John Arnold at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy

Criminal Justice

• Understaffing and other issues have led to such dangerous and chaotic conditions in Georgia’s prisons that the constitutional rights of incarcerated people are being violated, the Justice Department has found. "The Constitutional violations are not isolated incidents but long-standing systemic violations stemming from a culture of indifference to the safety and security of people Georgia holds,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division says.  
   
• The Texas Tribune reports on how the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission has found that understaffing and outdated technology are endangering staff, incarcerated people, and community safety.  
   
• Incarcerated people, corrections staff, and state lawmakers are raising alarm about poor conditions in Connecticut’s prison system, according to a story from WTNH. Allegations include continual use of lockdowns, medical neglect, overdoses, suicides, and corruption.  

• In the Health Affairs Forefront series, leaders from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) describe CMS’ efforts to meet the agency’s goal to have all Medicare beneficiaries in accountable care relationships, where a provider is responsible for the quality and total costs of care, by 2030.

• The Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) looks at Oregon's merger review law, which strengthens state oversight of corporate mergers to protect competition and consumer interests.
   
• The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) describes the infrastructure, staffing, and governance structures used by three states (MD, PA, VT) to implement large-scale payment reform. NASHP's analysis can act as a roadmap for other states exploring payment and delivery system reform, including participation in recent state-based CMMI models.  
   
• KFF Health News reports on how the Medicare Advantage industry uses political pressure, aggressive lobbying, and advertising to fight efforts to rein in billions in government overpayments to plans.

• The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce’s report, Graduate Degrees: Risky and Unequal Paths to the Top, proposes improvements to transparency and accountability to boost return on investment (ROI) for graduate students.
   
• The Penn Wharton Budget Model released a distributional impact analysis of the income-driven repayment SAVE plan, which found that lower- to middle-income student borrowers stand to gain the most from the SAVE plan, and estimated that only about a fifth of the benefits will go to households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution.
   
• The New York Times explains how CalTech lent its name to a boot camp that was actually taught by a for-profit online program management (OPM) company – and misled students. (free link)
   
• What Went Wrong With Federal Student Loans? Adam Looney and Constantine Yannelis of the Brookings Institute investigate in their new report.

• World Central Kitchen, founded by Chef José Andrés, is on the ground in the southeastern United States, delivering potable water and fresh food to those affected by Hurricane Helene.
   
• NPR has collected interviews with many of the recently named MacArthur "Genius" Fellows, including writer Jason Reynolds, poet Jericho Brown, historian Shailaja Paik, legal scholar Dorothy Roberts, and many more.
   
• After 18 seasons in the NBA, the late Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo spent even more time devoting himself to improving the health, education, and quality of life for people in the Democratic Republic of Congo via his foundation.

• The Evidence and Evaluation team invites grant applications to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of social programs. Slides and a video from a webinar from earlier this year on this request for proposals (RFP) are now available, as well as this new webinar (noted above).  Applicants may submit 3-page letters of interest (LOIs) through our portal now through October 15, 2024.
   
• The Criminal Justice team has released an RFP titled “Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System.” The RFP seeks research proposals across all issues related to the criminal justice system and will remain open.