Listen in to "Strategies for Juvenile Justice Reform in a Time of Fiscal Crisis" - a Webinar

On Thursday, September 23, 2010, the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) and its partners hosted a webinar on the costs and benefits of change within the juvenile justice system. The webinar, entitled “Finding Opportunities for Reform in Difficult Fiscal Times”, was presented by Annie Balck of NJJN with Beth Colgan of Columbia Legal Services and our own Jim Moeser. The webinar provides substantive strategies, such as employing a fiscal realignment model and downsizing youth facilities, to reduce spending without sacrificing progressive programming. Several tactical strategies for fiscally-minded reform are also provided. Such strategies include the dissemination of cost-benefit data that supports juvenile justice reform, establishing partnerships with unlikely allies, and focusing on long-term outcomes. Successful models from various states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, California and Ohio, are detailed for guidance.
To listen to the archive, view the presentation slides, and/or to download related publications, please go to: http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/?q=news_webinars.

Poverty Surges Nationally and in Wisconsin, Minorities Hit Especially Hard

As you have probably heard, the Census Bureau released 2009 data yesterday on a wide range of issues, including income, poverty and health insurance. Wisconsin’s child poverty rate jumped from 13.4% in 2008 to 16.7% in 2009 – catching up a bit to the national rate, which increased to 20.0% last year. About 214,000 Wisconsin children lived in poverty in 2009, 42,000 more than the previous year.

There has been some good coverage of the new data in the media but most of that coverage has missed the alarming racial and ethnic disparities revealed by the new data. For example, median income among Black households in the state was $25,807 in 2009, less than half that of White or Asian households. The Black child poverty rate in Wisconsin (48% in 2009) was more than four times the rate for White children and three times that of Asian children.

Green Bay and Waukesha among “100 Best Communities for Young People”

Two Wisconsin communities, Waukesha and the Greater Green Bay Area were honored last week as being among the best communities in the U.S. for young people in 2010. The “100 Best Communities for Young People” is a list prepared annually by America’s Promise Alliance and ING for extraordinary community-wide efforts to improve the well-being of youth and end the nation’s dropout crisis.

Will Congress Act This Week to Save Thousands of Jobs?

If you get the Sunday New York Times or read it online, you may have seen this September 26 headline: “Job Loss Looms as Part of Stimulus Act Expires.”  The article concerns a portion of the Recovery Act funding that has been used to help low income families in a variety of ways, including providing funding to initiate or expand subsidized private sector jobs that are designed to enable unemployed parents move from welfare to work.

Wisconsin is one of the many states that will be adversely affected if Congress doesn’t act quickly to extend this funding – which is referred to as the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF) and is scheduled to expire on September 30. The last hope to extend it is to include an additional year of funding in the Continuing Resolution that Congress needs to pass this week to keep federal government from grinding to a halt.   Read more in a new post on the Wisconsin Budget Project Blog.

Historic Health Care Reforms Start Today

A number of very significant health insurance protections for families and children take effect today, on the six-month anniversary of the health care reform act. That law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), includes the following reforms, which will curb some of the worst excesses of the insurance industry:

• Children who are sick can no longer be denied coverage.
• Parents can keep their children who are in college or trying to find employment in a difficult economy on the family health insurance plans through age 26.
• New insurance plans must provide free preventive care, so insurance is less about fixing problems and more about keeping kids and families healthy.
• Insurance plans may no longer cap dollar benefits that an individual or family can receive through their health plan over a lifetime (and annual limits will gradually be removed between now and 2014).
  

New Census Data Confirm that Wisconsin Continues to Be a Leader in Providing Access to Health Insurance

Poverty and income figures for 2009 that were released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau provide additional evidence of the economic pain that the Great Recession has inflicted on families across the nation. In some respects, such as median household income, that toll has been even heavier in Wisconsin, yet Wisconsin continues to be a leader in providing access to health insurance. 

Consolidating Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills Included in the 2011-13 DOC Budget

For those following the issue of whether the two male juvenile facilities can be consolidated, there is a pretty clear statement in the Department of Corrections budget submission anticipating that consolidation will occur during the next biennium.  The proposal includes an increase in the daily rate charged to counties for JCI placements (to $290 for FY12 and $294 for FY13) and a recognition that final budget savings resulting from consolidation will depend on costs at the time.   

Almost Everyone Gets an Extension to Implement the Adam Walsh/SORNA Requirements

As of now, 237 jurisdictions have requested and received extensions to implement regulations that comply with the requirement of the Adam Walsh Act or the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).  Extensions have been granted through July, 2011, and as of now only three states (Delaware, Florida, and Ohio) have substantially implemented SORNA requirements.  Of particular note is Ohio in which their plan calls for much more flexibility for dealing with juvenile offenders than had previously been granted, but more information about their effort and the status of other efforts is available through the National Juvenile Justice Network.

Finding Opportunities for Juvenile Justice Reform During Difficult Fiscal Times

The National Juvenile Justice Network is presenting a webinar titled “Finding Opportunities for Reform During Difficult Fiscal Times” on Thursday, September 23 at 12:30 p.m. CDT. The webinar is based on the recent publication The Real Costs and Benefits of Change: Finding Opportunities for Reform During Difficult Fiscal Times and covers both structural changes and strategies for advocacy in how funds can be redirected to support more effective community-based system interventions. You are encouraged to pre-register.

New Poverty Numbers from the Census Bureau

Today the U.S. Census Bureau updated its Current Population Survey (CPS) dataset with new information on poverty, income, and health insurance. As was widely expected, there’s been a large jump in the number of Americans living in poverty. The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families has done some rapid-response number crunching since the dataset was released this morning, and has already issued a press release. Here are some of the highlights:

• The national poverty rate jumped from 13.2% in 2008 to 14.3% last year, the highest national poverty rate since 1994. The child poverty rate rose from 19.0% to 20.7%.

Wisconsin Budget Project Releases New Analysis of Government Employment Levels

Wisconsin continues its decade-long trend of having fewer state and local employees than the national average, according to a new analysis by the Wisconsin Budget Project.

Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Wisconsin has 4.4 percent fewer state and local government employees per capita in 2009 than the national average, ranking 38th among the states. State and local employees include workers in a wide variety of functions, including teachers, highway workers, corrections guards, firefighters, and police officers.

Senate Vote Tuesday on First Effort to Undermine Health Care Reform

The federal health care reform law contains a variety of different measures to raise funding to offset the costs of expanding access to health care. One of those measures, which is now under attack, is expected to increase tax revenue by $17.1 billion over the next ten years by improving the ability of the IRS to keep track of business income. That health care reform funding measure broadens a requirement for businesses to report expenditures in excess of $600, thereby improving the tax compliance of contractors who sometimes report very little of their income.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on an amendment by Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) that would repeal the reporting requirement. To make his amendment (to a small business tax bill) deficit neutral, Johanns is changing two other important parts of the health care reform act.

National Grandparents Day, Sept. 12

This Sunday, Sept. 12, is National Grandparents Day, an appropriate time to consider the crucial and growing role grandparents are playing in caring for America’s kids, and the economic challenges they face in providing that care.

• 4.5 million children lived in their grandparents’ home in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Buresu.

• In 2008, 6.4 million grandparents had grandchildren younger than 18 living with them.

• 2.6 million of those grandparents were responsible for most of the basic needs (e.g., food, shelter, clothing) of one or more of the grandchildren living with them.

• 19% of those grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren’s needs had income below the poverty level. That translates to nearly a HALF MILLION grandparents who were poor but had to provide for their grandchildren.

• There were 655,000 grandparents with a disability who were caring for their grandchildren in 2008.

• 30% of children younger than 5 whose mothers worked outside the home were cared for on a regular basis by a grandparent during their mother's working hours in 2005.

Children Don’t Have to Wait: Sebelius Renews Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge

A new study released today by the Urban Institute Health Policy Center estimates that there were 7.3 million uninsured children in the U.S. on an average day in 2008, and five million of them (65%) were eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but were not enrolled in either plan.

The study was published today in the journal Health Affairs and was highlighted at an event in Washington D.C. this morning featuring DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who renewed a challenge to political leaders and others to enroll all of the country’s eligible uninsured children into coverage over the next five years.

"No child should have to skip a doctor's appointment or go without the medicine they need because their family can't pay," Sebelius said, challenging state and local officials to "find and enroll those five million kids." The Secretary unveiled a list of influential leaders and national organizations who have accepted that challenge and will strive to improve outreach, enrollment and retention of children, until all eligible children are enrolled in health insurance programs.

New Section of Wisconsin Budget Project Website Devoted to Stimulus

The Wisconsin Budget Project website has a brand-new page devoted solely to Recovery Act issues. The information on this new page ranges from two-paragraph blog posts to in-depth papers. Whether you’re looking for updates about direct benefits in Wisconsin or details about additional FMAP dollars flowing to the state, this is a good place to start.