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A UCLA Luskin Student’s Take on the Rollback of Criminal Justice Reforms

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UCLA Luskin Social Welfare student Francisco Villarruel grew up during a tough-on-crime era in California, was incarcerated as a teen, but emerged to find community-based reentry programs that helped him get back on his feet. Now, he is watching with dismay as the state rolls back criminal justice reforms that he believes have led to healthier, safer communities.

In a letter to the editor published by the Washington Post, Villarruel shares his experiences as an Angeleno who spent half his life behind bars, then found rehabilitative services that have helped him to thrive, eventually leading to graduate school at UCLA.

“Community-based reentry programs have an impressive success rate, reducing rearrest and reconviction rates for participants, and doing so more cheaply than simply keeping people in jail,” Villarruel writes. “California’s Proposition 36, which passed last month, will reduce available funding both for these sorts of supportive programs and for victims’ services.”

The result, he says, is that “more kids will be repeatedly caged for huge portions of their lives and released without the support of programs that help people turn their lives around.”

Villarruel was urged to write the letter as an extra-credit assignment in UCLA Luskin’s “Foundations of Social Welfare Policy” class taught by Assistant Professor Sicong (Summer) Sun.

“Francisco draws on his lived experiences and empirical evidence to engage in a timely discussion of criminal justice policy, specifically addressing the recent passage of California’s Proposition 36,” which stiffens penalties for drug and theft crimes, said Sun, who joined the Social Welfare faculty this year.

UCLA Luskin Public Policy Alumni Elected to Office

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Four UCLA Luskin Master of Public Policy alumni have turned their records of civic engagement into successful bids for public office. The following MPP grads were elected or reelected in November:

  • Isaac Bryan MPP ’22 won reelection to his seat in the California State Assembly and will continue to represent District 55 in Los Angeles.
  • Bryan “Bubba” Fish MPP ’24 is the newest member of the Culver City City Council.
  • In Colorado, Lindsay Gilchrist MPP ’12, won a seat in the state House of Representatives.
  • Guadalupe “Lupita” Gutierrez MPP ’23 is the first Latina elected to the Waterford City Council in Stanislaus County, California.

 

UCLA Luskin Doctoral Students Awarded Fulbright-Hays Fellowships

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Two UCLA Luskin PhD students have been awarded fellowships through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program.

Juan Carlos Jauregui of Social Welfare and Andrés F. Ramirez of Urban Planning are among 15 UCLA graduate students to be named Fulbright-Hays fellows, the most chosen from any research university nationwide for the fourth year.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Fulbright-Hays program allows doctoral candidates to study aspects of a society or societies, including their cultures, economy, history and international relations. UCLA’s 2024 Fulbright-Hays fellows come from diverse disciplines and will conduct their research in Colombia, Egypt, Guinea, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Nigeria, Spain and Taiwan.

Jauregui will study in the Amazonian region of Loreto, Peru. His research will explore intersectional stigma, mental health and HIV treatment engagement among LGBTQ+ young people living with HIV in Loreto. The project will prioritize knowledge that will improve community-based services and interventions that address the mental health and HIV care needs of this vulnerable population.

Ramirez will conduct fieldwork in Colombia. His research will examine how Indigenous struggles for urban citizenship challenge property regimes and reconfigure the relations between state and Indigenous people. Working alongside Indigenous urban communities in Bogotá, he will identify oppositional urban planning practices between the state and Indigenous groups, as well as forms of Indigenous sovereignty in the city.

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The Evolution of Black Neighborhoods, Through a Hip-Hop Lens

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A new book by UCLA Luskin Professor Michael Lens examines the characteristics and trajectories of Black neighborhoods across the United States over the 50 years since passage of the Fair Housing Act.

In “Where the Hood At?,” Lens uses the growing influence of hip-hop music, born out of Black neighborhoods in the 1970s, to frame a discussion of the conditions that have allowed these communities to flourish or decline.

Published this week by the Russell Sage Foundation, the book reveals significant gaps in quality of life between Black Americans and other racial and ethnic groups, and also shows that neighborhood conditions vary substantially region by region. For example, Black neighborhoods are more likely to thrive in the South but are particularly disadvantaged in the Midwest and Rust Belt.

Lens offers several recommendations for policies designed to uplift Black neighborhoods. One radical proposal is implementing programs, such as tax breaks for entrepreneurs or small business owners, that would encourage Black Americans to move to prosperous communities in the South and consolidate their political and economic power. He also calls for building more affordable housing in Black suburbs, where poverty levels are lower than in central cities.

Lens is a professor of urban planning and public policy, chair of the Luskin Undergraduate Programs and associate faculty director of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. His research and teaching explore the potential of public policy to address housing market inequities that disadvantage low-income families and communities of color.

 

UCLA Evaluates L.A.’s Plan to Invest Billions in Wastewater Recycling Infrastructure

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As urgency grows to develop climate solutions, a new UCLA report confirms that the wastewater recycling plans for the nation’s second-largest city would make Los Angeles more resilient and self-reliant during droughts or disasters that cut off outside water supplies.

Using a new methodology to evaluate hundreds of thousands of scenarios, the UCLA research team, led by the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), found that the Los Angeles city plan would significantly boost local water resilience, minimize risks of aging infrastructure and uncertain water imports, and dramatically reduce drought- and earthquake-driven water shortages.

Los Angeles’ wastewater treatment plan, Pure Water Los Angeles, would create a renewable local water source of more than 250,000 acre-feet of clean drinking water, enough for more than half a million households annually. To support the city’s goal to recycle all wastewater by 2035, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power committed to invest at least $6 billion in the infrastructure project, previously titled Operation Next (OpNEXT).

Supporting local water supply transitions is not just needed in Los Angeles. Other cities dependent on imported water, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, as well as densely populated urban areas around the world can use the new methodology to shape their own water solutions.

Learn more about the Luskin Center for Innovation’s research initiatives on local water supply and wastewater infrastructure.

 

U.S. Governance Challenges Put Election Integrity at Risk, Report Finds

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With two weeks to go until the U.S. presidential election, a new analysis highlights critical governance challenges that threaten the efficacy of the American political system.

“Declining democratic accountability means that the power of the American people’s voice will be diminished — both in terms of electoral voice and the power of social institutions to check elected officials once in office,” according to the report authored by researchers from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute and the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany.

Based on data from the latest Berggruen Governance Index, the report finds that both democratic accountability and state capacity have sharply declined in the U.S. since 2015.

Particularly in key swing states such as North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, declines in democratic norms — including curtailment of voting rights in some instances — could lead to “critical consequences for electoral integrity,” the authors caution.

The report also notes that an “outsized role of money in politics” has been exacerbated by landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have removed limits on electoral spending and increasingly marginalized the voices of average citizens.

Regarding state capacity, the report finds a broad and steady erosion since 2000, occurring across the sectors of fiscal capacity, coordination capacity and delivery capacity. Weakened state capacity negatively affects the U.S. government’s ability to respond to crises or natural disasters. This can lead to popular anger and increasing frustration with government efficacy, the report says.

— Democracy News Alliance

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Luskin Experts Join UC Consortium Aimed at Meeting Californians’ Basic Needs

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UCLA Luskin’s Paavo Monkkonen and Juan Matute have joined the Abundance Policy Research Consortium at the University of California’s Possibility Lab.

They will join a team of experts from across the state who will spend the next year developing an evidence-based policy agenda focused on expanding Californians’ access to essential resources, goods and services.

While the state is home to great economic abundance, far too many struggle with economic insecurity and a lack of access to basic goods and services. The new consortium is part of the Possibility Lab’s Abundance Accelerator, launched in April to leverage research, innovation and collaboration to work toward a “fundamentals-first” policy agenda.

Monkkonen, a professor of urban planning and public policy, will focus on housing.

“This is an exciting opportunity to work with a diverse and knowledgeable group dedicated to improving Californians’ lives,” Monkkonen said. “The state of California has taken a number of important steps on housing, but a lot of work lies ahead.”

Matute, deputy director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, will focus on transportation. The consortium’s other areas of focus are food, water, energy, health care, safety, employment, education, child care, elder care and digital connectivity.

The research developed by Monkkonen, Matute and other consortium members will be used for strategic planning by high-level California state government partners.

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Gilens Book Honored for Its Enduring Influence

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UCLA Luskin’s Martin Gilens has received the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award from the public policy section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The award, given in recognition of scholarly work that has made a lasting impact on the field of public policy over the years, honors Gilens’ “Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy.” The 1999 book, which sheds light on myths and misconceptions about welfare policy, public opinion and the role of the media in both, has been “profoundly influential,” APSA organizers said. They cited the book’s “rigorous analysis and insightful arguments, which have significantly advanced our knowledge of the intersection between public perception, race and policy, shaping both academic discourse and practical policy considerations.” The prize was presented this month at APSA’s annual convention in Philadelphia. Gilens, a professor of public policy, political science and social welfare at UCLA, has published widely on political inequality, mass media, race, gender and welfare politics. He is author of “Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America” and co-author of “Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It.”

 

A Decline in Student Victimization, Even in Areas of Conflict

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A new study measuring changes in campus climate at Israeli elementary schools over a 12-year period found a steady decline in students’ feelings of victimization — including marked improvements for Arab students and those from a lower socioeconomic status, a welcome surprise to researchers. The study set out to assess the prevalence of physical, emotional, social and cyber-based violence among students from different backgrounds, said UCLA Luskin Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor, a co-author of the paper just published in the Journal of School Violence. Fifth- and sixth-graders at both Jewish and Arab school campuses across the country were surveyed between 2008 and 2019, a time when the Israeli education system was making significant investments in violence prevention, including retraining school staff to prioritize the creation of a caring environment. While the study did not establish a direct causal relationship between the investments and the findings, international researchers have linked improvements in school climate to policies and interventions centered on students’ social and emotional well-being. A 2023 study co-authored by Astor found this to be true at California middle and high schools, which saw a steep decline in day-to-day violence from 2001 to 2019. The study in Israel was based on data collected before the outbreak of war in Gaza in 2023, but during a time of ongoing geopolitical conflict and cultural strife. “This study shows what a positive climate in schools, cultural recognition, resources and intentional violence prevention can do to improve the lives of millions of students on a day-to-day level, even in a war-torn place like the Middle East,” Astor said.