Narrative reviews have raised several questions regarding the predictive validity of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and related scales in institutional settings. In this meta-analysis, the authors coded 273 effect sizes to investigate the association between the Hare scales and a hierarchy of increasingly specific…

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…

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…

The Department of Education hosted a rare "technical training" for State correctional education directors and data managers this spring titled "Making Data Work for You." Forty-eight States participated. This was a welcome opportunity for face-to-face contact with correctional education administrators from across the U.S. More…

It has just been announced that the 11th European Prison Education Association (EPEA) International Conference will take place in Dublin, Ireland from the 13th to 17th June 2007. Further details and an application form will be available in September 2006. Regular updates will be available at www.epea.org.

Located at the crossroads of America, Kansas had long experience of interstate migrants. For many decades armies of workers had entered the state to pursue the harvest of a number of crops, or to pick up whatever work was available on their way west in pursuit of a more rewarding life. The U.S. population was highly mobile and migration played an…

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…

High rates of substance abuse and recidivism and limited in-prison and postrelease treatment access and transitional planning complicate community reintegration. Moreover, drug-related health and social problems are related to treatment outcomes. In the framework of risk-responsivity theory and structured, integrated reentry models, this article…

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…

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…

Background: Despite an increasing knowledge base concerning the assessment of emotional and behavioural problems in people with intellectual disabilities (ID), relatively little research has examined such problems in offenders with ID. Methods: The study assessed 172 male offenders with ID in three service settings (high, medium-low security and…