ASSESSING LENGTH OF INSTlTUTIONALIZATION IN RELATION TO PAROLE OUTCOME

This study assesses the relative impact of different lengths of imprisonment upon parole outcome, for narcotic law violotors, while holding other factors constant. Three alternative procedures for measuring association (r, ø and r_t) were each used in parallel base expectancy analyses on the same data base. The study group consists of 929 narcotic law violators who were paroled in 50 jurisdictions. Parole performance ws derived after a twe-year follow-up period The 1968 parolees were used to develop offender risk ratings. These ratings were applied to 1969 parolees to determine whether they would be associated with parole outcome in a new sample. The three methods worked about the same for developing offender risk ratings. Once personal characteristics of offenders were taken into considemtion, the number of months served had no consistent relationship to parole outcome. This remained true for all three parallel techniques used.     

UNEMPLOYMENT AND PUNISHMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT*

Evidence for a relationship between unemployment and imprisonment has been regarded as “elusive” and “conflicting.” Such conclusions have been based primarily on aggregate-level data. Individual-level data have provided only indirect evidence for this relationship. This research considers prosecution, incarceration, and length of incarceration outcomes for 1,970 criminal defendants arrested in 1982. Multivariate logit and OLS estimates show a significant, strong, and independent impact of unemployment on pretrial and postsentencing incarceration. The interaction of race and unemployment shows that the greatest likelihood of incarceration is for unemployed black defendants, especially those who are young males or charged with violent and public order crimes. Theoretical implications for the control and punishment of “dangerous classes” are discussed.     

JUVENILE COURTS AND DUE PROCESS OF LAW

The following remarks were delivered at the Northwest Regional Conference of the Child Welfare League of America on April 28, 1968 at Portland, Oregon.     

LABORATORY ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIMENTS FOR CORRECTIONS An Alternative Method

The methodology of laboratory organizational experiments has seldom been applied to corrections. Its advantages of flexibility, experimental control, ability to replicate theoretically important but naturally rare occurrences, and its potential for cross-validation of other research are shown to be of both practical and theoretical relevance to corrections. The problems of realism, generalizability, practicality, and ethics are examined and a remedy proposed: the sociodramatic simulation of correctional organizations to contrast the effects of theoretically important structural properties and correctional approaches, This remedy synthesizes the realistic and the symbolic approaches to organizational simulation. It is practical, and it resolves many of the ethical problems.