This research brief presents findings from the Returning Home study in Cleveland, Ohio. Returning Home is a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry in Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas based on personal interviews with prisoners before and after their release from prison. Previous reports from the Ohio project examined prisoners' expectations for life after prison and their experiences in the first few months after release. This final report—"One Year Out: Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland"—describes the lives of nearly 300 former prisoners at least 12 months after release, including their ability to find stable housing and reunite with family, and identifies factors associated with getting a job, and avoiding substance use and return to prison (recidivism).

The final report in an Urban Institute research series on men leaving Ohio prisons details the first year of their release, offering an overview of their postprison lives and a slate of policy options that could smooth reentry.

As Tax Day approaches each year, the U.S. Tax Code often becomes the butt of jokes. Honoring that tradition, a Tax Policy Center forum explored some of the inanities that policymakers have inserted into our tax laws and ways in which the IRS adds insult to injury. Listen to the podcast.

SCHIP is up for congressional reauthorization this year, and contentious issues such as expanded eligibility will surely factor in that debate. Panelists discussed one potential sticking point: whether SCHIP should be used to cover parents of low-income children. Listen to the podcast.

More than 18 months after the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, thousands of low-income people remain in FEMA trailer parks. Social science research teaches us that clustering large numbers of vulnerable families in isolated, underserved communities is a recipe for disaster. Public policies should focus on providing meaningful, permanent housing choices in decent neighborhoods for the low-income families currently living in trailers. In addition, as long as some families remain in trailer communities, they need on-site services to counteract the damaging effects of isolation and distress.

In 2004, the Hilton Foundation awarded the Corporation for Supportive Housing a five-year grant of $8 million to promote changes in city, county, and state systems that would reduce homelessness in Los Angeles County, especially among people with serious mental illness. CSH uses these resources to bring people together, facilitate planning and implementation, provide expert advice, and help span the boundaries of different systems that have long stood separate and apart. This report covers developments in the grant’s first two years that address the research question: What changes have state and/or local public agencies and homeless assistance providers made that reduce homelessness, increase housing options, develop and improve supportive services, and promote the development and operation of permanent supportive housing units and the services that tenants need to achieve stability?

April 15 is synonymous with taxes in the United States, but most Americans actually pay more payroll taxes than federal income taxes. In 2006 workers and employers each paid 6.2 percent Social Security tax on the first $94,200 of earnings and 1.45 percent Medicare tax on all wages. While the statutory obligation to pay payroll taxes is split evenly between workers and employers, most economists believe that the employer tax usually translates into lower wages, so workers bear the full burden of the tax. Thus, the total payroll tax rate equals 15.3 percent of earnings for most workers.

House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee Chair Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., recently told reporters that fixing the alternative minimum tax was likely to involve increases in statutory tax rates rather than cutting back on preferences in the tax code. He said the former was "probably more realistic." Or is it? Raising rates at first seems easier than dealing with preferences that people want to keep. However, the simple fact is that real reform involves winners and losers. The only way to avoid that problem is to keep the status quo. But the status quo isn't tenable either: Taxpayers are increasingly dissatisfied with an AMT that continually raises their tax burdens, and in fairly arbitrary ways.

This chapter discusses the implementation of the school transfer and supplemental educational services (SES) options as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). While M-DCPS has 22 percent of its students enrolled in school choice programs, less than one percent of eligible students use NCLB school transfer and less than twelve percent of eligible students use SES. We explore the reasoning behind these low take up rates and utilize school transfer data provided by the district to suggest that, in the case of the school transfer option, the low participation is due to a restrictive timeline for choice and the inadequate signaling power of the AYP designations.

President Bush's 2008 budget is more interesting than most, especially with regard to health policy, but the Democratically controlled Congress shows little interest. The President will not have all his tax cuts extended, although the extension of those for the middle class and poor seem almost certain. The promise of a balanced budget in 2012 is unlikely to be achieved, but the ratio of the deficit and the public debt to gross domestic product is likely to decline. Because of foreign debt purchases, the debt available to U.S. private investors will be no higher absolutely than it was in the mid-1990s. Thus, fiscal policy will impose little upward pressure on interest rates. Read BCA Publication's Global Fixed Income Strategy Special Report.