The Use of Incarceration in the United States

The past two decades have produceda profound increase in imprisonment in theUnited States, resulting in a prison populationof two million and expenditures of over $35billion annually on corrections, while otherimportant government services are underfunded. Imprisonment is highest for minority maleslargely because of the War on Drugs, which hasalso dramatically increased the incarcerationof women and created nearly 1.5 millionchildren having a parent incarcerated. Inresponse to this trend, the American Society ofCriminology (ASC) directed the ASC NationalPolicy Committee (NPC) to draft a policy paperon the incarceration issue. This articleexplains the main ideas, themes, andrecommendations of the full policy paper. Itanalyzes the sources and effects of theincreased use of imprisonment, drawingattention to the negative effects of excessiveincarceration. The paper and itsrecommendations reflect a concern that the ASCneeds to set a research agenda that isindependent of the federal government andconventional wisdom. The NPC hopes this paperwill stimulate a healthy and much overduedebate on the role of the ASC in public policyin general, and the merits of widespreadincarceration in particular.     

The Reflective Practitioner and the Uses of Rhetoric

This essay invites reflection on four practical uses of rhetoric: as a way to provide persuasive emphasis in administrative communication; as a technique of analysis to improve public administration and expand its limits; as a resource in identifying individual administrative signature; and as a vehicle for reevaluating public administration's group signature. It reflects on the authors' experiences and considers possibilities for change toward more conscious and effective group self–representations.     

Academic women,affirmative action,and mid-America in the eighties

Drawing on her personal experiences as an affirmative action officer for seven years in a large midwestern state university, the author contends that academic women fare much better now than a decade ago. She speculates as to why, in spite of significant progress, many women continue to feel like second-class citizens in academe. She also seeks to predict the future for women in higher education in the eighties.     

A family with unusual Kell genotypes

A family in which kKp^a, kKp^b, KKp^b and K^o are segregating confirms the depressing effect of Kp^a on the products of other Kell genes in cis. The significance of such unusual Kell genotypes in forensic testing is discussed.