Past attempts at family involvement in treatment for juvenile offenders have failed because of deficit thinking, the label "family therapy," inimical facilities, and lack of aftercare. Successful involvement means viewing parents as partners, making facilities less forbidding, focusing on the family's interest in solutions, and helping with…

Discusses various treatment methods for substance abuse counseling in community corrections that have survived tests of empirical scrutiny, clinical experience, and practical financial considerations. Methods are offered by community corrections professionals for developing a basic design for outpatient substance abuse treatment programs.…

Discusses the role of poetry writing in prisons. Provides examples of poetry written by inmates from several institutions during the author's experiences as National Education Association's Writer-in-the-Prisons. (SR)

Explores the possibility of conducting respectful research within a prison context and considers the implications for other educational settings. Discusses the researcher's shifting positions in the research context, including increasing familiarity with the subject. (SLD)

The conditions under which prisoners are housed has long been the subject of scholarly discourse. Rare are opportunities to inquire into situations where the environment can clearly be seen to be a problem of fatal proportions. This report considers the deaths of three inmates at the California Medical Facility, Vacaville, spotlighting the…

In the past 200 years, periods when prison officer training was emphasized in New South Wales coincided with systemic advances in prison reform. The overall effect of training is creation of a climate of innovation and enlightened management and policy approaches. (SK)

Discusses the overrepresentation of youth with disabilities in juvenile corrections, the role of education and literacy, and the different educational goals of short- and long-term programs. Outlines special education service delivery within the framework of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the challenges of implementing special…

Chronicles the history of prison education in Florida. Identifies issues surrounding correctional education in Florida and the evolution of education in a prison setting. (Author/JOW)

A survey of 84 detention home teachers in Virginia found the majority were white females with elementary-secondary certification; they had strong feelings of teaching efficacy and believed behavior management and communication skills were most important. Those with higher efficacy rated their ability to individualize instruction and provide…

In Delaware, graduate student interns facilitate parenting programs for incarcerated fathers. Surveys indicated that participating inmates found them beneficial and increased their knowledge of parenting. Many moved toward more positive discipline. A longer time frame might produce more significant change. (SK)

Discusses test validation studies, adverse impact analyses, and job analyses used to validate assessment procedures for screening corrections officer candidates in Pennsylvania. Addresses psychological screening, background investigations, and assessment fairness. (Contains 50 endnotes.) (SK)

Addresses the utility of the construct of social interest as related to the behaviors of criminal offenders. Social interest involves concern for others and optimism regarding one's view of the world. The results indicate significant relationships between social interest scores and offender outcome as demonstrated by employment status, new felony…

The current study explores the role of coping styles as a predictor of poor psychological health among adolescent offenders. It presents the first study to compare young and juvenile offenders. Two hundred and three male offenders took part: 108 young (18-21 years) and 95 juvenile (15-17 years) offenders. All completed the General Health…

In this update, Linton describes the Life Skills for State and Local Prisoners Program and discusses why this reentry program has been successful. This program competitively funds three-year demonstration projects that provide life skills instruction in either state correctional facilities or jails. Both state and local correctional systems are…

This paper presents updates on the recent activities of the European Prison Education Association. The main activity of the Association during the quarter has been the biennial conference, "Challenges for European Prison Education: Let's make the changes together," which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference was open to prison…