The Criminalization of Poverty: How to Break the Cycle Through Policy Reform in Maryland

Given growing national attention and local concern around the impact of incarceration on working families, the Job Opportunities Task Force sought to define and determine the extent to which the criminalization of poverty is occurring in Maryland. The goal of this project is to identify whether there are key laws, policies and practices in Maryland that are either unnecessarily penalizing the poor or leading the poor to be unnecessarily arrested, charged with a crime or imprisoned because they are poor and therefore unable to satisfy the demands of the law. Our investigation revealed that the criminalization of poverty is occurring in Maryland, with disproportionate impact on people of color.

We must break this cycle. Recommendations for policy reform are presented throughout the report to better understand the magnitude of this issue and explore opportunities to reduce the criminalization of poverty in Maryland.

Read the full report. 

Maximizing WIOA's Potential: A Regional Analysis of the State Plans of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

The passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014 created a unique opportunity for all states to improve their workforce training and education systems. The legislation replaces the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), and revamps state workforce systems to more effectively meet the needs of jobseekers and incumbent workers (especially those with high barriers to employment), as well as employers. By emphasizing career pathways, sector partnerships, employer/demand-driven training, coordinated performance measurement, and integration of programs, WIOA seeks to create a more streamlined, coordinated, and effective workforce system. After WIOA was signed into law, States prepared and submitted State WIOA plans to the United States Department of Labor describing how they would implement WIOA at the State and local level.

As Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC have very close economic and labor market ties. Through the generous funding and support of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, JOTF worked with partner organizations in the three jurisdictions to compare several specific elements of the WIOA state plans of these jurisdictions in order to gauge the similarities and differences between the different approaches —including the greatest strengths and weaknesses.

This analysis is helpful in several ways:

-          Employers: Many companies have locations in multiple jurisdictions throughout the DC-MD-VA area. A cross-jurisdictional comparison can help businesses assess the different practices or policies they may need to adopt to access the resources of each jurisdiction’s workforce system and/or benefit from their programs.

-          Workers: Workers in the Metropolitan Washington area often change jobs across jurisdictional lines. State plans can impact such things as credential portability and the ability of workers to access training appropriate to their needs.

-          Policymakers: Lawmakers in a single jurisdiction may be able to look to their neighbors to make improvements within their own state, and/or locate opportunities to collaborate across jurisdictional lines.

To this end, we assessed the three jurisdictions’ WIOA state plans along the following issue areas:

       1.  Vulnerable subpopulations, including:

o   Adult learners

o   Returning citizens

o   Individuals with disabilities

o   Youth

o   English-language learners and immigrants

o   Low-income individuals

        2.  Performance Measurement

        3.  Sector Partnerships and Career Pathways

        4.  High-Demand Sectors

5.  Governance and Management of Implementation

As our goal is to make this analysis as useful as possible for a diversity of stakeholders, we have published the findings of our analysis in a variety of formats – fact sheets by State, a Summary Report that includes tables containing Promising Practices and Recommendations for each jurisdiction by topic, and of course, the full report, and separate modules by topic! Links to all of these documents are provided here:

- Fact Sheets:

o   Maryland

o   Virginia

o   District of Columbia

        - Summary Report

-  Full Report

-  Modules by Topic

o   Module 1: Vulnerable Subpopulations

o   Module 2: Performance Measurement

o   Module 3: Sector Partnerships and Career Pathways

o   Module 4: High-Demand Sectors

o   Module 5: Governance and Management of Implementation

Please contact Lavanya Madhusudan, lavanya@jotf.org, with any questions or feedback. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DOWNLOAD THE FEBRUARY 2016 REPORT

 

Opportunity Youth are young adults between the age of 16-24 who are not enrolled in school or employment. Barriers such as low math and computation skills, low school attainment, homelessness, structural racism, or criminal history further hinder their chance to move forward. Engaging them in the educational programs and occupational training will have positive outcomes for only in their living standard but on Baltimore’s economy as well.

Baltimore Metropolitan Area has about 42,000 Opportunity Youth and the City of Baltimore has about 1 in every five youth disconnected from education or employment. There are several organizations such as YO!  Baltimore, YouthWorks Summer Employment and Connect Baltimore that have been working with these youth but more needs to be done.

Job Opportunities Task Force along with Baltimore Promise published a report based on best practices for connecting these youth to a sustainable career. There are seven recommendations that Baltimore could execute to reduce the gap further.  Some of the recommendations are building infrastructure, career based resources or interventions to improve skills in math and learning

For more information, or to request a hardcopy, please contact Lavanya Madhusudan at (443) 692-9424 or Lavanya@jotf.org.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DOWNLOAD THE SEPTEMBER 2014 REPORT

By 2025, Maryland leaders want to ensure that at least 55 percent of state residents have a college degree.1 The benefits are clear. Increasing the education level of the workforce will help individuals achieve self-sufficiency and build a competitive and marketable labor force. This goal is ambitious as only 41 percent of Maryland adults currently have a college degree.2 To educate more residents, Maryland must strengthen its policies and programs to remove barriers for students who are falling through the cracks.

Low-income and non-traditional students face the greatest barriers to completion, and affordability is high on the list of challenges. While most students need assistance to pay for college, they are often left with unmet need – in other words, a gap between what they can afford to pay, the aid they receive, and the total cost of college. Many face the tough choice of working more, seeking private loans, enrolling in fewer courses, not obtaining their degree or not even enrolling. While federal student aid plays a major role in college financing, state policy ultimately drives the cost of college. States also have a hand in driving program innovation and in directing state aid resources to the students who need them most.

These are all challenges that Maryland can address through the lens of affordability. This brief examines the challenges facing students and institutions across the state. From the higher education funding decisions that drive tuition, to the program models that help or hurt completion, to the way financial aid funding is prioritized, Maryland has many levers for increasing access and success. To meet our state education goals, our strategies must be broad enough to promote success for all students. The decisions we make as a state can build a pipeline of opportunity for the Marylanders who need it most. 

 

For more information, or to request a hard copy, please contact Sarah Breitenbach at 443-692-9421.

 

 

---

 

 

DOWNLOAD THE NOVEMBER 2013 REPORT

 

People with criminal records face countless obstacles when attempting to move beyond their criminal histories, the most significant of which is often employment. Policies and practices created to maintain public safety produce unintended consequences that generate significant barriers to the successful transition from incarceration to the open society. These barriers, commonly known as collateral consequences, severely limit a returning citizen’s ability to legally support themselves and their family.

 

The Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF) has made a significant effort over the past decade to reduce the collateral consequences of a criminal record, with a particular focus on policy change. We learned many lessons along the way about the most effective advocacy strategies. This paper shares those lessons with a wider community of advocates in hope that organizations in other states can engage in this work with a set of best practices in their toolbox.

 

For more information, or to request a hard copy, please contact Andrea Roethke at 410-234-8303.

 

 

---