As the virus continues to spread, West Virginia is feeling the brunt of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. Unemployment, hunger, and housing insecurity levels have spiked, resulting in hardship for thousands of families. What's more, the state is on the brink of damaging layoffs and cuts to critical public services at the time they…
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A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that 435 lives were saved since West Virginia expanded Medicaid in 2014. The study compares death rates of the near-elderly – those between the ages of 55 and 64 – in states that have and have not expanded Medicaid and finds that in…
Over the last 30 years, the number of West Virginians incarcerated has grown nearly five-fold despite a decline in the state’s population over this time. This steep rise is not due to rising crime rates in West Virginia, but the policy choices made by lawmakers to use imprisonment as a response to crime. Download PDF.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps people who work but struggle to get by on low wages, while also reducing poverty, increasing tax fairness, and boosting local economies across the state. Learn more.
While the rest of the country is experiencing sharp declines in youth confined to correctional and residential facilities, West Virginia confines a higher share of its youth than almost any state in the nation. View PDF here.
Many states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical or recreational use, and several states have similar measures on their ballots in November 2016 election. Tara Holmes presented her findings at the July 2016 Lunch and Learn at the WV Covenant House on what legalizing marijuana could mean for West Virginia's budget, the corrections system…
African Americans in West Virginia have a shorter life expectancy than whites, earn less money for doing the same work and are almost twice as likely to live in poverty with their children.