Going to Jail Sucks (And It Really Doesn’t Matter Who You Ask)

A growing body of research suggests that, according to both offenders and criminal justice practitioners, jails and correctional boot camps are viewed and experienced as significantly more punitive than prison. Nevertheless, limited research exists examining the perceptions of the public regarding jail conditions and operations. Using responses from 1,183 Kentucky adults, we examine public opinion regarding the punitiveness of jail when compared to prison. We determine that, with the exception of boot camp, respondents feel that jail is the most punitive noncapital sanction. Additionally, respondents who had been convicted of a felony at some point in their lives and respondents with lower household income indicated that they would serve significantly less time in jail to avoid prison than their counterparts if given the option. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Addressing Public Risks: Extreme Events and Critical Infrastructures

We consider noncoercive means for harnessing the efforts of the private sector as partners with public authorities for addressing potential harms from widely dispersed risks. Our focus is the public and private sector approach in the United States to protecting the nation's critical infrastructures. We empirically address how two key elements of this approach—mobilization of attention and planning partnerships—work to foster “communities of interest” that pursue common sets of solutions for risk reduction. Our depiction of the varied communities of interest underscores differences in starting points in creating such communities, in the ability to mobilize and focus attention within them, and in the likelihood of sustaining efforts to address threats to critical infrastructures. The fundamental issue raised by our research is striking an appropriate balance between governmental and private sector roles in addressing risks for which it is hard to create and sustain protective actions.     

To be committed or not: examining effects of personal and workplace variables on the organizational commitment of Southern prison staff

This study examined how personal and workplace variables were related to organizational commitment among staff working at a large Southern prison. The personal variables were gender, age, position, tenure, educational level, and supervisory status. The workplace variables were assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication. The results indicate workplace variables play a greater role in shaping affective commitment of surveyed Southern prison staff than do personal variables. The personal variables explained only 10% of the variance in the commitment index, while workplace factors accounted for approximately 59% of the variance and were significant determinants of organizational commitment among the respondents. In the multivariate regression analysis, age, assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication all had positive associations with commitment. Educational level had a negative relationship with commitment. Implications of these findings for policy and future research are also discussed.     

Habeas Corpus as <Emphasis Type="Italic">Jus Cogens</Emphasis> in International Law

For hundreds of years procedural rights such as habeas corpus have been regarded as fundamental in the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence. In contemporary international law, fundamental norms are called jus cogens. Jus cogens norms are rights or rules that can not be derogated even by treaty. In the list that is often given, jus cogens norms include norms against aggression, apartheid, slavery, and genocide. All of the members of this list are substantive rights. In this paper I will argue that some procedural rights, crucial for the fair functioning of criminal proceedings, such as habeas corpus, should also have the status of jus cogens norms. I will begin by explaining what it means for a right to have jus cogens status. And I will follow this with a defense of having procedural rights like habeas corpus added to the list of jus cogens norms. I will then rehearse some of the debates about the jus cogens status of procedural rights in the European Commission on Human Rights. At the end of this paper, I will look at the attempts to deal with the abuses at Guantanamo by the American Commission on Human Rights, and by the US and Australian courts, as a way to understand why there needs to be a stronger support for habeas corpus than is today provided by regional courts.     

The Untimely Stevie Smith

Abstract

This essay considers the role of the untimely in the work of Stevie Smith. It explores motifs of belatedness in her reception history, suggesting how her own authorial persona and public presentation encodes this response. It examines the notion of the last-minute in her work, focusing on motifs such as disruption, elongation and delay. It suggests how her revision practice responded to the idea of being ‘too late’, with the moment of publication providing her with further prompts to revise her work. It focuses on final words and endings in her poetry and frames her interest in Christianity through ideas of temporality and form.     

REGULATORY POLICY DESIGN: COOPERATIVE VERSUS DETERRENT MANDATES

Abstract: Two forms of regulatory policy design—"cooperative" and "deterrent" designs—are considered in the context of intergovernmental regulation of floodplains. Both types of design entail efforts by higher-level governments to induce local-level regulatory efforts. However, the approaches differ in terms of their underlying philosophies and in the extent to which they address local regulatory commitment and capacity. The contrast between the United States and New South Wales policies, and changes over time in the New South Wales policy, illustrate key points about the two types of policy design. The broader significance of this discussion concerns lessons for intergovernmental regulatory policy design.