Grants and subgrants to for-profit organizations--HHS. Final rules

This announces HHS's final decision to make for-profit organizations eligible for grants in all programs in which grants to those organizations are consistent with legislative intent and program purposes. For all such programs which we have identified and which still have regulatory bars to grants to for-profit organizations, this removes the bars. This also (1) makes HHS's Department-wide grants administration regulations, 45 CFR Part 74, apply to grants and subgrants to for-profit organizations and (2) adds to those regulations additional provisions for grants and subgrants to for-profit organizations. These actions reflect a reversal of the long standing HHS policy of not making grants to for-profit organizations even in programs where they are not barred by law. The new policy is intended to increase competition. This is likely to help the affected HHS programs achieve their objectives better, because they will be able to select from among a greater number of proposed projects.     

The development,function and future of home furlough programs

Home furloughs are widely recognized as serving valid correctional aims. This was not always the case: when temporary release programs were first established, prevailing penal philosophy emphasized isolation from the community and institutional efforts to achieve inmate reform. It was not until penologists began to address the offender’s post-release adjustment difficulties that temporary release came to be viewed as a valuable aid to offender rehabilitation. Today, the graduation of release that home furloughs can provide make temporary release programs a routine and valuable aspect of correctional programming. Home furloughs can serve a variety of correctional objectives in addition to their principal function of facilitating inmate readjustment to the community. Temporary respites from confinement may humanize the prison experience and promote therapeutic goals. Home visits may act as incentives for good inmate behavior and may serve broader aims than those addressed by more narrowly focused conjugal visiting programs. Finally, observations of the offender’s performance on furlough may assist parole officials in evaluating an offender’s readiness for release. Although the future of temporary release programs is unclear, it appears that the multitude of functions served by home visits will insure their place in correctional programming. However new influences on correctional managers, such as the reforms proposed in the “justice model for corrections,” will undoubtedly modify the administration of temporary release programs and may well lead to some unanticipated consequences for the correctional community.     

Asking the Right Questions: Utilizing a Judicial Checklist to Track the Educational Success of Youth in Foster Care

Asking about the educational objectives for children in foster care has not been a priority in most juvenile and family courts. Research has shown that compared to the general school population, children in foster care have lower grade point averages, change schools more frequently, earn fewer credits toward graduation, and are more likely to be placed in special education programs. In response, Casey Family Programs, in collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' Permanency Planning for Children Department, developed a Judicial Checklist with key educational questions to be asked from the bench. The Checklist has become a useful tool for juvenile and family court judges when assessing the effectiveness of current educational placements of the children who come before their courts, tracking their performance, and in making a positive future impact on their educational outcomes.     

Overlooked connections: policy development and implementation in state-local relations

Increased public demand for health services, combined with fiscal and operating restraints, has led to the need for programs that will operate efficiently and effectively to achieve their objectives. Establishing such programs requires an understanding of the factors that contribute to their development and implementation. This in turn requires a greater understanding of the policy formulation and policy implementation processes. This paper uses a case study of Michigan's State/Local Cost Sharing Program to explore how policy formulation links to and influences implementation; it considers the interaction between the administrative and political processes and how they are affected by shifting power relations, constituencies, and the environment, and how in turn these affect program leadership and operating policies. The paper develops a model as a framework for monitoring the course of the program through the policy cycle and recommends that the policy process be considered as dynamic, interactive, and evolutionary. The case study approach allows for a greater understanding of the phases of the process, their interaction, and their impact on specific policy outcomes.     

Analyzing regulatory failure: mismatches, less restrictive alternatives, and reform

Professor Breyer presents here a framework for analysis and reform of economic regulation. The framework consists of three basic elements: justifications for regulation, modes of classical regulation and the problems they entail, and "less restrictive alternatives" to regulation, including taxation and disclosure. Using contemporary regulatory programs as examples, Professor Breyer argues that many such programs are ill designed to meet their objectives, and that the problems inherent in such regulatory regimes are severe. Finally, he briefly sketches how one might, as a practical matter, go about achieving reform, citing as an example the recent change in airline regulation.     

ORGANIZATIONAL NORMS AND POLICE DISCRETION.

This essay explores the issues involved in designing public policies. It suggests that those programs not well designed will generate inappropriate expectations for success. This lack of design sophistication may not lead to well-conceived methods for achieving stated objectives. Taking the Low Enforcement Assistance Administration's Community Anti-Crime Program as an example, the paper analyzes the implicit sociological theory which guided the development of this new and important program. The essay concludes by highlighting some of the important contributions the Community Anti-Crime Program can make in the criminal justice policy arena despite its conceptual shortcomings. While design problems may hinder the implementation of programs, they do not necessarily have to cripple them.     

DESIGN PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT

This essay explores the issues involved in designing public policies. It suggests that those programs not well designed will generate inappropriate expectations for success. This lack of design sophistication may not lead well-conceived methods .for achieving stated objectives. Taking the Low Enforcement Assistance Administration's Cornmunit. Anti-Crime Program as an example, the paper analyzes the implicit sociological theory which guided the development of this new and important program. The essay concludes by highlighting some of the important contributions the Community Anti-Crime Program can make in the criminal justice policy arena despite its conceptual shortcomings. While design problems may hinder the implementation of programs, they do not necessarily have to cripple them.     

Web 2.0, wikis, and the IP Community

Legal context: The emergence of new web-based programs being used in the fieldsof patent applications and IP legal information has opened upa range of new opportunities for IP-related legal processesand knowledge sharing. Key points: This article explains the background to Web 2.0 applicationsand explores the potential for the use of wikis in various areasof IP. It notes the limitations, as well as the possibilities,of wikis and explains how they work in practice. It outlinesthree recent examples of wikis in the IP world, explaining howthey work and the significance of their overall objectives. Practical significance: The adoption of this technology by official bodies suggestswider future use and the appearance of unofficial sites showsthat current developments have already reached a stage wheremany IP practitioners can begin to interact and share knowledgein a way that has not been considered previously. It is conceivablethat developments in this area will be rapid and it is in theinterests of users to familiarize themselves with the use ofthis new ‘social software’.     

Does all-payer rate setting work? The case of the New York Prospective Hospital Reimbursement Methodology

By 1983, four states had received waivers from the Health Care Financing Administration and adopted experimental reimbursement programs covering all third-party payers. In general, these programs were designed to moderate cost growth as well as to promote a number of broader distributive objectives. Among the concerns for equity were financing uncompensated care and spreading the costs across all payers, reducing the differential between hospital charges and costs, and rejuvenating fiscally distressed hospitals. These diverse goals represent a fundamental shift in the role of state rate setting; as a result, broader outcome measures are required to determine their overall impact. The New York Prospective Hospital Reimbursement Methodology (NYPHRM) is evaluated in this broader context. The NYPHRM successfully channeled revenues to fiscally blighted hospitals, increasing the volume of care to the uninsured while maintaining cost growth at national levels. According to this broader set of outcome measures, the NYPHRM would be viewed as a policy success.     

Legislative-policy initiatives as a problem-solving process: The case of technology transfer

Legislative and policy initiatives can be viewed as a problem-solving process that includes the following steps: [1] problem identification, [2] identification of objectives, [3] strategies, [4] evaluation of strategies, [5] decision(s), and [6] implementation. This paper uses policies related to technology transfer as a “test case” issue area. It identifies four historical phases for technology transfer—extension service, space-defense spin-off, intergovermental, international, and technology commercialization—and their related objectives. Seven technology-transfer models are presented for accomplishing these objectives: intermediary mechanisms, decentralized invention management, cooperative research, patent waivers, personal incentives, personnel-exchange programs, and foreign patent rights. Actual examples, evaluation criteria, and resulting decisions are subsequently presented. Finally, implementation issues (regulations, technical assistance and training, and financial considerations) are discussed. Sally A. Rood, a public-sector consultant, recently co-authored a handbook on technology transfer for the US Conference of Mayors. She produces a series of bi-monthly bulletins on economic development for the Academy for State and Local Government and the National Council for Urban Economic Development. She is working on her Ph.D. in Public Administration.     

Economic analysis of pension fund’s laws for female heirs: case of Iran’s civil servants pension fund (CSPF)

The key twin objectives of pension and retirement system are income security and consumption smoothing for members and their family (heirs). Accordingly, pension funds worldwide devise laws that preserve and improve these key objectives. Laws that failed to take into account these objectives not only impose extra financial burden on the pension system, but also may pose undesirable social and economic effects. In this respect, economic analysis of pension laws would help lawmakers to make workable and implementable laws. Generally, economic analysis of law seeks to answer two basic questions regarding legal rules: what are the effects of legal rules on the behavior of relevant actors? And are these effects socially desirable? This paper examines the pension law of Iran’s civil servant pension fund (CSPF) for female heirs in light of the afore-mentioned key objectives of pension system, and from social justice point of view. The results from the analysis reveal that this does not only adhere to social justice and pension system’s main purpose, but also it imposes economic and social costs. The weak side of the law also creates financial burden on the pension fund, the young generation (paying pension benefits to the considered heirs from its contribution) and the public at large. The study also shows that life time payment of pensions to heirs by CSPF encourages late or informal marriages hence defecting acceptable social norms and may increase informal labor supply, creating a further problem in the labor market. The study thus recommends the need for reforming the existing law and rules of CSPF for female heirs.     

New York State of Mind: Parental Incarceration and Children's Visitation in New York State

The incarceration of a parent has a variety of negative effects on a child's psychological, academic, and developmental success. Children can end up in foster care as a result of the state terminating parental rights due to the parent's incarceration. Despite imprisonment of their parent(s), maintenance of visitation with the parent(s) is still important for their children. However, not all prisons have visitation programs that are suitable to visiting children. This Note proposes a model state statute that will recognize the importance of visitation, implement “child friendly” visitation programs, facilitate training for prison staff, and provide transportation for children in major cities to the prison facilities.     

A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court‐Connected Programs for High‐Conflict Families

Parents who experience great amounts of legal conflict as they dissolve their relationship and arrive at their parenting arrangements require an outsize proportion of courts’ time and resources. Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that conflict has a deleterious effect on their children. We partnered with the family court to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of two programs for families deemed by their judge to be high conflict and thereby mandated to a program. Both involved one 3‐hour session; the existing program, Parent Conflict Resolution (PCR), used exhortational lecture and video; the newly designed experimental program, Family Transitions Guide (FTG), based on motivational interviewing, employed exercises attempting to get parents to decide for themselves what they needed to do for the sake of their children. Parents were assigned at random to one of the two programs (the literature often terms this a randomized clinical trial) and were interviewed just before it began and 9 months later, as was a child. Results showed that child's report of their own well‐being was significantly improved by FTG as compared to PCR and that these effects were mediated by children feeling less caught in the middle. On several variables, parent report showed that parents in PCR as compared to FTG felt decreased problems in co‐parenting and less interparental conflict, although the effects were not consistent across mother and father report. There was also evidence of diminished legal conflict over 9 months in FTG as compared to PCR.     

INTERPARENTAL CONFLICT AS A RISK FACTOR FOR CHILD MALADJUSTMENT: Implications for the Development of Prevention Programs

This article reviews research on the effects of interparental conflict on children and examines its implications for divorce education programs designed to reduce conflict after divorce. Basic research indicates that prevention programs for parents will be most effective in fostering children's adaptation to divorce if they can reduce the level of destructive conflict that children are exposed to, foster good parent–child relationships, and keep children from being caught in the middle of parental tensions and disagreements. Programs for children are likely to be most helpful if they help children learn ways to cope with situations in which they feel pressured to side with one parent against the other and avoid feeling responsible for parental problems. Although psycho-educational programs are widely available and often court-mandated, evaluation studies are rare and support for their efficacy is mixed.     

The total effects of boot camps that house juveniles: A systematic review of the evidence

Boot camp programs were first introduced in the 1980s, became increasingly popular as a correctional sanction, and were widely adopted and implemented throughout the United States. This study involved an examination of the prevalence of state run boot camps for juvenile delinquents and a systematic review of the existing evaluations of boot camp programs that house juveniles. In addition to the effects of boot camps on recidivism, within program effects on participants’ attitudes and perceptions of boot camp, and jurisdiction-level effects on bed space were examined. Findings revealed that boot camps are less prevalent than they were in the 1990s. Boot camps, by themselves, typically do not have an effect on participants’ odds of recidivism. Boot camps do seem to improve individuals’ attitudes and other behaviors within programs. Boot camps also appear to reduce the number of confinement beds jurisdictions require, often resulting in cost savings. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.     

Technology Transfer in the Space Sector: An International Perspective

This article is an introduction to four articles in this issue, all related to the different policy objectives and approaches of technology transfer in space programs run by the United States, the European Space Agency, Canada, and Russia.     

Modeling the suppression effect of correctional programs on juvenile delinquency

Studies of the effects of correctional programs on juvenile delinquency have observed that delinquents exhibit a sharp rise in their arrest rates up to the time of intervention. The drop to a lower rate following intervention has been labeled a suppression effect. A controversy has arisen regarding the nature of the suppression effect; some scholars attribute it to the effectiveness of the correctional programs, while others claim that it is due to a selection artifact. In this study, we examine attempts to model such phenomena and point out that the general terms in the model are not identifiable. Without identifiability, one can construct models that attribute the suppression effect either to the correctional program or to the selection artifact. Some identifiable models are proposed and their associate likelihood functions are used to present a process of model-based analysis to analyze data collected originally by the American Institutes for Research. Discussion of the feasibility of this type of probabilistic modeling approach to criminal justice phenomena is also given.