanks and mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, and grenade launchers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Heavily weaponized […]
Executive Summary Police-created crime is not a path to public safety. In most cases, undercover police stings target individuals who officers know nothing about, including whether they were already committing the targeted crime. Rather, these stings tend to ensnare the most vulnerable individuals, often by focusing on low-level drug crimes and poverty-induced offenses. Creating crime—in […]
Executive Summary For decades, prosecutors and advocates strove to make the criminal legal system more victim-centered. This resulted in more money being funneled towards prosecutions and policing as well as laws that now require harsher penalties and more regular notifications for victims. But it has also produced, paradoxically, a downgrading of social services, counseling, medical […]
Executive Summary Cities play a vital role in protecting the health and safety of their residents. But they have been increasingly thwarted by their own state governments, thanks to a relatively recent uptick in “preemption,” where a higher level of government uses either executive authority or legislation to limit the authority of a lower level […]
Executive Summary The U.S. census, mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, is conducted every 10 years to count each resident of the United States. A complete and accurate census is vital. The census determines each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and dictates how billions of federal dollars are spent on […]
Executive Summary In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and classified marijuana under Schedule I, a designation reserved for drugs considered to be highly addictive and that have no accepted medical use. But the decision to classify marijuana alongside heroin and PCP (fentanyl and cocaine, for comparison, are classified under Schedule […]
Tax systems have too often worked toturbocharge the inequalities associated with our modern economy.
Executive Summary At the height of the Great Depression, with national employment soaring to over 25%, President Franklin D. Roosevelt championed federal jobs programs that put Americans to work—part of the New Deal that used public works projects to ignite the economy and stem unprecedented job loss. Among those programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) combined […]
Executive Summary The coronavirus pandemic has brought the country to the brink of economic collapse. While the CARES Act provided some temporary relief, sustained economic recovery requires a plan to give unemployed workers an opportunity to support themselves and their families with dignity. New Deal-style federal jobs programs can help eliminate working poverty and create […]
Executive Summary Racial disparities in health and wellbeing are well documented. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine issued the landmark report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, which connected racism in mortgage lending, access to housing, employment, and criminal justice to racial health disparities. This report and the World Health Organization’s 2008 […]
With states’ revenue streams drying up, state employees have been laid off and core services cut. This has increased the number of residents needing aid while reducing state aid available to vulnerable people when they need it most. This research and analysis is part of our Discourse series. Discourse is a collaboration between The Appeal, […]
Executive Summary By substantial margins, nearly all segments of voters prefer the USPS be funded as an essential service like the military, rather requiring it to cover its own costs like a business. We asked voters whether they think either (a) that the USPS should be funded as an essential service similar to the fire […]
Executive Summary As things stand, many interactions with crisis response systems in the United States result in a trip to jail or an emergency room. Both of these options are costly, inefficient, and often result in the same people coming back again and again. There is a better way: Integrated Service Facilities (ISFs) can provide […]
Executive Summary The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of fast and affordable internet service. With internet access, Americans across the country forced to stay home have been able to keep in touch with family and friends, schedule important virtual doctor’s appointments, work from home, and continue their education. But the pandemic has also […]