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Total Environmental Scan

2018 and newer

Ranked: The Top 100 Brands by Value in 2023

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.

A Generational Shift: Race and the Declining Lifetime Risk of Imprisonment

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.
 

Understanding the Landscape of Fines, Restitution, and Fees for Criminal Convictions in Minnesota

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.

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023

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.
 

Assessing and Suing an Algorithm Perceptions of Algorithmic Decision-making

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?

Improving Employment Outcomes for the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Returning Citizens

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.
 

Countries with the largest number of prisoners per 100,000 of the national population, as of January 2023

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.

World Prison Brief

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.
 

Labouring behind bars: Assessing international law on working prisoners.

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.

Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023

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.
 

UNFPA Population Data Portal

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.
 

World Economic Outlook, October 2023: Navigating Global Divergences

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.
 

World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023

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.
 

World Economic Outlook, April 2023: A Rocky Recovery

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 Financial Stability Report, October 2023: Financial and Climate Policies for a High-Interest-Rate Era

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.

Global Financial Stability Report, April 2023: Safeguarding Financial Stability amid High Inflation and Geopolitical Risks

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.

Check out previous Environmental Scans

The National Institute of Corrections publishes this compilation of resources each year as an overview of what research indicates to be the trends in the corrections industry each year.
Accession Number: (2018) 033176, (2019) 033431, (2020) 033563, (2021) 033670, (2022) 033086, (2023) 033087