This first issue in P/PV's "In Brief" series focuses on the Amachi program, which partners faith-based organizations with public agencies and nonprofit service providers to identify the children of prisoners and match them with caring adult volunteers. "Amachi In Brief" touches on the program's development and recruiting…

Higher education for prisoners, often the subject of public controversy, remains a crucial strategy in efforts to reduce recidivism and slow the growth of the nation's incarcerated population. New research conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Policy shows that corrections officials are finding innovative ways to support postsecondary…

Seventeen children who had been removed from deleterious family backgrounds and placed in institutional care were exposed to imaginative play training. They showed significant increments in levels of imaginative play, positive emotionality, prosocial behaviors, and in measures of divergent thinking and story-telling skills, and decreases in levels…

Discusses the "5 percent fallacy," which refers to the number of older people living in institutions at a given time, and the likelihood of an older person dying in an institution. Three articles discuss research methodology, data interpretation, and measuring techniques. (JAC)

The author discusses the importance of using mature, volunteer women tutors to help in improving the reading level of jail trainees. As with the students' responses, empathy, an inner urge, seem to count more than technical know-how in successfully tutoring young men who have missed much of the basic training that has been associated with public…

Examined the effects of a training program for geriatric staff designed to reduce the functional dependency of targeted health-related facility residents. Results indicate dependency was reduced and independence increased by training staff in the principles of behavior analysis focusing on cognitive and attitudinal restructuring. (Author/RC)

Surveyed administrators of 463 long-term care facilities concerning overt suicides and intentional life-threatening behaviors. Data revealed that White males were highest risk group. Refusal to eat, drink, or take medications were most common suicidal behaviors. Depression, loneliness, feelings of family rejection, and loss were significant…

To examine differences in substance use and psychosocial outcomes under experimental and nonexperimental designs, compared alcoholic patients randomly assigned to day hospital or inpatient rehabilitation with patients who self-selected these treatment settings. Self-selecting patients experienced outcomes no better than those who were randomly…

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…