Economic Impacts of Prison Growth, and More from CRS
“The historic, sustained rise in [the U.S. prison population] has broad implications, not just for the criminal justice system, but for the larger economy. About 770,000 people worked in the corrections sector in 2008 [and this number is expected to grow]…. By comparison, in 2008 there were 880,000 workers in the entire U.S. auto manufacturing sector.” See “Economic Impacts of Prison Growth” (pdf), April 13, 2010.
Other noteworthy new CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News that Congress has not made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).
“The Role of the Senate in Judicial Impeachment Proceedings: Procedure, Practice, and Data,” April 9, 2010.
“Military Personnel and Freedom of Religious Expression: Selected Legal Issues,” April 8, 2010.
“Multilateral Development Banks: Overview and Issues for Congress,” April 9, 2010.
“Foreign Aid Reform, National Strategy, and the Quadrennial Review,” April 12, 2010.
“Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate,” February 19, 2010.
By better harnessing the power of data, we can build a learning healthcare system where outcomes drive continuous improvement and where healthcare value leads the way.
In this unprecedented inflection point (and time of difficult disruption) for higher education, science funding, and agency structure, we have an opportunity to move beyond incremental changes and advocate for bold, new ideas that envision a future of the scientific research enterprise that looks very different from the current system.
Assigning persistent digital identifiers (Digital Object Identifiers, or DOIs) and using ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) for key personnel to track outputs for research grants will improve the accountability and transparency of federal investments in research and reduce reporting burden.
Research funding agencies should apply the content of grant applications to AI tools to predict the future of scientific and technological breakthroughs, enhance peer review, and encourage better research investment decisions by both the public and the private sector.