Surveyed 53 incarcerated mothers with children in foster care, looking at incidence of correspondence, telephone contact, and notification of court hearings as prerequisite conditions for permanency planning. Most reported having telephone contact or correspondence with caseworkers, sizable number reported having neither, and less that 50% were…

A national survey of 1,201 Hispanics found a high degree of consensus in perceptions of crime, gangs, drugs, school dropouts and how these opinions affect correctional administration, regardless of respondents' age, gender, education, origin, or employment. A majority feels that these issues are major problems. (JOW)

A literature review found some evidence of the effects of career development programs on recidivism. Interviews with prison psychologists and educators identified current programs that target career issues and take into account the unique characteristics of prisoners and the types of interventions that work with them. (Contains 23 references.) (SK)

Discusses the changes in the work of probation officers and correctional treatment specialists. Includes information about job outlook, earnings, training requirements, and working conditions as well as sources of additional information. (JOW)

Kaki Bukit Centre Prison School (KBC) in Singapore is a bold and innovative initiative which brings together in a centralized location in one institution, different categories of inmates from both penal and drug institutions who attend academic and vocational classes. The creation of a learning environment within a prison setting is derived from…

Rate of suggestions under an intervention package consisting of standardized suggestion forms and publicly posted responses was compared with its baseline (i.e., no suggestion form or public posting) frequency. Consistent with Quilitch's (1978) findings among employee participants, the rate of suggestions was greater under the intervention…

There is considerable debate about the assessment of psychopathic traits in adolescence due in part to questions regarding the stability of traits. We investigated the 6-month stability of psychopathic traits in a sample of 83 male adolescent offenders using an augmented protocol for the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version and the self-report…

We investigate whether the intervention designed by Kuhn and Udell (2003) to develop argument skills could be implemented productively among adolescent males in a residential juvenile detention facility--boys who were educationally disengaged and severely disadvantaged academically as well as socially. Compared to a control group from the same…

A taxometric analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is conducted on a group of 409 male maximum-, medium-, and minimum-security federal prison inmates using the four PCL-R facet scores (interpersonal, affective, impulsive lifestyle, and antisocial behavior) as indicators. Results obtained from three quasi-independent taxometric…

Over-representation of people with learning disability in prisons has been demonstrated in many Western jurisdictions. This was the first comprehensive research in a UK prison. The research used a random 10% sample of a prison population (n = 140). A semi-structured interview, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (UK version) and the Vineland…

This paper investigates research methods for studies of school drop-outs and push-outs, populations that are very difficult to find since they no longer have an institutional affiliation. The work argues that street corner research, which was in favor among the early urban researchers of the Chicago school, may have a renewed role in these…

Emotional experiences immediately prior to (emotional antecedents) and following (emotional consequences) deliberate self-harm and suicide attempts in female inmates (N = 63) were examined. Anger was the antecedent emotion reported by the largest proportion of individuals who had engaged in deliberate self-harm (45.16%), suicide attempts (40.9%),…

In prison populations around the world, the prevalence of HIV is often higher than that of the general population. The prison population is at high risk for HIV infection, particularly through the sharing of contaminated needles and high-risk sexual activity. Counselling is regarded as a key element in the prevention and treatment of HIV…

Approximately two million men and women are currently incarcerated in the nation's penitentiaries (Butterfield, 2002). Ninety percent of these inmates will eventually be released from prison (Linton, 2004). The vast majority of these inmates enter prison without basic literacy skills or job training. According to the U.S. Department of Education…

In many U.S. prisons an overuse of individualized instruction silences literacy learners and reinforces oppressive notions about what knowledge is and whose knowledge counts. In these classrooms, methods that invite learners to tap their background knowledge, reflect on their worlds, and dialogue with others to construct meaning--commonplace in…