The impact of a consumer-directed family support program on actual out-of-home placement in one American state was evaluated over an 8-year period. Under this program, individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families control their own resources and design and direct supports through the use of cash allowances or individualized…

This study reviews state and national surveys of prisoner literacy and compares their results to two recent surveys of literacy in Michigan prisoners. The persistent notion that prisoners are severely illiterate is shown to be a myth. In Michigan, only 10 to 11% of commitments were found to have Test of Adult Basic Education scores below grade…

In recent years, disrupting the supply of illicit drugs and injecting equipment inside Her Majesty's (HM) prisons has become an important focus for prison drug policy. This paper presents findings from qualitative research, which invited 24 drug injectors with prison experience to discuss the role and operation of illicit drug and injecting…

Sex offenders have been shown to possess a number of consistent characteristics such as lack of empathic responding, distorted cognitions, a sense of entitlement, and lack of self-esteem. Though these constructs have been given considerable attention in the literature, little attention has been paid to what role intrapsychic conflict may play in…

The authors of this article suggest a number of areas worthy of further research regarding family disruptions that lead to children's separation from their primary caregivers. They survey the existing data and suggest questions for new research on the effects of marital divorce, maternal incarceration, maternal depression and substance…

A limited body of research on language deficits in children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) exists. However, initial studies have found a direct relationship between language deficits and EBD. Reading, writing, and math deficits have been found to co-occur in children with EBD and language deficits. Additionally, antisocial behaviors…

For more than 50 years, adolescent peer group treatment has been both glorified and criticized. Quality control has been a problem for the Positive Peer Culture (PPC) treatment modality throughout its history. The following article includes observations and commentary on the history, strength-based elements, and criticism of PPC.

Despite a growing realization that unmeasured programmatic differences influence prison-based drug treatment effectiveness, few attempts to systematically measure such differences have been made. To improve program planning and evaluation in this area, we developed a census instrument to collect descriptive information about 118 prison-based drug…

Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, an in-prison mother-daughter visitation program, was designed using a resilience framework. This article describes the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program and discusses current research findings about the effects of the program on participants' ability to form healthier relationships with their mothers and improve their sense…

The impact of witnessing and living with the arrest and incarceration of a parent is overwhelming for children and families. Numerous efforts have recently begun to assist youth who have a parent in prison. This article discusses two of them: the Children of Promise--Mentors of Hope mentoring program, and "The Children of Incarcerated Parents: A…

This authoritative, highly readable reference and text is grounded in the latest knowledge on how antisocial and criminal behavior develops in youth and how it can effectively be treated. Contributors describe proven ways to reduce juvenile delinquency by targeting specific risk factors and strengthening young people's personal, family, and…

In this paper, the author points out that youth with mental disorders make up a significant subgroup of youth who appear in U.S. juvenile courts. And he notes that juvenile justice systems today are struggling to determine how best to respond to those youths' needs, both to safeguard their own welfare and to reduce re-offending and its…

This paper presents the qualitative findings based on the analysis of open-ended responses from surveys completed by 59 incarcerated women who participated in an arts-based education program. ArtSpring focuses on promoting self-growth and effective life skills through art-making for underserved and institutionalized women and girls. Findings…

This longitudinal study of the community adjustment of 531 youth exiting Oregon's juvenile justice system focused on youth categorized as being in either low or high socioeconomic status (SES) groups. The team gathered data before participants exited the corrections system and afterwards by telephone interviews. The study found no statistical…

Prisoner's Dilemma is a common game theory scenario in which two players must choose between acting cooperatively or out of pure self-interest. What a player decides affects not only his own outcome but also that of the other player. "Friend or Foe," a TV game show that has appeared on the cable Game Show Network (GSN), places pairs of contestants…