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- All Subjects: Criminal justice, Administration of
- All Subjects: Politics and government
- All Subjects: Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
- Creators: Morrison Institute for Public Policy
- Status: Published
Arizona’s electorate – regardless of political party registration – is dissatisfied with state government and its leadership, according to results of a September 2010 Morrison Institute-Knowledge Networks Poll.
Arizona’s prison population is on the rise and the current fiscal year General Fund has $880 million budgeted for corrections. Read the series debut of Indicator Insight to learn about trends in crime rates, juvenile arrests, and recidivism.
During the previous decade Arizona experienced a dramatic increase in the number of people receiving health insurance coverage through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). If criteria for AHCCCS eligibility don’t change, it is unlikely that this trend will be reversed in the coming decade. More positive trends include increased child immunization rates and decreased smoking rates.
Arizona’s most significant criminal-justice trend of the 2000s has been the enormous growth of the state’s prison population, which far outpaced state population growth and continued upward even as the rate of major crimes dropped. In this edition, the author explores Arizona incarceration trends into the next decade.
How can we continue to concentrate on such key issues as job creation, education, pollution, the prison system, water management and structural deficits when the incendiary issue of illegal immigration again grabs the headlines?
Some of Arizonans’ most common and destructive illnesses—those of the brain—are failing to receive adequate treatment due to a combination of modern governmental gridlock and a centuries-old philosophy that separates the mind from the body.
Focuses on the evolving roles of government by looking at five state and local entities that impact nearly all Arizonans, but are not well-known. The report looks at how these agencies came to be, how their purposes have changed over time, and how the state’s expectations have changed.
A grassroots dialogue-to-action program designed to inspire bottom-up collaboration on issues of domestic violence proved to be a success and several important lessons were learned to help full implementation. This briefing evaluates the pilot program of the Purple Ribbon Study Circles Project, which ran in six cities in Greater Phoenix from September through December 2008.
Arizonans have gained a reputation for their low opinion of government, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the major role played by all governmental levels in residents’ daily lives. This view was reflected in the responses to this segment of the survey, as panelists generally gave low ratings to the government services they were asked to judge. This was especially true of lower-income panelists. But the respondents’ low ratings might not always have been based upon personal experience: Few panelists said they had sought information from government or community agencies. This may be due to the increasing popularity of the Internet as a self-help source, but it could also mean that relatively few residents need the services or know they are available. In any case, more than half of those who did seek information said they were satisfied with the result. Panelists were not dismissive of all collective efforts at social betterment. They expressed high levels of agreement that good community-based programs can prevent many social problems, from drug and alcohol addiction to child abuse and juvenile delinquency. Asked how they themselves would distribute public funds for social problems, most respondents choose programs for children, affordable housing, and health insurance.
States have always administered federal programs. But, states usually have had very little say in how they carried out programs. All states could generally do was follow the rules laid out by federal agencies. But now, devolution is giving states more power over programs. And, in general, Americans have said that they approve of the idea. A 1998 nationwide poll, funded by The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, showed that a majority of Americans perceive devolution to be a positive development for the country.