Few studies have investigated the characteristics of female sex offenders and factors and/or causes of female deviance. Research to date has been descriptive in nature, with few comparison studies. Using a correlational design and three valid instruments, female sexual offenders and a matched group of female nonsexual offenders are compared in the…

The research literature has repeatedly demonstrated that there is an overrepresentation of juveniles with disabilities who are incarcerated in short-term and long-term correctional facilities. Despite these findings, special education programs in many juvenile correctional facilities have been shown to be lacking many of the necessary services…

The preschool and early elementary years play a major role in transforming young African American boys from "brilliant babies" into "children placed at risk". A preschool to prison pipeline now exists that is becoming increasingly apparent. It runs from preschool settings through elementary and middle school, into the high schools from which young…

Offenders involved in this study lacked basic financial knowledge which presented a barrier to their success upon release. The researcher modified existing curriculum and created a course in financial literacy for offenders within a medium security correctional facility based upon their personal experiences. The offenders gained financial…

The effectiveness of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) in providing estimates for predicting violent and nonviolent recidivism over a 9-year period is examined. The SAQ is a quantitative risk/need instrument consisting of 72 items that compose eight subscales. There were 657 federally sentenced Canadian male offenders who completed the SAQ…

This article describes an education program initiated by African American prisoners in the Airway Heights Correction Center in Airway Heights, Washington. The purpose of the program was to help the inmates to make productive use of their time while incarcerated and to help lessen the high return rate of African American men to the prison. Although…

The Houston Independent School District's (HISD) educational program at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center provided instruction to the 1,138 youths residing at that facility from August 1990 to March 1991. The youth at the Detention Center had been detained by Harris County Law Enforcement Officials and were awaiting court action. The…

A Minnesota program sends artists into corrective institutuions to try through art to change the behavior of incarcerated youngsters. (Editor)

Nowhere is myth more commonplace than in the correctional setting. With its foundation firmly implanted in tradition and folklore, a great deal of prison management is based on intuitive principles. Moreover, the popular theoretical positions concerning the impact of incarceration have been equally intuitive, or at best ideologically based in the…

In 1974, 1979, and 1986, the Bureau of Justice Statistics sponsored surveys of nationally representative samples of inmates of state correctional facilities. Results from the 1986 Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities which included 13,711 inmates, indicated that inmates reported high levels of drug use prior to the commission of the…

The trend toward policymaking by the courts is reviewed, and the following four issues are considered: (1) the direct and indirect impact of court intervention on social policy outcomes; (2) the effect of that intervention on the process of policymaking; (3) the extent to which court intervention has shaped the politics policymaking in a…

The prison press in the United States operates under varying degrees of First Amendment freedom. Court decisions have been varied, and have not resolved whether convicts can produce or receive publications without censorship by prison officials. Until about 1970, censorship of the prison press was rarely challenged. Most newspapers and magazines…

Issues in educational programing for incarcerated youth are explored. The following concerns affecting the implementation of P.L. 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) mandates in juvenile court schools and correctional facilities are discussed: (1) variable state mandates affecting education in correctional facilities; (2)…

This document presents testimony and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing called to examine proposed legislation concerning the public welfare of juveniles. The two bills considered were proposed to promote the public welfare by protecting dependent children and others from institutional abuse (S.520) and by removing juveniles from…