Brand value can be a critical part of any company’s intangible assets. These kind of non-physical assets, such as patents and brand names, are having an increasing influence on a company’s overall value. A 2020 analysis found that intangibles made up 90% of the S&P 500’s market value, an increase of 22 percentage points since 1995. This graphic shows the world’s 100 most valuable brands in 2023 based on an annual ranking from Brand Finance, illustrating the role brand equity plays in a company’s market position.

This study demonstrates that chronic medical and mental health conditions are prevalent among pregnant people in US prisons and jails. However, significant variability in the reported number of cases of these conditions from state to state and between facility types implies a lack of or inadequate screening practices. These data indicate the need for comprehensive screening and appropriate care for the complex needs of pregnant incarcerated people.
 

The majority of states across the U.S. lack legislation that address SUD screening and treatment among incarcerated perinatal populations. Given the known limited access to SUD treatment for perinatal populations in custody, increasing legislative statutes could increase access to essential care.
 

This resource guide includes five sections: First, it provides a short summary of minimum national standards that correctional facilities should meet as one important step for addressing the health needs of pregnant inmates. Second, it offers a short summary of the federal courts’ treatment of the use of restraints on pregnant inmates. Third, it provides an overview of the ways that federal agencies meet or fail to meet national standards. Fourth, it offers a general overview of the ways that the state policies located meet or fail to meet those national standards. Finally, it provides a state-by-state directory to help you directly retrieve online, or request by phone or mail, individual state department of corrections' policies addressing pregnancy-related care, including abortion. 
 

Women of reproductive age may experience pregnancy and mothering in a correctional environment designed for men. Rates of incarceration for women in the United States are high by international standards, and they continue to rise. Mothers were often single mothers prior to incarceration, and they are often separated from their children for the first time upon entering prison. Pregnancy, delivery, lactation, and parenting each require special consideration. Outcomes of pregnancy in prison are better overall than for similarly disadvantaged women in the community. Breastfeeding, despite being recommended by medical groups, is problematic for most who are awaiting forced separation from their infant, due to a lack of mother-baby units in most U.S. states. Mother-baby units have crucial goals, including improved family relations and decreased recidivism. They should not discriminate against mothers with treated perinatal mental illness. Many barriers for visitation of incarcerated mothers exist, including that, because there are fewer women's prisons, there are greater distances between mothers and children. This article reviews data about pregnancy and motherhood in corrections, and it discusses the international state of mother-baby units, with implications for U.S. corrections.
 

Women of reproductive age may experience pregnancy and mothering in a correctional environment designed for men. Rates of incarceration for women in the United States are high by international standards, and they continue to rise. Mothers were often single mothers prior to incarceration, and they are often separated from their children for the first time upon entering prison. Pregnancy, delivery, lactation, and parenting each require special consideration. Outcomes of pregnancy in prison are better overall than for similarly disadvantaged women in the community. Breastfeeding, despite being recommended by medical groups, is problematic for most who are awaiting forced separation from their infant, due to a lack of mother-baby units in most U.S. states. Mother-baby units have crucial goals, including improved family relations and decreased recidivism. They should not discriminate against mothers with treated perinatal mental illness. Many barriers for visitation of incarcerated mothers exist, including that, because there are fewer women's prisons, there are greater distances between mothers and children. This article reviews data about pregnancy and motherhood in corrections, and it discusses the international state of mother-baby units, with implications for U.S. corrections.
 

This report describes the results of a BJS study that assessed the feasibility of collecting data on maternal health and pregnancy outcomes from prisons and jails. It examined the availability and quality of data, the respondent burden, and the challenges of collecting data on the health and health care of pregnant women in custody at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels. BJS will use the findings of this study to help determine the best strategies for implementing national data collections in correctional settings. The study was undertaken in response to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Report 116-455.
 

This study makes three primary contributions to a fuller understanding of the contemporary landscape of incarceration in the United States. First, we assess the scope of decarceration.   Second, our life table analysis demonstrates marked declines in the lifetime risks of incarceration. Third, decarceration has shifted the institutional experiences of young adulthood. Our results suggest that prison has played a smaller role in the institutional landscape for the most recent generation compared with the generation exposed to the peak of mass incarceration.
 

When a person is charged and convicted of a criminal offense in Minnesota, a number of consequences flow from that conviction. The person may experience arrest and booking into the county jail. They may have to post bond or bail to gain pretrial release from jail while the case is pending. And if convicted, they may be sentenced to a period of incarceration in prison or jail or they may be ordered to serve a period of time on probation, during which they will have numerous court-ordered conditions to comply with. Each of these touchpoints with the criminal justice system may incur additional challenges for the person, such as potential loss of employment, and impacts on family members who may have to post bail or oversee care for their children.
 

This report offers some much-needed clarity by piecing together the data about this country’s disparate systems of confinement. It provides a detailed look at where and why people are locked up in the U.S., and dispels some modern myths to focus attention on the real drivers of mass incarceration and overlooked issues that call for reform.
 

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are permeating nearly every domain of human activity, including processes that make decisions about interests central to individual welfare and well-being. How do public perceptions of algorithmic decision-making in these domains compare with perceptions of traditional human decision-making? What kinds of judgments about the shortcomings of algorithmic decision making processes underlie these perceptions? Will individuals be willing to hold algorithms accountable through legal channels for unfair, incorrect, or otherwise problematic decisions? People’s views of AI decision-making will have numerous implications for law and policy—including for jury judgments about algorithmic liability and public support for AI regulation—as well as for individual choices as employees and consumers. This report relies on a survey experiment focused on the use of algorithms to make decisions about employment and unemployment to contribute to our understanding of U.S. public perceptions in these respects. 
 

To explore challenges and opportunities associated with improving employment outcomes among BOP releasees, the National Institute of Justice — supported by the RAND Corporation, in partnership with the University of Denver — hosted a virtual workshop of BOP staff, community-based reentry service providers, researchers, national employers, and other experts. This report summarizes discussion points from the workshop and presents a wide-ranging set of needs identified by workshop participants.
 

The United States is home to the second largest number of prisoners worldwide, only beaten by China. Roughly 1.68 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. in 2023. In China, the estimated prison population totaled to 1.69 million people that year. Other nations had far fewer prisoners. The largest share of the U.S. prisoners in federal correctional facilities were of African-American origin. As of 2020, there were 345,500 black, non-Hispanic prisoners, compared to 327,300 white, non-hispanic inmates. The U.S. states with the largest number of prisoners in 2021 were Texas, California and Florida. Over 160,000 prisoners in state facilities were sentenced for rape or sexual assault, which was the most common cause of imprisonment. Second most common were murder, followed by aggravated or simple assault.
 

The World Prison Brief is an online database providing free access to information on prison systems around the world. It is a unique resource, which supports evidence-based development of prison policy and practice globally.
 

Most people serving a sentence of imprisonment will work while in custody, whether performing domestic or maintenance tasks for the prison, or producing goods or services, usually with the involvement of businesses, charities, or other non-state providers. Under international law, as well as most national legal systems, working prisoners enjoy far fewer legal protections than free workers. They typically receive little or no pay and have little protection against coercion or poor working conditions. At least one-fifth of the world’s prisoners are estimated by the International Labour Organisation to be working in conditions of abusive labour exploitation.
 

The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 report, now in its 11th year, highlights the technologies set to positively impact society within the next three to five years. This comprehensive report goes beyond listing the top 10 technologies and their associated risks and opportunities. It provides a qualitative assessment of each technology's potential impact on people, the planet, prosperity, industry and equity.
 

The Population Data Portal is UNFPA’s ultimate data source and tracker for population and development data. It combines the newest population data on topics like sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, family planning, maternal health, or gender based violence gathered from a multiple sources.
 

The latest  World Economic Outlook reports signs that policy tightening is starting to cool activity despite core inflation proving persistent. Risks are more balanced as banking sector stress has receded, but they remain tilted to the downside.
 

The report covers the extent and consequences of the labour market disruption caused by overlapping economic and geopolitical crises and analyzes global patterns, regional differences and outcomes across groups of workers.
 

The baseline forecast is for growth to fall from 3.4 percent in 2022 to 2.8 percent in 2023, before settling at 3.0 percent in 2024. Advanced economies are expected to see an especially pronounced growth slowdown, from 2.7 percent in 2022 to 1.3 percent in 2023. In a plausible alternative scenario with further financial sector stress, global growth declines to about 2.5 percent in 2023 with advanced economy growth falling below 1 percent. Global headline inflation in the baseline is set to fall from 8.7 percent in 2022 to 7.0 percent in 2023 on the back of lower commodity prices but underlying (core) inflation is likely to decline more slowly. Inflation’s return to target is unlikely before 2025 in most cases.
 

With core inflation still high in many advanced economies, central banks may need to keep monetary policy tighter for longer than is currently priced in markets. In emerging market economies, progress on lowering inflation appears to be more advanced, though there are discrepancies across regions. Yet, optimism about a “soft landing” of the global economy, whereby disinflation continues apace and a recession is avoided, has eased financial conditions since the April 2023 Global Financial Stability Report—stock markets have rallied, credit spreads have remained tight, and emerging market currencies have appreciated. Upside surprises to the inflation outlook would challenge the soft-landing narrative, resulting in a potentially sharp repricing of assets. While acute stress in the global banking system has subsided, a weak tail of banks remains in some countries. Cracks in other sectors may also become apparent and could turn into worrisome fault lines that would again test the resilience of the global financial system in the event of an abrupt tightening of financial conditions. Most notably, the global credit cycle has started to turn as borrowers’ debt repayment capacity diminishes and credit growth slows. Risks to global growth are therefore skewed to the downside, similar to the assessment in April.
 

Financial stability risks have increased rapidly as the resilience of the global financial system has faced a number of tests. Recent turmoil in the banking sector is a powerful reminder of the challenges posed by the interaction between tighter monetary and financial conditions and the buildup in vulnerabilities since the global financial crisis. The emergence of stress in financial markets complicates the task of central banks at a time when inflationary pressures are proving to be more persistent than anticipated. Large emerging markets have so far avoided adverse spillovers, but smaller and riskier economies continue to confront worsening debt sustainability trends.