PRESS RELEASE: New report seeks to ease spike in Columbus crime, restore community safety

by Corey Burres | Oct 24, 2023

PRESS RELEASE: New report seeks to ease spike in Columbus crime, restore community safety

Violent crime is on the rise in Columbus, Georgia. What are the reasons, and can anything be done to stop it? Those questions are the topic of a new report from the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) focused on Columbus’ recent spike in crime and ideas on how to mitigate it.

Titled “Reducing Crime in Columbus: Safer Communities Through Policy,” the report is authored by Josh Crawford, Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at GCO.

Access the Report:

Reducing Crime in Columbus

Our Columbus Crime Report details six practical solutions that city leaders can use to reduce crime in Columbus and restore safety, hope, and opportunity to the broader community.

Learn More About This Report

Reducing Crime in Columbus: Safer Communities through Policy

“Since 2017, crime has been on the rise in Columbus. And it’s only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Crawford said. “It’s imperative that city and community leaders come together to solve this problem. Our new report provides the groundwork.”

Quick Facts on Crime in Columbus

Columbus saw one of its most violent years with 59 murders in 2021.
The city’s population is on the decline, correlated to the rise in violent crime.
A decrease in Columbus police has gone hand-in-hand with the crime spike.
Attempted murder convicts in Columbus who were released in 2022 only served 35% of their time.

“The human cost of this violence is dramatic, cutting lives short and leaving behind grieving families and fractured communities,” Crawford said. “The toll of violent crime goes beyond the physical cost to those directly impacted and includes financial costs to victims and taxpayers, the loss of productive years, and decreased economic mobility and growth in communities afflicted with high rates of crime.”

Six Policy Recommendations to Reduce Crime

Fixing the Columbus crime problem is about focusing on the most violent offenders. By addressing gang-related violence and solving more homicide investigations, Columbus can restore community safety, improve trust with city officials and law enforcement, and expand upward mobility and opportunity for residents.

Crawford suggests:

Addressing disrepair in Columbus’ communities by expanding cleanup efforts, tearing down or renovating abandoned buildings, and installing adequate street lighting.
Building trust between community residents and law enforcement and social services, particularly through protecting the rights of victims.
Removing egregious offenders from communities by implementing gang-enhancement provisions such as SB44 (2023) that keep these individuals incarcerated.
Improving and requiring pre-entry cognitive behavioral therapy services for all juvenile offenders, no matter how non-violent their offenses.
Reevaluating reentry programs through an external third party, examining the impact on revocation, rearrest, and reconviction.

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About The Author

Josh Crawford

Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives

Josh Crawford is a native of Massachusetts. He went to Penn State for his undergraduate degree and then finished law school in Boston. After a brief stint in Sacramento, California, working in the county district attorney’s office, Josh moved to Kentucky to help start the Pegasus Institute, a nonpartisan organization designed to promote opportunity. In addition to serving as executive director of the organization, Josh had a special focus on criminal justice policy.

“By focusing on public safety and order, we can restore hope and opportunity to rural communities.”

Georgia announces new program to attend colleges

by Kimberly Sawatka | Oct 6, 2023

Georgia news, in the news, current events, Georgia happenings, GA happenings

Georgia announces new program to attend colleges

A new Georgia program to grant academic eligibility for direct admission to Georgia’s 22 technical colleges is a “win for Georgia,” a leading business group said.

On Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and state leaders announced GEORGIA MATCH, which they touted as “one of the largest state-run direct admissions initiatives.”

Under the program, Georgia’s more than 120,000 high school seniors will receive a letter detailing the state institutions holding a spot for them for the fall 2024 semester and how they can claim a spot. In November, participating institutions will waive application fees for students who apply through GEORGIA MATCH.

“This new initiative will help students graduating from high school to better understand their post high school options,” Buzz Brockway, vice president of policy for the Georgia Center for Opportunity, said in a statement to The Center Square.

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The Ripple Effect of Local Philanthropy

by Kimberly Sawatka | Oct 5, 2023

The Ripple Effect of Local Philanthropy

Reflecting on her two-month tenure, Ms. T remarked, “Things are going great. I’m beyond pleased with the job. It’s hard to believe it’s approaching two months; it feels longer.”

The center emphasizes that continuous backing, via one-time or recurring donations, provides stability.

Beyond finanial aid, it encourages mentorship and volunteering, allowing hte community to aid peers in their ascent from poverty. To collaborate with the Georgia Center for Opportunity, reach out to Info@foropportunity.org or dial 770-242-0001.

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*See pages 54-55

Benefits Cliffs in the Aggregate: Consequences for Welfare and Business Cycles

by Kimberly Sawatka | Oct 3, 2023

Benefits Cliffs in the Aggregate: Consequences for Welfare and Business Cycles

Benefits cliffs – sudden decreases in public benefits that may occur with a small increase in earnings – may inhibit upward mobility. I study the effect of a multitude of cliffs across the universe of benefit programs in nine southern US states on intensive-margin labor supply and the implications for aggregate fluctuations. Using the American Community Survey and proprietary data from the Georgia Center for Opportunity covering nine southern US states, I leverage geographic and household-structure variation to find that, in aggregate, individuals in households approaching benefits cliffs reduce their working hours by about 40 hours annually. I then build a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model that matches this result, where a key assumption of inframarginal households allows me to accurately capture the benefits cliffs of the US tax and transfer system. I find the aggregate implications of benefits cliffs on output are small, but welfare gains from their elimination are large and concentrated. In a counterfactual model that smooths over benefit cliffs, output increases about 1.6% more on impact in response to an aggregate productivity shock compared to the baseline model with benefits cliffs, but the welfare gain to formally-constrained households doubles.

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Opinion: New Missouri law will help residents escape safety-net cliffs

by Eric Cochling | Sep 26, 2023

Opinion: New Missouri law will help residents escape safety-net cliffs

Missouri lawmakers took an important step forward for working-class and impoverished residents this year by enacting Senate Bill 82. This new law will help more Missourians escape from an entrapping safety-net system and experience the dignity and opportunity of work.

On paper, our safety-net programs in Missouri are intended to help people avoid abject poverty and meet their basic needs. These programs should be temporary whenever possible and encourage work and independence, because ultimately what we want for people is stability and mobility. The sad reality, however, is that many of the programs include a hidden time bomb that threatens the very individuals they are intended to help.

For those receiving safety-net benefits — especially SNAP, child care assistance, and Medicaid — there can be a sudden, steep loss of government assistance as a worker’s income increases. This often results in a loss in benefits that far exceeds the additional pay from a raise a worker receives. These unintended consequences of the benefits cliff can be devastating, trapping individuals and families in a perpetual cycle of poverty. It is high time we address this issue and strive for a more sustainable and supportive system.

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Group offers recommendations to address Atlanta’s spike in violent crime

by Kimberly Sawatka | Sep 26, 2023

Group offers recommendations to address Atlanta’s spike in violent crime

A Georgia public policy group has released a report offering suggestions on mitigating Atlanta’s uptick in violent crime.

The Georgia Center for Opportunity suggests the city focus on disrepair by expanding cleanup efforts, addressing abandoned buildings and installing adequate street lighting. It also recommended city officials build trust between residents, law enforcement and social services.

Other recommendations include implementing gang-enhancement provisions, requiring pre-entry cognitive behavioral therapy services for juvenile offenders and using a third party to examine reentry programs.

“The brief and its recommendations are designed to create a base level of what order and public safety should look like across the board,” Josh Crawford, director of criminal justice initiatives at GCO, said in an announcement. “It’s imperative that we have an intentional conversation about the state of crime in Atlanta now, and how we can improve that for the future.”

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