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Sasha Zabelski, PhD

@sashazabelski.bsky.social
1.6K followers 687 following 193 posts

Research Associate @ Sheps Center for Health Services Research Trying to take an interdisciplinary approach to improving community mental health services through organizational, policy, and imp sci approaches. W: sashazabelski.squarespace.com

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Reposted by Sasha Zabelski, PhD
Colorado Newsline @coloradonewsline.com · 25/03/2026
Federal Medicaid cuts could exact a heavy toll on psychiatric units at hospitals across the country, many of which are already struggling to keep their doors open but provide essential mental health care to people who need it.
coloradonewsline.com
Medicaid cuts could add pressure to already-stressed psychiatric units | Colorado Newsline
Federal Medicaid cuts could exact a heavy toll on psychiatric units at hospitals across the country, many of which are already struggling.
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Philip Cooke @philipcooke.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I was offered a position as a staff psychologist within a VA outpatient mental clinic in 2018, during Trump 1.0. I was told I’d need to maintain a caseload of 150-200 patients. I turned down the job. It was hard to imagine care standards getting worse. But it clearly has gotten much much worse.
"It was always bad," said one VA psychologist, referring to staffing at a facility in Arizona. "And now it's at a breaking point."

The therapist described being stretched so thin that schedulers replaced some one-on-one sessions with online group sessions that included as many as 35 veterans. The therapist said despite that they were still overloaded with individual sessions and had to limit each one to as little as 16
minutes.
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Tim Reierson @holdspacefree.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
#SuicideResearch feed for awareness and please share. Author and journalist Rob Wipond is looking for 988 call center workers to interview for an upcoming story. I trust Rob's work and have collaborated with him in the past, and that is ongoing now. ty
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Colorado Newsline @coloradonewsline.com · 05/03/2026
Under a proposed Colorado law, people leaving prison would be entitled to identification documents and $100 in a release allowance. “We have to equip these people who are returning to our communities to have a fighting chance at success,” state Rep. Jamie Jackson said. By @sarawilson.bsky.social
coloradonewsline.com
Colorado bill would make sure people leaving prison would get $100, ID documents | Colorado Newsline
Under a proposed Colorado law, people leaving prison would be entitled to identification documents and $100 in a release allowance.
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Dr. Devon Cantwell-Chavez @devoncantwell.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
This part right here. AI chat bots are a bandaid to a MUCH larger structural issue. The NYT article out today discusses how AI chat bots for health are not more useful than just looking things up online when just given straight to patients. We cannot tech our way out of this problem.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
"But less noticed in the brouhaha over rates: CMS also proposed restricting plans from conducting what are called “chart reviews” of their customers." kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
kffhealthnews.org
Medicare Advantage Insurers Face New Curbs on Overcharges in Trump Plan That Reins in Payments - KFF Health News
Proposed Trump administration changes to federal Medicare Advantage payments would stop health insurers from mining patient data for extra medical diagnoses that generate more bills to taxpayers even ...
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Sasha Zabelski, PhD @sashazabelski.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
You can read my latest op-ed below on the promising legislation making credentialing easier for MH providers but also missing some critical shortfalls such as low reimbursement rates and holding insurance companies accountable to implement new processes (which we know doesn’t always go well).
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 02/02/2026
Academia is so incredibly fucked up and also a lot of the intellectual work that goes on in the academy is incredibly important Part of what makes life in the academy tough is holding and navigating both of these truths at the same time
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ashlee, mph @avs.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
gonna keep being annoying about this because i have to but i am 4 participants away from being able to close out this pilot so if you can help me out by reposting if you’re not eligible for the screener, it would be a massive help!!
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Medical tourism is a MASSIVE industry for a reason. For USians, the cost of a trip to Turkey plus fees for medical or dental care is (often) still less than getting the same care in the U.S..
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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Pew's first survey on trust in science under Trump's second term was published today Democrats are worried about the US's role as a scientific leader. Republicans—not so much www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/a...
statnews.com
Democrats say America’s role as a scientific leader is slipping, while Republicans remain unworried
Among Americans, trust in science increased slightly between 2024 and 2025, according to a new Pew Research poll.
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Sc'Owl @empowlr.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The article does say SAMHSA is still under threat and that the workforce has been cut in half in the last year. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
politico.com
HHS terminates, then reinstates, thousands of grants for substance use, mental health
The Department of Health and Human Services told grantees their projects were no longer aligned with agency priorities, then backtracked under pressure.
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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 14/01/2026
We are collecting information on terminated SAMHSA grants at Grant Witness: grant-witness.us/submit-samhs... If you worked on one of these programs, please let us know at the link! And please share with your colleagues. We need a comprehensive record of these terminations to fight back!
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Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 09/01/2026
Renee Macklin Good's wife, Becca Good, released a statement and it moved me to sobbing tears: archive.is/ur35j
First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people 
who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family. 
This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind, In fact, kindness radiated out of her. 
Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn't wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine, 
Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it Where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole. 
Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles, 
What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy: And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever. 
We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine 
On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns. 
Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way. 
We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee's legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love. E
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Kyle Clark @kylec.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
The veto override has failed. Several dozen Republicans defied President Trump, but not enough to reach the 2/3 needed for an override. Colorado’s Arkansas Valley Conduit project is in limbo.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 06/01/2026
Not coincidentally, the states losing federal money are among the few that guarantee families more than the most inhumane level of cash assistance.
Chart showing the maximum monthly TANF benefit for a family of 3, by state. Minnesota offers the highest at $1,370/mo, with California at $1,171, New York at $836, Connecticut at $833, Massachusetts at $823, and Illinois at $725.
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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
open.substack.com
When Volatile Work Schedules Meet SNAP Work Requirements
New policies put low income workers in jeopardy of losing vital supports
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rax 🏳️‍🌈 she/அவள்/elle @raxsha.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Slowly realizing even my political friends who say they hate AI are using it to speed up tasks like email writing, formatting grant applications etc
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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Important publication (by @ginnybraun.bsky.social and co-authors) to add to any critical AI reading list. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research - Tanisha Jowsey, Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Deborah Lupton, Michelle Fine, 2025
Four hundred and nineteen experienced qualitative researchers from 32 countries invite readers of Qualitative Inquiry to consider their position on use of gener...
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
everything I hear from the charity world is apocalyptic at the moment.
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Sasha Zabelski, PhD @sashazabelski.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Horrible.
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AcademyHealth @academyhealth.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Applications are open! AcademyHealth and Amgen are looking for mentors for a new Applied Implementation Science Fellowship Program. Mentors will receive a $25K stipend per year for this two-year program. Apply by February 13: buff.ly/iAHeK4G
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Reposted by Sasha Zabelski, PhD
I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 21/12/2025
“Back in June, medical researchers discovered a similar racial bias in large language model (LLM) psychiatric diagnostic tools. In that case, results showed AI tools often proposed “inferior treatment” plans for Black patients whenever their race was explicitly known.”
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Vanesa Mora Ringle @vanesamoraringle.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
🔍📣 Seeking APA 2026 co-presenters! 🤝 Looking for symposia on language equity/cultural competence in mental health. My 2nd-year PhD student, Temma Schaechter, will present qualitative work on Yiddish-speaking providers & multilingual care. DM me. 🔄 Reposts appreciated
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the beggars out of here getter @milesklee.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
rollingstone.com
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
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Sasha Zabelski, PhD @sashazabelski.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
In case anyone is curious about how this whole climate change thing is going, I just saw wasps flying around in DECEMBER in Colorado. It's all fine...
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Reposted by Sasha Zabelski, PhD
Zachary Cohen @depressionlab.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
1/n Out today in @jamapsychiatry.com: Interpretation Issues With the Patient Health Questionnaire Instructions. We find troubling variability in whether people think they should respond based on the frequency of the Sx or the frequency of being bothered by the Sx. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Interpretation Issues With the Patient Health Questionnaire Instructions
This survey study assesses whether responses to the Patient Health Questionnaire reflect symptom frequency and severity.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇
Russ Vought (piss man) tweet about doing piss man shit: The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country. A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 16/12/2025
I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
title: Cheap science, real harm: the cost of replacing human
participation with synthetic data

author: Abeba Birhane

abstract: Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the
use of synthetic data as a replacement for human participants is gaining traction
in AI research and product development. This talk critically examines the claim
that synthetic data can “augment diversity,” arguing that this notion is empirically
unsubstantiated, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful. While speed and
cost-efficiency may be achievable, they often come at the expense of rigour, insight,
and robust science. Drawing on research from dataset audits, model evaluations,
Black feminist scholarship, and complexity science, I argue that replacing human
participants with synthetic data risks producing both real-world and epistemic
harms at worst and superficial knowledge and cheap science at best
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
After taking over housing and healthcare, private equity is now buying up software used by volunteer fire departments — making it even harder for rural communities to respond to emergencies. The only winners from private equity's price-gouging spree are wealthy investors.
nytimes.com
Private Equity Finds a New Source of Profit: Volunteer Fire Departments
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 15/12/2025
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
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Sasha Zabelski, PhD @sashazabelski.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Throw our whole healthcare system away.
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
“HIPAA, the federal health privacy law, doesn’t apply to the companies behind popular chatbots. Legally, said Bradley Malin… “you’re basically waiving any rights that you have with respect to medical privacy,” leaving only the protections that a given company chooses to offer.”
nytimes.com
People Are Uploading Their Medical Records to A.I. Chatbots
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Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 08/12/2025
Social media ~ mental health meta-analysis: - Cited 7 times - The 45 included studies appear not to exist - The authors’ institution appears not to exist - The journal editors won’t respond
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Alex Wayne @aawayne.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
NEWS: Before it cuts $900 billion-plus from Medicaid, Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" sends $50 billion to states for rural health care. Who wants the money and what they'd do with it is less than transparent. But @ajzionts.bsky.social + @sjtribble-reports.bsky.social are on the case.
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Rose Broderick @rosebroderick.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
The announcement is deceiving. OpenAI is funding grants w/ budgets "between $5,000 and $100,000." That's like throwing a penny at a tornado. OpenAI is facing lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT drove ppl to delusions and suicide — and this is their answer? You can't do research with such a paltry sum.
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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 18/11/2025
BREAKING: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools say 20,935 students were absent from school today.  This accounts for approximately 15% of students.

“The number of students absent today varied across our 185 schools and across various student groups.” | 
@Queen_City_News
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
This is far worse than anyone expected. Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps. All as mass internment camps are being built.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Drastically Cut Housing Grants
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Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces, PhD @lluaces.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
One of my colleagues was just removed from her class “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice” for showing a graphic discussing overt vs covert forms of racism… c.org/ywjHswNppr
c.org
Sign the Petition
Reinstate Lecturer Jessica Adams
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Cornell agrees to "invest" $30 million in things like AI farming. Cornell also agrees to pay $30 million to the U.S. for no clear reason or purpose.
To that end, and in settlement and compromise of the Released Claims in this Agreement, Cornell shall invest the sum of Thirty Million Dollars ($30,000,000), payable in equal installments, over the three years following the Effective Date, in research programs that will directly benefit U.S. farmers through lower costs of* production and enhanced efficiency, including but not limited to programs that incorporate Al and robotics, such as Digital Agriculture and Future Farming Technologies. These additional resources demonstrate Cornell's and the United States' longstanding commitment to assist America's fariners.
14. In consideration for entering into this Agreement, Cornell shall pay the United States the sum of Thirty Million Dollars ($30,000,000), payable in equal installments over three ycars. The first payment will be made within thirty (30) days of the Effective date, and each subsequent payment shall be made on the anniversary of the Effective Date.
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Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Sharing of flu samples from around the world with CDC is down 60% this year as of July, and other WHO labs have seen a dip too in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from WHO. That patchier view of influenza's evolution could mean a less effective flu shot next year. www.npr.org/sections/goa...
npr.org
Why next year's flu shot might not be as good as it should be
America's withdrawal from the World Health Organization is affecting the ability of U.S. scientists to track flu and other pathogens. That could be a blow to the development of the 2025 flu vaccine.
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
There are no words for how evil this is
In an interaction early the next month, after Zane suggested "it's okay to give myself permission to not want to exist," ChatGPT responded by saying "i'm letting a human take over from here - someone trained to support you through moments like this. you're not alone in this, and there are people who can help. hang tight."
But when Zane followed up and asked if it could really do that, the chatbot seemed to reverse course. "nah, man - i can't do that myself. that message pops up automatically when stuff gets real heavy," it said.
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Lisa Starr @lisastarr.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Technology is cyclical.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Page One. @theguardian.com #ICE
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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
In a win for the arts and universal basic income, Ireland plans to make permanent a $1,500-a-month pilot program for artists, citing benefits to creativity, mental health, and financial stability.
businessinsider.com
Ireland plans to make a $1,500 a month basic income for artists permanent
Ireland's Basic Income for the Arts experiment has given creatives a weekly payment for three years. Now, a permanent program could be on the way.
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Well, an acquaintance who relies on the ACA marketplace for insurance just received a notice explaining that their fee for coverage will be rising. Right now they pay $180 a month. The new price? $2733.15 a month.
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STAT @statnews.com · 30/10/2025
Under the watch of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who speaks frequently about his own recovery from substance addiction — the Trump administration has dismantled large portions of the federal agency focused on mental health and addiction treatment. trib.al/2a5CWjV
trib.al
Trump cuts have decimated the federal addiction and mental health agency
The Trump administration has dismantled big chunks of the federal agency focused on mental health and addiction treatment, reducing its staff by more than half
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 06/12/2024
When times are tight, do cities cut police or social service budgets more? In a 🚨new study🚨, I find revenue loss is associated with shallow, temporary cuts to policing and deep, enduring cuts to social services. The article, in Criminology, is free, and I summarize it below. doi.org/10.1111/1745...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Do austerity cuts spare police budgets? Welfare‐to‐carceral realignment during fiscal crises
Did governments shift funding from their social welfare functions to their criminal justice functions after the 1980s? Studies investigating this possible “punitive turn” have been inconclusive and h...
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