Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
- South Carolina, six other states spend five times faster on corrections than education, Education World, June 8, 2016
“In the report Trends in State and Local Expenditures on Corrections and Education, it found that seven states (Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia) increased the budget for spending on corrections five times faster than doing so for public education.” Also see The New York Times.
2. S.C. is nation’s first fully-certified “work ready” state, S.C. Radio Network, July 7, 2016
South Carolina has become the first state in the nation to become fully certified under the “work ready” program, with all 46 counties meeting the specified workforce and education goals.
3. Report highlights how three-quarters of rural areas are distressed, Associated Press, July 5, 2016
In a series on “Divided America,” the Associated Press reveals that three quarters of rural areas are in distressed zip codes. Economic gaps are largest between urban and rural areas in Colorado, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida.
4. Racial disparities found in first statewide study on Tasers, NPR, June 30, 2016
According to a researcher about a new study in Connecticut about use of Tasers by police: “He found that black men were about three times more likely to be Tased than simply warned. For Latino men, it was over 40 percent more likely to be Tased than warned. For white men, the chance of being Tased or warned were about the same.”
5. Prisoner transports have a long history of neglect, The New York Times, July 6, 2016
The story of the privatized business of transporting inmates, sometimes with deadly results, according to the Times report. This story highlights a six-day transport from Florida to Ohio in which a prisoner died.
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