Subscales of the Sheltered Care Environmental Scale dealing with conflict, cohesion, and independence were administered to 47 adults with moderate mental retardation on 4 occasions using either a verbal format or picture-cued format. Results indicated that the use of pictures enhanced the test-retest reliability of the instrument. (Author/JDD)

An examination of expenditures, staffing, and outcomes for 116 adults with severe mental retardation who moved from state institutions in Minnesota to community living settings and a comparison group of 71 persons who remained institutionalized, found community residences were less costly, had more favorable staffing, and better outcomes.…

To examine the perception of instructors who teach in prison college programs, two studies were conducted, the first in 1993 and the second in 2003. Three areas of measurement were included in the survey instrument sent to professors working in the Ball State University's Prison Program, Muncie, IN. The first measurement was that of instructors'…

We analyze survey data from 181 male and 224 female inmates serving brief prison terms for nonviolent offenses to examine offenders' perceptions of the severity of boot camp compared to prison. Building on the limited work in this area, we present reasons those offenders feel are important to both avoid and participate in alternative sanctions.…

Correctional facilities are under increasing pressure to respond to the treatment needs of mentally disordered offenders during their incarceration and to arrange for treatment post release through reentry planning. This paper constructs cost estimates for three different reentry investments using data on the population (n = 2715) of male mentally…

A sample of 84 male young offenders, admitted for inpatient treatment in a psychiatric hospital, was used to examine the relationship between leisure motivation, leisure satisfaction, and perceived freedom in leisure using the Leisure Motivation Scale (LMS), the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS), and the Perceived Freedom in Leisure Scale-Short…

Prison administrators are faced with the arduous task of maintaining order in an environment that is often characterized as chaotic. This task is made increasingly more difficult as administrators must observe individual rights, operate within rapidly diminishing budgets, and satisfy shifting philosophical penal goals--oscillating between…

In August 2000 the Department of Correctional Services (from now on referred to as the Department) held the first national symposium to translate its vision--which is to render services that contribute to community protection and the rehabilitation of offenders--into a meaningful partnership with the South African community. Correctional services…

Background: There is a high rate of physical violence in populations with intellectual disabilities, and this has been linked to problems for the victim, the assailant, members of staff and services. Despite the clinical significance of this behaviour, few studies have assessed methods of predicting its occurrence. The present study examined…

The elevated rates of HIV/AIDS among inmates are due in part to the high concentration of incarcerated persons with behavioral risk factors for HIV infection. Corrections, public health, and community-based organizations should partner to take full advantage of the opportunity to maximize effectiveness and efficiency in addressing HIV/AIDS in…

This study examined the effects of a systematic, phonics-based reading intervention on the oral reading fluency and accuracy of adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) receiving educational services in a juvenile correctional facility. A multiple-baseline design across four participants was used to calculate the effect of daily,…

Kinchela Boys' Home on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, was established by the state's Aborigines Protection Board for Aboriginal boys and youths in 1924 and closed in 1970. By the 1930s the place had become known as a notorious carceral, poorly managed and psychologically isolated. An overdue government enquiry in 1940 concluded that it…

This article provides a review of various types of literature on gender differences among substance abusers. The authors begin this literature review by summarizing the literature on the differing treatment needs of men and women. The authors continue with a review of the empirically based literature on gender differences in background…

This article argues that the conclusions of previous research on the impact of sentencing guidelines may be misleading due to the cross-sectional methodologies employed in these studies. This study will suggest that a theoretically driven longitudinal analysis of mandatory guidelines offers a more appropriate way to study these policies.…

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America." This detailed study showed that Americans in almost every demographic group were reading fiction, poetry, and drama--and books in general--at significantly lower rates than 10 or 20 years earlier. The declines were steepest among…