Marc A. Levin is the Chief Policy Counsel at the Council on Criminal Justice and Senior Advisor to Right on Crime.
For decades, America’s response to crime has largely been measured by the number of prison beds it could fill. Politicians competed to be “tough on crime,” while correctional systems focused on punishment rather than rehabilitation. Yet, despite spending billions of taxpayer dollars on incarceration, many states continue to struggle with high recidivism rates and revolving...
The 86th Texas Legislature sought to enhance public debt transparency through the creation of Voter Information Documents (VID). However, this instrument is not accurately providing debt amounts and needs reform. Key points: Governments are manipulating the VID methodology to deny voters accurate tax impact estimates. Many VIDs are dissimilar, making comparative analysis challenging. There is...
Last year, the Texas Legislature passed a limited disannexation measure, House Bill 3053, that allows people unfairly captured by large cities during a particular time period to hold an election on the question of staying or leaving municipal control. The law was passed after concerns were raised that some cities had accelerated their involuntary annexation...