Rating the prison boss: Examining supervision among prison health care staff

Health care staff are instrumental in prisons given their roles in aiding security and the growing demand for medical services among prisoners. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to this prison staff subpopulation. This study examined perceptions of supervision among 424 prison health care staff in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Participants felt that prison supervisors were most effective in clarifying expectations and least effective in giving feedback for performance, involving staff in planning, and extending job autonomy. Using hierarchical linear models (HLM), some unique findings emerged. Efficacy in dealing with inmates was the strongest predictor variable: health care staff who felt more positive and effective with inmates had more favorable feelings toward supervision. Staff working in high- and medium-security prisons had more positive feelings toward supervision than those in minimum security, and younger staff had more favorable attitudes toward supervisors than older staff. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

The impact of prison conditions on staff well-being

Prison conditions have been at the center of long-standing debates among corrections scholars. Interestingly, this debate has focused on inmates alone while paying little attention to the potential impact of prison conditions on staff. Addressing this limitation, the study draws on survey data collected from a stratified random sample of prison staff working at all federal prisons in 2007 to examine the impact of prison conditions on staff well-being (substance use, psychological symptomatology, physical duress, and sick leave use). Mixed-level models show that harsh physical conditions correspond to significant problems for staff on all outcomes measured (individual-level impacts). The data also show that prison-level aggregations of harsher conditions correspond to significant deterioration in staff physical and psychological symptomatology above and beyond individual-level effects.     

Opportunity,motivation, and assaults on police: A bivariate arima analysis

Drawing on insights garnered from the routine activity and pluralistic conflict perspectives, the present investigation examines the interrelationships between structural sources of opportunities and motivations to engage in potentially conflictive interactions with police personnel and assaults against the police. Overall, the longitudinal analyses of the reciprocal relationship between total and disaggregated measures of arrest and non-lethal assaults within Oklahoma City, Oklahoma tend to produce weak and insignificant results. The implications of these findings for opportunity theories of crime are discussed.     

A comparative and comprehensive analysis of nonsexual assaults

The aim of this study was to make a comparative and comprehensive analysis of nonsexual assaults in 488 medico-legal cases presented to Forensic Medicine Outpatient Clinic of Celal Bayar University Hospital (Manisa, Turkey), between 2005 and 2009. There were blunt force injuries (BFI) in 262 cases (53.7%), sharp force injuries (SFI) in 163 cases (33.4%), and firearm-related wounds (FRW) in 63 cases (12.9%). The results showed significant differences in the monthly distribution of assaults, localization of injuries, and severity of injuries depending on the types of assaults. Most of the injuries were localized to the face, head, and neck in BFI and SFI and to the lower limbs in FRW. The results of this study will help researchers to investigate characteristics of victims, offenders, and injuries and types of assaults because of nonsexual violence.     

Determining the correlates of police victimization: An analysis of organizational level factors on injurious assaults

The current study attempted to expand the understanding victimization of police by examining the impact of a variety of factors related to community and aggressive policing styles on injurious assaults rates across 267 large municipal police departments. Regression analyses indicated that policing styles related to community meetings are associated with low levels of assault rates. Second, policing styles related to aggressive enforcement of drug laws has an aggravating effect on police victimization. Finally, departments that had high police-to-citizen population ratios also had lesser rates of injurious assaults.     

Assaults on prison officers: Interactional themes

Little is known of the circumstances surrounding prison inmates' assaults on correctional officers. To provide a foundation for understanding the meaning of these events, this exploratory study analyzes a sample of 694 official reports of assaultive incidents in a large state prison system over a one-year period. Results of a content analysis suggest that assaultive events occur in relation to a number of interactional themes—unexplained, officer's command, protest, search, inmates' fighting, movement, contraband, restraint, discipline, emotional instability, sexual, intoxication, and medical. The study's findings affirm that prisoners and officers must cooperate in order to negotiate each day with a minimum of disruption. When either party violates salient norms, mutually beneficial interaction patterns may break down and violent interactions may result. Officially reported assaults on staff members may be understood most clearly by considering the authority of officers, the autonomy of prisoners, and processes of social control enacted by prisoners and officers alike.     

A comparative exploration of prison discipline

The maintenance of a sufficient level of discipline in correctional institutions, without abandoning the due process principle, is an important organizational problem that warrants theoretical and empirical research. In this study, the formal disciplinary procedures of the Ramle prison in Israel were explored, described, and compared with those of the Rhode Island State Prison. Generally, it was found that the disciplinary process in Ramle was more flexible and relaxed than the similar process in Rhode Island. The possible advantages and disadvantages of the two systems are compared and reviewed.     

Serious and Violent Juvenile Crime: A Comprehensive Strategy

Abstract OJJDP is actively involved in the Department of Justice's “Pulling America's Communities Together” (PACT) program. Developed at the direction of Attorney General Janet Reno, this initiative is designed to provide training, technical assistance and program development resources to participating jurisdictions address violence in their communities. Four jurisdictions have been selected to date: Denver, Omaha, Atlanta, and the District of Columbia. In addition to making its wide range of training and technical assistance resources available to these jurisdictions, OJJDP is helping the sites assess their juvenile justice systems and develop plans to implement the Comprehensive Strategy. To help jurisdictions begin assessing their systems and existing youth violence problems, OJJDP is preparing a juvenile violence fact book, called “The State of Juvenile Justice.” In addition to presenting statistical data on the nature and scope of the problem across America, the fact book will encapsule program and policy positions of major juvenile justice professional associations regarding youth violence. Such knowledge will assist local jurisdictions in developing their own positions, strategies and programs. In addition to NCJFCJ, other groups such as the American Probation and Parole Association, the National Juvenile Detention Association, the American Correctional Association, and the Coalition of Juvenile Justice State Advisory Groups have been invited to participate in development of The State of Juvenile Justice document.     

“垂直领导”:法院体制改革的重大误区

本文认为 ,当前法院体制改革中 ,主张将人、财、物权划归最高人民法院统管 ,即在法院系统内部实行“垂直领导”的观点是值得商榷的。并从制度层面、理论观念和传统意识的角度 ,对这种观点的问题和形成原因进行了深入分析和论证     

Patterns of physical and sexual abuse for men and women in dating relationships: A descriptive analysis

A random sample of students at a large Midwestern University was selected in order to examine whether and how physical and sexual abuse were related to each other for men and women, whether abuse in one relationship was independent of abuse in other relationships, and how victims responded to abusive incidents. The results revealed several important patterns. When comparing the frequency of physical and sexual abuse for men and women, it was found that sexual abuse was more common than physical abuse, but only for women. Additionally, women experienced more sexual abuse than men. While men and women did not experience physical abuse in other relationships at more than chance levels, women who sustained sexual abuse in one relationship were more likely to sustain sexual abuse in other relationships. Furthermore, while sustaining physical and sexual abuse were not associated with one another for men, there was a weak association for women. Finally, victims of abuse were more likely to tell their friends they had been abused than report it to criminal justice authorities.Paper presented at the 1987 American Society of Criminology Meetings.     

Bedroom rape: sequences of sexual behavior in stranger assaults

This article examines the sequential, temporal, and interactional aspects of sexual assaults using sequential analysis. Fourteen statements taken from victims of bedroom-based assaults were analyzed to provide a comprehensive account of the behavioral patterns of individuals in sexually charged conflict situations. The cases were found to vary in the sexual severity of assault, distinguishing a variety of motivations and behavioral repertoires of offender and victim. Two quite distinct styles of offense were identified: multiple and single, which may have very different implications for research into rapist taxonomies and rape prevention strategies.     

An economic analysis of the in-prison therapeutic community model on prison management costs

This study estimated the impact of an in-prison, therapeutic community (TC) substance abuse treatment program on management costs in a California prison. A deconstruction method was developed to estimate the opportunity cost of staff time and other resources involved in various prison administrative tasks. Compared to “non-treatment” yards within the facility, the TC environment generated lower administrative costs for disciplinary actions, inmate grievances, and major disruptive incidents resulting in lockdowns. These findings suggest that, in addition to their intended rehabilitative outcomes, prison-based TCs may foster institutional environments that help to control prison management costs.     

The effectiveness of prison for reducing drug offender recidivism: a regression discontinuity analysis

Objectives

An enduring legacy of the 1980s “war on drugs” is the increased use of imprisonment for drug offenders. Advocates anticipated, in part, that prison is more effective than community sanctions in reducing recidivism. Despite the contribution of drug offender incarceration to prison growth nationally, and debates about whether this approach should be curtailed, only limited rigorous research exists that evaluates the effect of imprisonment on drug offender recidivism. To address this gap, this paper uses sentencing and recidivism data from a cohort of individuals convicted of felony drug offenses in Florida to examine the effect of imprisonment—as compared to community sanctions—on recidivism.

Methods

Regression discontinuity analyses are used. These minimize potential selection bias by exogenously assigning cases to conditions based on a rating variable and a cut-off score.

Results

Results indicate that prison has no effect on drug offenders’ rates of reconviction. This finding holds across a range of offender subgroups (racial and ethnic, gender, age, and prior criminal justice system involvement).

Conclusions

Imprisoning individuals convicted of marginally serious drug offenses—that is, those close to a cut-off score for being sent to prison—did not reduce subsequent offending. This finding suggests that curtailing the use of imprisonment for such individuals will not appreciably affect future criminal activity and may have the benefit of reducing correctional system costs.

     

监企分开后监狱生产定位的思考

一、我国监狱生产的历史功绩 监狱组织罪犯参加劳动,是当代大多数国家通行的做法。通过劳动改造罪犯成为守法公民,是我国监狱工作的特色之一。我国监狱把劳动作为改造罪犯的一种基本手段,监狱生产作为组织罪犯参加劳动的载体曾经为新中国监狱的发展作出特殊的贡献。 (一)监狱生产为监狱工作的发展奠定了基础: 新中国诞生之初,在经济上所继承的是一个十分落后的烂摊子。“1949年在工农业总产值中,现代工业产值只占17％,根据联合国亚洲及太平洋社会委员会统计,1949年中     

Early detection and early intervention in prison: improving outcomes and reducing prison returns

Our aim was to investigate whether early detection was feasible in prison and whether it could improve mental health outcomes in young prisoners. A secondary aim was to explore whether it can reduce returns to prison. Between 2011 and 2014, a total of 2115 young prisoners were screened, 94 (4.4%) met criteria for ultra-high risk for psychosis and were offered an intervention, 52 actually received it. Return to prison data were sought on the 52 participants, receiving a formal intervention. Of the 52 prisoners who received an intervention, 30.8% returned to custody compared to national average reconviction rates of between 45.4 and 66.5%. Our results suggest that early detection is a feasible option in a prison setting, improving mental health outcomes and reducing returns to prison. Mental health outcomes were recorded for a sub-sample of those receiving the intervention. The results indicated statistically significant improvements on measures of depression, anxiety and psychological distress.