California Policy Lab September 2022 Newsletter

Racial equity in record clearance

States have begun passing laws to provide automatic record clearance and reduce the lifelong collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement. However, these new laws may be inadvertently reproducing racial disparities, according to new research focused on California. The authors show how two policy amendments would reduce these disparities dramatically. This research was conducted with the Possibility Lab, was covered by Wired this summer, and was in the August issue of Law and Society Review. A Vox article about SB 731, which Governor Newsom signed yesterday, also cites this research.

High utilization in San Francisco

A new report shows that a small number of vulnerable San Francisco residents are repeatedly cycling in and out of the county’s health and criminal legal systems each year and represent a disproportionately high amount of utilization of these systems. This research was conducted by the California Policy Lab and the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF. Report

Research finds long-run impacts for state training programs

A new report and accompanying policy brief summarizes findings from an in-depth study conducted with the California Workforce Development Board to estimate the impacts of ten workforce training programs that collectively serve over a million Californians each year. Using data from the CAAL-Skills partnership, the authors were able to estimate causal impacts for 8 of the 10 programs. Of those 8 programs, all 8 had positive impacts on participants’ employment prospects, while 5 of the 8 led to increased earnings. Report and policy brief

Three Strikes law in California

California’s Three Strikes law was enacted in 1994, and a new CPL report shows that thousands of Californians have had their prison sentences lengthened because of the law and that more than one-third of people currently incarcerated in California are serving longer sentences because of the law. Report

Outreach to California college students encouraged them to apply for CalFresh

Congress temporarily expanded eligibility for CalFresh benefits to more college students, and in two experiments, researchers tested whether outreach (via email and postcards) about the expanded eligibility would increase applications and enrollment. In the “email only” experiment, sending an email encouraged students to apply and enroll, and sending two emails worked even better. In the “email + postcard” experiment, receiving both an email and a postcard resulted in about 5% of students applying, almost twice as many as compared to students who were sent just an email. This research was conducted with The People Lab. Policy Briefs

Welcome to our new colleagues, we’re thrilled you’re part of the CPL team!

Job openings at CPL

The California Policy Lab is growing — please share with your networks and help us find great talent!

1) Researcher (PhD level), UC Berkeley

Note: we anticipate posting a Research Manager opening on our UC Berkeley team on our career page in the next 1-2 weeks.

Job openings elsewhere

1) Postdoctoral fellow, SPHERE program at UCSF

2) Communications specialist, Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF

3) Research Assistant, ACCESS Study at UC Berkeley

CPL staff, affiliates, and graduate fellows presenting at APPAM’s fall conference

At the fall conference for the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) CPL staff, graduate research fellows, and affiliated experts will present research on:

• Mental and behavioral health in the criminal justice system
• Food insecurity in higher education
• Impacts of rapid re-housing for single adults experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles
• An evaluation of the Santa Clara Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review project.
• Understanding and evaluating prosecutorial discretion.
• Alleviating administrative burdens.

Presentation: Hashed-linkages for cross-departmental, privacy-preserving linkages (Nov. 17th)

As part of the BITSS Open Research Seminar, Karla Palos Castellanos will present on CPL’s hashed-linkage toolkit on Nov 17th from 9 – 10AM (PT). The toolkit includes a guide for agency leadership, as well as a technical how-to guide for data analysts. The Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) and the UC Berkeley Library are sponsoring this series, which promotes transparency and reproducibility in social science research. The series is free and open to the public. Registration

Steven Raphael interviewed about new report on Three Strikes in CA

Steven Raphael, a co-author of CPL’s new report on Three Strikes, spoke about the research findings on the Davis Vanguard podcast. Raphael explains that at any given point in time, about 35% of California inmates had their sentences lengthened because of Three Strikes. Raphael also explains that the authors found little to no evidence that the law impacted crime rates. Podcast interview.

Panel series: responsible prosecution

Alissa Skog and Johanna Lacoe were invited to present CPL research as part of a Niskanen Center panel series focused on prosecutorial discretion in the criminal justice system. Lacoe presented on a recent study she co-authored on the impact of a referral to a felony pretrial diversion program on case outcomes and subsequent criminal justice contact in San Francisco. Skog presented on research she co-authored on the impact the Make-it-Right restorative justice program had on recidivism. Recording (scroll down to Panel 3)

California could give more than a million people with criminal records a fresh start

This article focuses on Senate Bill 731 and cites recent research by the Possibility Lab and CPL on racial equity in automatic record clearance in California. Governor Newsom signed SB 731 on Sept. 29, 2022.

Pandemic Made You Want A Better Job? California Has A Grant For You

Till von Wachter is interviewed about the Golden State Education and Training Grant, which provides $2,500 for working adults who lost their jobs during the pandemic. According to the article the grant can be used to pay tuition and fees for a qualified training program, or to buy books, or pay for living expenses while enrolled. The California Student Aid Commission is administering the grant.

Reminder emails and postcards lead to higher rates of CalFresh applications from college students, study finds

This article focuses on the experiments by CPL and The People Lab to test if reminder emails and postcards could encourage California college students to apply and enroll for CalFresh benefits. 

New jobs, research and events: Join the conversation with us on social media.

On Twitter and LinkedIn we share timely updates like new job openings, threads on new research, upcoming grant and data opportunities, media interviews with CPL experts and more.