The Correctional Experiences of Youth in Adult and Juvenile Prisons

This article analyzes data from interviews with inmates to examine the correctional experiences of young men incarcerated through criminal (adult) courts in a large Northeastern state. The sample (N = 95) includes respondents from five correctional institutions; some of these inmates have been sentenced to adult department of corrections facilities, and some to juvenile facilities operated by the state's children's services bureau. Relative to the adult facilities, the juvenile facilities are smaller, have much lower inmate‐to‐staff ratios, and they place greater emphasis (in their official guidelines) on treatment, counseling, education, and mentoring of inmates. As a result, one might expect juvenile‐facility inmates to report a relatively more supportive, mentoring‐focused style of staff–inmate interactions than adult‐facility inmates. Yet surprisingly, inmates in adult facilities report better access to education and treatment/counseling services offered in their facilities.     

关注监狱警察心理健康

心理学研究表明,监狱警察仅在任职头3年内耳闻目睹的丑恶面,比普通人一生中见到和感受到的还要多几倍,“高负荷、高强度、高风险”以及个体认知、社会支持和生物免疫三大中介系统的薄弱无力,使监狱警察成为一个最易出现心理问题的群体。一、心理健康问题敲响警钟有关监狱警察心     

Court Orders and County Correctional Expenditures: Power of the Purse?*

Despite much speculation that court orders against correctional facilities have adversely impacted government finances, little empirical investigation has been conducted. Counties, already experiencing severe fiscal crisis, may increasingly allocate more of their budget toward local jails to comply with court-ordered improvements. This hypothesis was tested by examining time series data, case histories, and interviews with government, corrections, and justice officials in three counties. In addition, cross-sectional data from two constructed samples of matched counties compared expenditures in counties under and not under court order. Results suggested that judges were sometimes persistent in seeking reform, even ordering direct expenditures on jails. However, statistical investigation revealed that the effects of judicial intervention were relatively strong in some cases, but weak in others. The effects of court orders on correctional policy are heterogeneous, and the judicial “power of the purse” is limited by various legal and pragmatic constraints.     

Correction to: Coronial Inquests,Indigenous Suicide and the Colonial Narrative

Critical Criminology -     

关于劳动教养向违法行为矫治制度过渡的实践与思考

劳动教养作为具有中国特色的一项法律制度,已经走过了近50年的风雨历程,成功地教育挽救了大批违法和轻微犯罪人员,为维护国家政治稳定和社会安定发挥了重要作用。但是随着我国法制的日趋完备和依法治国,建设社会主义法治国家进程的整体推进,劳动教养制度深层次的矛盾和问题已日渐凸显,严重束缚了劳动教养制度的规范化发展。作为劳教工作的实践者,面对新形势、新任务,理应站在建设社会主义法治国家的高度,按照中央司法体制改革和司法部关于劳教办特色,推进管理工作改革的总体部署,坚持与时俱进的精神,探索符合劳教自身发展规律,完善和创新执…     

影响环境资源法实施的障碍研究

“十五规划”期间的环境资源状况说明,我国的环境资源法没有得到有效实施。当前环境法律法规实施不力的深层原因,在于开展环境资源保护工作在短期内既不符合地方政府的经济利益,也不符合地方政府的政治利益,还在于立法工作中的部门利益问题严重影响国家层面环境资源立法的质量。为了有效实施环境资源法,应当建立有利于环境资源法全面实施的机制,加强民主立法和科学立法,并强化环境资源法律和有关法律的执法、司法和监督。     

Conservative Sanctioning and Correctional Innovations in the United States: An Examination of Recent Trends

Since the late 1960s sanctioning and correctional policies and practices in the Unites States have increasingly turned punitive for many types of crimes and offenders. This paper examines three of the most prominent policy shifts in sanctioning and correctional policies in the last three decades, and brings together evidence of their broad impacts on incarceration, recidivism rates, specific segments of the offender population, and the court system.     

Suicide and the war in Croatia

Analyzing data from the Institute of Forensic Medicine (IFM) in Rijeka, a total of 853 suicides were recorded in a 15 years period (1986–2000). Quantitative and qualitative features of suicides were analyzed in three intervals: pre-wartime, wartime and post-wartime. In the wartime period (1991–1995), the suicide rate increased by 20.9% in comparison with the pre-war period. In the post-wartime period, the suicide rate dropped by 26.2% in comparison with the war period. The results show a significant increase in suicide rates in the wartime. During the wartime period, a large number of suicide victims under the age of forty increased—45.3% in comparison with the pre-war period and 56.6% in comparison with the post-war period. The use of firearms as a means of committing suicide quadrupled during the war in comparison with the pre-war period. The level of alcohol intoxication of perpetrators at the moment of suicide significantly increased in the wartime period. War had a direct impact on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of suicides in Croatia.     

Overcoming the challenges posted by technology to traditional copyright law: from Betamax to Grokster

Legal context: Dual use technology, or technology which can be used for bothinfringing and non-infringing uses, raises interesting issuesin the area of copyright law. This note analyses inter aliathe two US Supreme Court decisions on dual use technology, separatedby a gap of over 20 years—Sony v Universal Studios (1984)and MGM v Grokster (2005). Key points: Sony lays down the famous ‘Betamax’ defence—ifthe technology is ‘capable of substantial non-infringinguses’, then it cannot be challenged as infringing. Thistest had stood the test of time, and it is only recently inGrokster that there arose an occasion to reconsider its application.The Court in Grokster, borrowing from the jurisprudence developedin Patent law, recognized a novel test of liability—basedon the active ‘inducement’ to infringe. The flawin Grokster is that despite its attempt to develop new standardsfor a digital age, the ruling leaves areas of uncertainty. Practical significance: Dual use technology has become ubiquitous in this age—fromthe iPod to YouTube to P2P software, all are capable of beingused in lawful as well as unlawful ways. Legal pronouncementshave the potential to impact not just the development of law,but also innovation in technology. Some believe that the ‘brightline’ of Sony has been muddled thereby threatening technologicalinnovation. Others, me included, believe that Sony is inapplicablein the face of new technology, and hail the decision in Groksteras a positive step forward in what it actually decides. However,in what it does not decide, Grokster still represents a lostopportunity by the Court to clear up the muddled waters.