Banks are continuing key banking practices that put consumers at financial risk and potentially expose them to high and unexpected costs for little benefit.

General purpose reloadable prepaid cards are rapidly growing in popularity. This study reveals that the prepaid card is a risky, largely unregulated alternative to the traditional checking account, but may work for some consumers who frequently incur high bank overdraft fees.

Data from four states—Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and Virginia—show that election offices must deal with a huge spike in voter registration applications every four years.  

This report answers major questions about who borrowers are demographically; how people borrow; how much they spend; why they use payday loans; what other options they have; and whether state regulations reduce borrowing or simply drive borrowers online.

In May 2012, Georgia's General Assembly unanimously passed legislation, House Bill 1176, enacting a comprehensive package of sentencing and corrections reforms that will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years while improving public safety.

Various funding streams—federal, state, local, and private—support home visiting programs. Recently, in light of Medicaid's ability to reach so many low-income and at-risk families, interest has been growing in its potential to finance home visiting services for eligible mothers and children.

The length of time served in prison has increased markedly over the last two decades. Prisoners released in 2009 served an average of nine additional months in custody, or 36 percent longer, than offenders released in 1990.

While states slowly recover in the wake of the Great Recession, local governments have been hit with a one-two punch: State aid and property taxes, which together account for more than half of local revenues, are dropping simultaneously for the first time since 1980.

This report looks at long-term unemployment using statistics from the first quarter of 2012.

A report by the Pew Center on the States concludes that 13 states are leading the way in generating much-needed answers about tax incentives’ effectiveness. Twelve states have mixed results. Half the states have not taken the basic steps needed to know whether their incentives are effective. The study highlights a wealth of promising approaches states have taken to help lawmakers find those answers.