Re-evaluation of the Importance of the Public Service: Tasmania's Collaborative Program

In considering what should be the role of government in a community like Tasmania we need to understand the context within which we are working. We are a small population that is almost without exception a branch economy. No major corporations are based here – we have branch offices or divisions of major companies. We lack a managerial class – headquarters and management staff are based elsewhere – decisions made by the level of management based in our state do not take the welfare of the state into account. Our private sector does not have the capital and quite clearly the capacity to take up the challenge posed by a reduction of government services or a contraction of services. When public sector jobs are cut in Tasmania they stay cut. The private sector does not step into the breach and create jobs. Tasmania has always relied, to a large extent, on the public sector for its economic viability – with the contraction of public sector funding, the viability of the state's economy has been seriously eroded.     

Federalism at the American Founding: In Defense of the Diamond Theses

Vincent Ostrom's analysis of The Federalist's understandingof federalism fails to consider the historical and theoreticalcontext of The Federalist's arguments. Ostrom takes certainrhetorical devices of The Federalist too much at face value.He correctly sees that the authors of The Federalist view eighteenth-centuryfederalism as bad government. He incorrectly concludes thatsince it is bad government, that understanding could not havebeen the true meaning of federalism. The Federalist understandseighteenth-century federalism to be "the true meaning" of federalismas established by the political discourse of the times. TheConstitution departs radically from eighteenth-century federalism,but The Federalist seeks to conceal how radical the departureis, in part, by offering a looser definition of federalism thatwill allow the Constitution to be characterized as a federalsystem. A consideration of the writings of the opponents tothe Constitution suggests the limited success of this attemptat redefinition.     

An Analysis of CRIPA Findings Letters Issued to Jails for Constitutional Violations by the Department of Justice

This study analyzes Findings Letters in jail Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) cases for the years 1993 through 2013 to improve our understanding of the prevalence, content and correlates of constitutional violations investigated by the Department of Justice. CRIPA authorizes the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and file suit against local jail facilities for the unconstitutional conditions of individuals in their care. Investigating the allegations and providing local officials a Findings Letter are the first steps in a CRIPA action and determine what remedial action must be taken to avoid a federal lawsuit. The analysis revealed a high incidence of certain constitutional violations, longitudinal trends, and facility characteristics associated with CRIPA action.     

The missing link between job satisfaction and correctional staff behavior: The issue of organizational commitment

Over the past twenty years, several empirical studies have examined the consequences of job satisfaction among correctional staff. When looking at worker behavior in other disciplines, though, it is commonplace to include both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, very few studies about correctional staff behavior include both concepts. This paper discusses job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and addresses the link between these concepts as it relates to correctional staff attitudes and behaviors. Further, a discussion of measurement issues and recommendations for future research is presented. This is a revision of papers presented at the 1998 American Society of Criminology annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.