Mental health and corrections: towards a working partnership

This paper describes the development of mental health services to the courts and correction facilities in the City of New York. The origins, structure, and functions of the interagency New York City Task Force on Prison Mental Health Services are explained. The Task Force's role in the development, promulgation, and implementation of the Minimum Standards for Mental Health Services in New York City Correctional Facilities are outlined. These standards, enacted by the New York City Board of Correction, are described and discussed.     

Creating a ‘what works’ translational tool for police: a researcher-city government partnership

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a number of translational tools have been developed in policing to make the growing research evidence base more accessible and useful for practitioners and policymakers. Here we focus on the creation of the ‘What works in policing?’ website, which resulted from a collaboration between a government agency in Seattle, Washington and researchers at George Mason University and Arizona State University. We describe the site in detail and its similarities to and differences from existing translation tools, as well as the rationale for a local government’s involvement in translational work. In particular we focus on efforts to link the site with the work of the Seattle Police Department through a case study approach. We review indicators that suggest the site is being well-utilized and close with thoughts on the future of translational work in policing and efforts to ensure translational tools are useful to practitioners.     

Jury on stage: a common law play

Legal processes have a theatrical component to them. They offer an audience (the spectators) and actors (the legal parties, lawyers, as well as the jury and judge) who perform a play on the stage of the courtroom. In this paper we focus on the role of the jury, which appears to be simultaneously audience and actor. As audience, it assures that the power of the judge is limited. As actor, the jury is able to play its role in such a way as to incorporate social attitudes into the verdict. Exploring this theatrical component may shed new light on the debate whether juries are a “good” way of finding legal settlements. Further, it could indicate how legal processes are perceived by the public. As our line of argument builds on Adam Smith’s moral and legal philosophy, the analysis may also contribute to the understanding of one of the building blocks of Smith’s philosophy, namely the impartial spectator.     

The growing importance of Ukraine as a transit country for heroin trafficking: U.S.-Ukraine research partnership

This research was funded by the U.S.-Ukraine Research Partnership project, which began in November of 1999 when an agreement was signed between the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Ukrainian Academy of Law Sciences (UALS). This partnership program was an integral part of the Gore-Kuchma Binational Commission, established in September 1996 to solidify the close ties between Ukraine and the United States. The increasingly global character of crime has created a mutual incentive for cooperation between the United States and Ukraine. In June of 1999, requests for proposals in the United States and Ukraine were concurrently announced by both NIJ and UALS. The proposals were to address the following crime areas: organized crime, corruption, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and economic crimes. The proposals were competitively reviewed by an expert working-group made up of both U.S. and Ukrainian representatives. The result was five U.S.-Ukrainian research teams, composed of twenty-two Ukrainian and five U.S. members. The size of each individual U.S.-Ukrainian team ranged from ten to three researchers. These teams met for the first time in November 1999 at a “kick-off” conference in Kiev, Ukraine. The greatest accomplishment of the conference was that researchers began the process of overcoming communication barriers and divergent methodological approaches to formulate a joint plan for their research. For this research, Layne worked with two Ukrainian research partners to jointly develop this paper. Khruppa was responsible for collecting Ukrainian data for the report and Muzyka supplied legislative expertise and background. Layne traveled to Ukraine (Kyiv and Kharkiv) four times over the course of two years and her Ukrainian counterparts came to the United States once. It was a challenge to collaborate across distance and language barriers, but a warm, collegial relationship developed and was maintained despite these obstacles.     

The longmont community justice partnership: Restorative justice practice as collaboration

This paper documents the application of restorative justice principles using a model which was developed by the Longmont Community Justice Partnership (LCJP) and is being used in other communities in Colorado. It explains the structure and operation of this model as well as addresses some of the challenging issues program participants faced during the startup, development, and maintenance phases of the program. Among other issues we consider community support, team development, evaluation, restorative language, funding, and the limitations of the model. Finally we discuss the way in which this program has potential for other communities which seek to implement restorative justice practices.     

Leading the health policy orchestra: the need for an intergovernmental partnership

The past decade provides a useful window through which to examine whether states are likely to provide health care leadership. During this era, states were given increased discretion to set health care policy, they had the financial resources to encourage innovation, and their administrative capacity was at its strongest ever. Despite the favorable conditions, however, states were reluctant to spend their own funds on programs for the uninsured, their efforts to make private insurance more affordable for the small business community were disappointing, and their efforts to regulate the managed care industry fell short. At the same time, though, the most promising innovations over the past decade were in programs financed primarily with federal dollars, administered primarily by state officials, and advanced by an intergovernmental partnership in which administrators at different levels of government prod each other to try and do more. This sort of intergovernmental partnership provides the best model for innovative health policy leadership.     

The urban anti-crime patrol phenomenon: A case study of a student effort

During the past decade Americans have engraved property, joined block watch organizations, and organized anti-crime patrols, often because they believed crime was out of control. In general such efforts tend to be short-lived, progressing from initial enthusiasm to a relatively brief period of operation and eventual death. What are the key factors in this natural history of citizen anti-crime actions? Drawing on interviews of patrol leaders and members, participant observation, an analysis of campus newspaper stories, and responses to open-ended survey items, this paper tries to answer this question by examining a student patrol at Drake University. The research reveals that the campus crime “problem” was largely the product of student newspaper emphasis, the patrol was able to function because the university provided the necessary resources, and participants joined for a variety of motives. The patrol eventually declined, however, because the student newspaper no longer emphasized the crime problem; student participation decreased because of the monotony associated with surveillance and the existence of organizational problems, especially the lack of strong leadership.     

Industry as a mechanism for urban technology transfer

This paper is based upon research done under the National Science Foundation sponsored study The Role of Industry in Urban Technology Transfer: A Comparative Profile. The purpose of the research is to investigate specific industries that serve the urban market of local governments. The research aim is to develop an understanding for the barriers and incentives that affect industry's ability and desire to produce and market technological innovations for cities.     

Diversity policies meet the competency movement: towards reshaping law firm partnership models for the future

Globalisation, commercialisation, and economic pressures following the global financial crisis have produced a ‘new normal’ for the practice of law in private firms, requiring reassessment of the range of skills necessary for success. Scholarship in the ‘competencies movement’ has responded to this need for skills reassessment. At the same time, research and scholarship focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in law firms has blossomed. However, little attention has been paid to analysing synergies in the competencies and diversity movements, and there have been calls for more collaborative research between academics, firms and professional bodies in response to issues of diversity and inclusion. This article presents a collaborative research project between law firms, the Women Lawyers Association of New South Wales, and the Legal Intersections Research Centre at the University of Wollongong on current best practices in diversity in large Australian law firms. It argues that such collaborative projects, with a focus on synergies between the competencies and diversities movements, provide the greatest potential for reshaping law firm practice and partnership models to respond to issues of advancement, attrition, and lack of re-engagement, particularly by women in law firms.     

The implementation of California's tobacco tax initiative: the critical role of outsider strategies in protecting Proposition 99

Enacted in 1988, Proposition 99 increased California's cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack and allocated a minimum of 20 percent of the revenues to fund antitobacco education. Tobacco control advocates had used an initiative to secure the tax increase because the legislature had not increased the tobacco tax since 1967, even though public opinion polls showed that the tax was politically popular. Advocates, however, then had to return to the legislature to negotiate implementing legislation. Between 1989 and 1996, the legislature underfunded the Proposition 99 Health Education programs by over $273 million. This underfunding occurred because the public health groups failed to exercise power, ideas, and the leadership needed for legislative success. Even successful litigation against the governor failed to restore the programs. In July 1996, however, the underexpenditures stopped because the issue of the diversions received significant media and public attention. The tobacco control groups used a variety of outsider strategies, including paid advertising, free media, and a grassroots campaign, and the leadership of these groups, in addition to the lobbyists, got involved in the campaign to secure implementing legislation. Without ongoing public pressure, it is likely that policy changes created by tobacco tax initiatives will dissipate into something acceptable to powerful insider interests, such as the tobacco and medical service provider industries.