Exploring the Potential for Pretrial Innovation in Massachusetts

Ben Forman and Alexander Jones
Many states involved in Justice Reinvestment—a data-driven approach to reduce incarceration and increase public safety—have taken aim at the practice of holding defendants on cash bail. These efforts are backed by research that shows many defendants held in jail awaiting trial do not pose a serious risk. Keeping low-risk defendants out of jail allows states read more
Topic(s): Criminal Justice, Research

Crime, Cost & Consequences

A Two Year Progress Report

Ben Forman and John Larivee
In 2013, MassINC issued Crime, Cost, and Consequences, a comprehensive look at the performance of the state’s criminal justice system. At the Second Annual Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Summit, we issued this update. These new figures show steady progress in some areas, while other problems identified in the 2013 report continue to present stubborn read more
Topic(s): Criminal Justice, Research

Mass Economy

The Labor Supply and Our Economic Future

Andy Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada, Sheila Palma, Vladlena Sabodash, Paulo Tobar, Joseph McLaughlin, Kamen Madjarov and Jacqui Motroni
This research assesses the health of the state’s supply of labor, both now and into the future. A key question is whether the state has an adequate supply of qualified workers to fuel our next round of economic expansion. In recent years, when the national economy began to recover from the recession of 2001, the read more
Topic(s): Jobs and Economic Security, Economic Development, Research

Massachusetts Charter Schools and Their Feeder Districts

A Demographic Analysis

Adam Friedman
The Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy at MassINC today issued a report detailing the results of its recent study exploring the demographic profiles of charter schools in Massachusetts as compared to the districts from which they draw students. This analysis of student population data informs the ongoing debate on the funding, effectiveness, and read more
Topic(s): Education, Strong Communities, Research

The Pursuit of Happiness

A Survey on the Quality of Life in Massachusetts

Larry Hugick and Jenny Armeni
The Pursuit of Happiness: A Survey on the Quality of Life in Massachusetts highlights data from a 1,001-person statewide poll conducted for MassINC by Princeton Survey Research Associates (margin of error: + or – 3%). Respondents were asked more than 60 questions related to their own and the state’s quality of life, their views on read more
Topic(s): Jobs and Economic Security, Strong Communities, Economic Development, Public Opinion, Research

Improving Early Childhood Education

Framing the Options and Imperatives for State Action Policy Brief

Celine Coggins and S. Paul Reville
Across the nation, early childhood education and care has suffered from poorly organized service delivery systems, inadequate funding, and insufficient attention by the policymakers. The result is a complicated system plagued by competing interests that is in need of reform and alignment. The field’s capacity to meet the needs of children and families has been read more
Topic(s): Education, Strong Communities, Research

The State of the American Dream in New Hampshire

Andy Sum, Mykhaylo Trub'skyy and Ishwar Khatiwada
This research report uses data from the 2000 and 1990 Censuses to track developments in median income for New Hampshire families over the past two decades. Among its key findings is that the typical New Hampshire family, which enjoyed above average real income growth over the 1980s, struggled to keep ahead of the increases in read more
Topic(s): Jobs and Economic Security, Strong Communities, Economic Development, Research

The State of the American Dream in Massachusetts, 2002

Andy Sum, Nathan Pond, Mykhaylo Trub'skyy, Neeta Fogg, Abilasha Rao, Ishwar Khatiwada, Sheila Palma, Paul Harrington, Alex Plotkin, Jacqui Motroni and Gursel Aliyev
The new research finds that the path to economic success for Massachusetts families and workers is narrow and unforgiving, and those who stumble pay dearly. The report argues that the difficulty today in obtaining, or holding onto, a reasonably secure middle-class standard of living is the result of fundamental changes in the “recipe” for achieving read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security, Economic Development, New Skills for a New Economy, Research

New Skills for a New Economy

Adult Education's Key Role in Sustaining Economic Growth and Expanding Opportunity

Andy Sum, Mykhaylo Trub'skyy, Sheila Palma, John Comings, Johan Uvin, W. Neal Fogg, Maricel Santos and Lisa Soricone
According to this new groundbreaking report from MassINC, more than a third (1.1 million) of Massachusetts’s 3.2 million workers are ill equipped to meet the demands of the state’s rapidly changing economy. This threatens the state’s ability to sustain the current economic boom and traps the workers themselves in jobs with little opportunity to advance. read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security, New Skills for a New Economy, Research
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