Comparing inmate perceptions of two residential substance abuse treatment programs

Drug and alcohol abuse by criminal offenders remains at an all time high. Residential substance abuse and treatment (RSAT) programs were developed to address the drug and alcohol treatment needs of inmates in prisons. Typically, such programs range in length from 6 to 12 months, have an Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous component, and occur in a therapeutic community environment. Some programs also include a cognitive self-change component. Inmate participation in their programming is crucial to the success of a therapeutic community treatment environment, yet there is little research on the perceptions of RSAT inmates regarding their programming. In this research, the authors describe, compare, and contrast the perceptions of inmate clients of two RSAT programs in a rural mountain state.     

Supplemental Joint Brainstorming: Navigating Past the Perils of Traditional Bargaining

Though decision makers in many domains use bargaining as their primary approach to negotiation, it has limited efficacy in multi-issue, nonquantifiable transactions. Nevertheless, many negotiators use back-and-forth bargaining rather than other approaches. The author explicates reasons for this choice and describes supplemental joint brainstorming, an innovative strategy to supplement the institutionally-entrenched bargaining approach to negotiation with interest-based negotiation.     

Diagnostic values of polysomnography in forensic medicine

A man accused of a first-degree murder of a two-year-old girl claimed that he had not been conscious during the time of the alleged murder. The possibility that he may have committed the crime while "sleepwalking" was raised. The forensic psychiatrist looked to the sleep disorders facility to conduct polysomnographic investigation of the accused in order to investigate the possibility that he had a parasomnia. Overnight sleep recordings with video surveillance carried out for two consecutive nights showed no evidence of parasomnia. On the basis of the full assessment, the final report of the forensic psychiatrist did not support a legal defense of non-insane automatism and "sleepwalking" was withdrawn as a possible defense by the lawyer of the accused.     

Privacy and security in centralized vs. decentralized databank systems

This paper explores the questions of whether or not a centralized personal-information databank system presents a greater threat to the privacy and other related rights of the persons on whom data are kept than does a decentralized system that collectively holds the same data, and which databank system can provide better data security. It is concluded that, except possibly in the case of a coup d'état, a properly designed and controlled centralized databank system is a smaller threat to privacy and provides more effective security than a decentralized system.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. 29943.     

The Role of Procedural Controls in OSHA's Ergonomics Rulemaking

Few, if any, regulations over the past decade have received as much publicity or engendered such controversy as the ergonomics regulation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). Some may see the ergonomics rule as the paradigmatic instance of procedural hurdles holding up and eventually destroying a regulation. This article examines the role that procedure played in the ergonomics rulemaking. Lessons are drawn from an analysis of the four publicly available versions of the regulation and interviews with seven high-ranking officials at OSHA and the Small Business Administration. Of the procedural hurdles faced by OSHA, the notice-and-comment requirement had the largest impact on the final rule. OMB review and requirements to conduct a cost-benefit analysis served largely as a fire alarm to political overseers, and the required small business panel had largely symbolic effects. The more traditional control of congressional budgetary oversight had the greatest effect by delaying the rule for three years, and thus eventually doomed OSHA's attempts to regulate.