CORRECTIONS NEWS AND RESEARCH
A Data and Information Source for Oklahoma Corrections
Friday, July 29, 2011
Don’t Pass the Salt, Please
Turns out that being drawn to salt may also indicate you’re drawn to substances that you might abuse:
“"Though instincts like salt appetite are basically genetic neural programs, they may be substantially changed by learning and cognition," said co-lead author Professor Derek Denton, of the University of Melbourne and the Florey Neuroscience Institute, who is renowned for his pioneering work in the field of instinctive behavior. "Once the genetic program is operating, experiences that are part of the execution of the program become embodied in the overall patterns of an individual's behavior, and some scientists have theorized that drug addiction may use nerve pathways of instinct. In this study, we have demonstrated that one classic instinct, the hunger for salt, is providing neural organization that subserves addiction to opiates and cocaine."
Deeply embedded pathways of an ancient instinct may explain why addiction treatment with the chief objective of abstinence is so difficult, said Denton. Liedtke said that this might be relevant given the appreciable success of maintenance approaches that don't involve abstinence, like replacing heroin with methadone and cigarettes with nicotine gum or patches.
"The work opens new pathways of experimental approach to addiction," Denton said.”
Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us that sugar can lead to addiction. Not high-fructose corn syrup, of course, because we’ve all heard the commercials about how it’s really wonderful for you.
Hiring Offenders
New fed report linked to here on efforts to improve the hiring of offenders once they’ve done their time, a topic of some concern for corrections, we believe:
“Employers often refuse to hire people with criminal records even years after they have completed their sentences, leading to recidivism and higher social services costs, experts told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this week. The agency wants to highlight employers’ best practices, ways in which arrest and conviction records have been used appropriately, and current legal standards. EEOC chair Jacqueline Berrien said the agency seeks to "learn about the practical ways employers have been able to balance business concerns with the need to ensure that employment practices are fair and non-discriminatory." Michael F. Curtin, Jr. of the D.C. Central Kitchen, told the EEOC of success his organization has had educating people returning from the criminal justice system to work in the food service and catering industry.”
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Yeah, But Those Side Effects . . . .
Word here that amphetamines have proven effective in helping adults with ADHD. Apply with caution.
Successfully Violating the Risk Principle?
A fundamental tenet of what we do in corrections now is to try our best not to mix our low risk/need offenders in with high risk/need, for fear that the impact will go from high to low. But this “reentry court” program intentionally puts younger inmates with high riskers as mentors to get them back on track:
“Since last summer, Hunter and White have ordered about 40 nonviolent offenders with relatively short sentences to serve their time at Angola state penitentiary under the tutelage of inmate mentors. Those without high school degrees earn their GEDs. All get certified in a trade and spend evenings in "life skills" classes while constantly being prodded by the older inmates to pull up their pants, stop cursing and respect others.
Every instructor in the program, from the auto shop supervisor to the man in charge of the substance abuse class, is a long-term inmate who will live the rest of his life at Angola, barring a reprieve from the usually stingy parole or pardon boards. The trump card in their teaching arsenal: "Don't end up like me."
It is too soon to say whether most participants will stay out of trouble once back in New Orleans. But both mentors and mentees say the program has been life-changing. Mentors have a rare chance to exert a positive influence on the outside world.
"If we give back enough, if we divert even one of these guys from robbing or killing my family or others, I believe we're giving back to public safety," said Randy Finch, 33, of eastern New Orleans, serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend in 2002. . . .
Because Re-entry Court relies almost entirely on long-term inmates, who are paid between 50 and 75 cents an hour, the price tag is minimal aside from books and materials. As the judges hand down more sentences, all 127 slots will eventually be filled with young men from New Orleans. In addition to the current skills being taught at Angola, which include culinary arts, welding, carpentry, air conditioning repair and horticulture, prison officials hope to add other specialties such as plumbing and veterinary technology.
"Eventually, 95 percent of these people will be released," Hunter said. "It's better for them to be released with a skill than without. Otherwise, they'll go back to their former life, and the process starts all over again."
Only nonviolent offenders serving sentences of less than 10 years are eligible for Re-entry Court. Normally, such offenders would not end up at Angola, where nearly three-quarters of the 5,100 inmates are serving life sentences with no chance of parole, and the rest are in for 20 years or more.
But Angola, once known as the nation's bloodiest prison, has well-developed vocational programs, in contrast to parish prisons that usually have few classes beyond GED prep. Angola also has a number of lifers who, at least within the confines of prison culture, are sufficiently reformed to tell youngsters what's what. The regrets they have about their own missteps add to their credibility.”
These excerpts are just part of a much longer article with good detail and personal experiences, showing again that our “one size fits all” view of offenders just doesn’t always cover reality.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
This Week at NCJRS
Try out the abstracts titled below at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, then hit the link to test out all the other great stuff there this week:
- Very Decent Nick: Ethical Treatment in Prison-Based Democratic Therapeutic Communities
- Gaining Insight, Changing Attitudes and Managing ‘Risk’: Parole Release Decisions for Women Convicted of Violent Crimes
- Prison Tattoos as a Reflection of the Criminal Lifestyle
- Selecting Performance Indicators for Prison Health Care
- Rural Drug Users: Factors Associated With Substance Abuse Treatment Utilization
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Can We Claim It as a Success for Imprisonment?
The 40% decline in auto theft since 2003? Not really, since it's due to all the technological advances and accompanying law enforcement strategies that have been implemented in the last decade. We've seen several studies that relate crime rate drops to more imprisonment, but they never incorporate these kinds of variables at the same time so that we can know what prison would have done without the new technologies, the changes in easy v. hard theft and person targets, etc. We need to add this to the list of the variables put forth for the changes in crime rate that now statistically explain, oh, 187% of the crime rate decline. Good article, hopefully will encourage even more development in areas other than auto theft.
Money, Meet Mouth
Word here about a foundation that has dropped $24 million on five cities to develop "innovation delivery teams" to promote the kinds of organizational changes that will have to occur to continue to provide quality public services in these ongoing stressful fiscal times. Also some words about the principles of those "teams," which sound fine and have some detail provided when you click the link. However, if they also sound familiar to any reader who's been in government in the last, say, 2000 years, they might take a little bloom off the article's rose. Still, truisms are always true so can't hurt to keep hearing them.
Populate the unit with talented, multidisciplinary professionals.
Use the unit to develop and monitor important metrics to measure agency performance.
Keep in mind that important operational breakthroughs usually occur across agencies.
Actively borrow ideas from others.
Set a culture for change.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Variances Among the States
SAMHSA has a new report out on mental health and substance abuse problems among the states, comparing the states on several key variables. Here are some of its findings:
Fewer people in many states perceived that cigarette use can be risky. Between the combined years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 the perception of great risk from smoking one or more pack of cigarettes a day decreased in 14 states among those aged 12 to 17; in 31 states among those aged 18 to 25 and in 9 states among those 26 and older. No states during this period registered an increase in the perception of risk from heavy cigarette use.
Current illicit drug use dropped among adolescents aged 12 to 17 in 17 states between 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 -- no increases in current illicit drug use occurred in any state in this age group over this time period.
While the District of Columbia had the nation’s highest rate of past year alcohol dependence or abuse for those 26 or older (8.1-percent), it had the lowest rate among persons aged 12 to 17 (3.0-percent).
Utah had the lowest rate of current marijuana use (3.6-percent) while Alaska had the highest rate (11.5-percent). All ten states that had the highest rates of past month illicit drug use among persons age 12 or older were also the top 10 states for past month marijuana use (inalphabetical order -- Alaska, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont).
Between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 11 states showed declines in past year cocaine use among persons aged 12 or older (in alphabetical order -- Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Virginia).
Rhode Island had the nation’s highest rate of adults aged 18 or older experiencing serious mental illness in the past year (7.2-percent), while Hawaii and South Dakota shared the lowest rate (3.5-percent).
Always good when Oklahoma doesn't show up in the main bulletpoints, isn't it? Click the link for all the details.
Notable Quotables
Nice source here on all the predictable responses you're likely to get whenever you voice that brilliant new idea you've had to improve the performance of your programs and/or agency. Here are some they single out:
"We tried that once already and it didn't work (or I heard that it failed at XYZ)."
"We have always done it the current way and it has worked fine."
"I read somewhere that the program has lots of problems (or I can think of ____ good reasons why that can never work)."
"We might get sued if we did that (although no data is presented)."
"Budgets are tight and we simply can't afford it (or I suggest we postpone it until next year when we have more resources)."
And in the same piece you get these words which should be etched in granite above the main doors of every headquarters building:
"When the result of a meeting is to schedule more meetings, it usually signals trouble." — Management author Kevin J. Murphy.
In Latin, of course, to protect the innocent.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Science Daily en Fuego
A lot of good stuff at Science Daily right now, including this article on a new vaccine against a heroin high (seriously) and this one on a pharmaceutical blocker for cocaine addiction, more proof that the future of substance abuse treatment does not run through corrections, at least in smart places. Other good articles, too, such as this one on how stress and alcohol feed each other (any possible treatments and diversions immediately spring to mind?), this one demonstrating that work engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity are tightly linked (hoocoodanode???), and this one scaring us with the possibilities of enormous new numbers of sex offenders on corrections’ hands with the finding that over half of all college students (and Brett Favre) have “sexted” at some point or another, making them, you know, sex offenders. Prison just gets more and more interesting.
Prison Can Be the Only Public Housing They Get
Good article here on the difficulties released inmates can have getting housing of the public, HUD kind due to their convictions. Looks like the feds are being somewhat flexible, but that’s not necessarily getting the job done for offenders making an honest effort to turn their lives away from more crime:
“Last month, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development asked local public housing agencies to exercise discretion when considering housing for ex-offenders. The letter urges housing authorities to consider mitigating circumstances, such as completion of a supervised drug rehabilitation program.
"Research shows that ex-offenders who do not find stable housing in the community are more likely to recidivate than those who do, yet people returning to their communities from prison often face significant barriers to obtaining housing," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in the letter.
Discretion does not apply, however, to people convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine in federally assisted housing or to those registered as lifetime sex offenders. They are permanently banned from public housing.
But not all ex-offenders fall into those categories and many truly want to turn their lives around, HUD spokeswoman Donna White said.
"Many times, what we hear is that housing authorities will point the finger at HUD to say there is a requirement not to admit an ex-offender," White said. "But in actuality, the housing authority can use its discretion based on that person's character and their progress to determine if that individual would benefit from public housing."”
As always, read the whole thing for details and more ideas.
First, Don’t Be Fair; Now, Don’t Creative
We reported on Wednesday about research that indicated that, despite the better performance of organizations under “fair” leaders, such types are usually passed by at promotion or hiring time in order to bring in aggressive and abrasive “leaders” who seem more sure of themselves and bluster their way to impressiveness, all the way to bringing the organization down because they’re, you know, aggressive and abrasive. Now this article shows that pretty much the same dynamic plays for “creative” would-be leaders who, because they’re creative, don’t seem to fit in with, you know, uncreative bureaucrats, who thereby lose all the benefits that organizations gain by providing room for creative types. Complete with some examples like 3M which prospered by going the “creative” way. Doesn’t seem like rocket science to us, but maybe that’s because we’re into “fair” and “creative.”
Thursday, July 21, 2011
This Week at NCJRS
Good stuff (no surprise) at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service this week, including the research abstracts titled below. So much good stuff, in fact, that you’ll miss most of it if you don’t click the link, so what are you waiting for?
- Does Getting Religion Rehabilitate Offenders?
- Factors Predicting Dropout From the Reasoning and Rehabilitation Program With Mentally Disordered Offenders
- Future of Parole as a Key Partner in Assuring Public Safety
- Factors That Hinder Offender Reentry Success: A View From Community Corrections Officers
- Investigating of the Relationship Between Self-Control and Alcohol-Induced Sexual Assault Victimization
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Managing Issues
Some quick hits on management articles out there right now that do have relation to what we do in corrections. This one discusses the values of bringing college interns on board to provide support and to screen for potential bright new employees in the future (assuming budgets ever recover). Written by a former intern now in correctional admin, the article does a nice job summarizing the benefits. This one demonstrating that being a boon to morale, an expense benefit to employees, and a catalyst to improved productivity wasn’t enough to save Utah’s four-day workweek from traditionalists citing anecdotes about public dissatisfaction. As state governments go more years without being able to provide benefits as incentives to keep good staff, we’ll see if this gets revisited. And this one on an unfortunate paradox—research clearly shows that “fair” bosses bring better results to their organizations than rude and aggressive bosses who nevertheless get the promotions because they seem more in command, until their qualities end up messing the organization up, at which point the “fair” bosses probably don’t give a rip even if they’re still with the organization. Good plan.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Don’t You Just Love Tar Balls?
Good post here on the moves toward “driving while under the influence” of pot laws that are going to have to deal with the problems of signs of pot being in a system long after its effects have worn off (such as when you’re pulled over) and of no studies being done to demonstrate what level of use may or may not be detrimental. We have the ever-helpful “federal official” assuring us that no level is safe, without any scientific proof as usual. The problem for corrections is that this could pose even higher prison populations without demonstrated threat to public safety. The post doesn’t take a “just blow it off” position (even NORML doesn’t do that), but it does make clear that much more work needs to be done before states adopt the kinds of positions the feds have been pushing for a while now.
Some Management Articles You May Have Missed
We keep talking here about the aging of the prison populations, but we should also note articles like this one that points out how the “silver-haired” Baby Boomers are and will continue to be important administrative resources for all organizations, including prisons, as the following generations don’t, well, generate enough numbers for higher management positions. The article also refutes some “myths” about older workers and cites some studies that show:
“that older workers engage in less unethical and/or criminal activity; have higher levels of participation in politics and volunteerism; have fewer workplace accidents; have better visual acuity; have less conflict with co-workers; have fewer power struggles; are less ego driven; have less health costs than younger workers; have greater loyalty to the organization; have more positive attitudes than younger workers; are more resilient under stress; do better quality work; have less job turnover; are more trainable and have a less net cost compared to younger workers.”
IOW, as retirements become more risky and tenuous, corrections may find that those old fogeys actually have value for effective administration of our facilities and programs as financial pressures continue.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Hard Work That Can Pay Off
That’s the takeaway from this article on a Portland (OR) parole program that matches hard-core P&P staff with hard-core gang members and turns at least some lives around, as documented in the article. How and why are detailed, but the story shows just how hard doing parole right is and why the complaints about parole failures may have as much to do with good staff not having the resources to do it right as about anything wrong with the staff themselves. Something to think about as we see more initiatives to move offenders to the streets without endangering public safety.
The Elephant in the Room
So much of proposed reform and of actual practice is built on the accuracy and thoroughness of our criminal justice data systems, but, as we’ve discussed here many times, people should never see laws, sausage, or criminal justice data being made. This story is yet one more example of how data, in this case dispositions after arrests, often go incomplete despite the frankly desperate need for it to be pristine. Here’s a bit to get you into the link, but just remember that, while California is its own animal, the problem is national:
“California has a shoddy system for collecting case results from 58 county courts and hundreds of local prosecutors and police agencies, said Travis LeBlanc, a special assistant attorney general who oversees technology operations in the state Department of Justice.
The final outcome —- guilty, not guilty, case dismissed — is missing for about 7.7 million of the 16.4 million arrest records entered into state computers over the last decade, according to LeBlanc. More than 3 million of those are felony arrests.
Last month, California's inspector general estimated that 450 inmates who had completed their sentences but were still "a high risk for violence" had been released without supervision from parole agents. In some of those cases, prison officials relying on the faulty database didn't know the inmates had previous convictions and were supposed to be strictly supervised.
The data hole persists despite more than $35 million in federal grants the state Justice Department has received since 1995 to help plug it, according to department records. And a project to modernize court computers that began in 2001 is still not finished, even as its cost has ballooned from $260 million to as much as $1.9 billion, according to a state audit earlier this year.”
Let’s HOPE California Is Its Own Animal
After what we said above, we should cross our fingers that this story isn’t a portend of things to come for other states, too:
“Mexico's heroin industry has had a bullish few years thanks, in part, to the drug's emergence as a popular choice of teenagers.
Mexican traffickers have expanded from hubs in California and Texas into the Midwest and the Atlantic Seaboard, narcotics experts say.
And more heroin is coming into California from Mexico this year, say law enforcement officials, who already have confiscated more of the drug in six months than they did in all of 2010.
One traffic stop in Fresno County alone yielded 24 pounds of black tar heroin, the single-largest heroin bust in the Valley in years.
Mexican traffickers have revamped heroin's image from the inner-city drug of yore, with its junkies and needles, into a narcotic that can be snorted or smoked, appealing to high school youths.
A coincidental factor has given the drug gangs a tail wind: The epidemic abuse of painkillers has ebbed in the United States, and youth now hunger for a cheaper high.”
Friday, July 15, 2011
Shocker
Extensive research has discovered that badly run community corrections programs release offenders who reoffend at higher rates. Huh. Hoocoodanode? Here are the amazing, breath-taking surprises about what works:
"Researchers found that in halfway houses and other community corrections programs that had hands-on leadership, ongoing staff training and individual case plans, clients were half as likely to re-offend within two years than those who were not in programs.
Researchers looked at 64 residential treatment centers in Ohio and found that factors including community volunteer support, how rigorously the program self-monitored, and how well the staff assessed the individual needs of each client—including their marital status and reading level—made a major positive difference in outcomes."
Click the link for access to the full report.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Trains, Boats, or Planes?
Don’t pick “planes” if you want to avoid being a crime victim the most. Turns out that airports are among the most crime-prone areas of cities, with crime rates around 28 of the 29 most active airports higher than the national average and higher than any of the nation’s major train stations. Maybe because we don’t locate airports where the residents have enough pull to complain effectively??
This Week at NCJRS
Goood stuff at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service this week where you find the latest research abstracts. Try these out and then click the link for the ones we didn’t have room to list.
- Investigating Trauma History and Related Psychosocial Deficits of Women in Prison: Implications for Treatment and Rehabilitation
- Predictors of Suicidal Ideation, Suicide Attempts, and Self-Harm Without Lethal Intent in a Community Corrections Sample
- Decide Your Time: Testing Deterrence Theory's Certainty and Celerity Effects on Substance-Using Probationers
- Pathways Through Drugs and Crime: Desistance, Trauma and Resilience
- Using National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Data to Understand Financial Exploitation of the Elderly: A Research Note
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Reading to Lead
Wanna find out how to be a leader and what to do once/if you get there? This review of 10 top leadership books should show you how not to waste time the next time you're at the bookstore. (Of course, you might find yourself asking whether any of the people these books talk about ever read a book on how to be a leader. . . .)
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Going to the Dogs . . . But This Time in a Good Way
Nice story here about a Tulsa reentry program for female offenders that focuses on providing the women skills in animal care that can be translated into actual jobs after release. While tending to the pets, the women are also tending to themselves. And improving their determination to succeed this time when they get out:
The program began as a way for Ralph to share her training as a dog groomer with her fellow residents at the Turley Residential Center, a correctional halfway house.
"I was in trouble quite a few times in my past, and I always saw the same women coming back again and again into the system because when they got out they had nothing to go to," Ralph said. "I decided to teach, because that's what I know and that's what I could do to help."
In time, the nonprofit organization was formed and began to operate the Muddy Paws pet grooming facility at 2234 E. 56th Place.
At Muddy Paws, a four-month training program is open to women with nonviolent felony convictions who are in recovery programs or who have obtained referrals to enter the program.
The program is intended to help them gain employment that will fulfill them both financially and emotionally upon their release, VanCleave said.
"We're giving them a career so they can actually make enough money to support their family so they don't have to go to that minimum-wage dead-end job and fall back into their old way of life," she said.
Since its inception, every Pets Helping People graduate has been able to find a job in the field, VanCleave said.
"We've had 100 percent job placement," she said."
Go read the whole thing for details. Especially if you need a lift for a while.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Substitute "Prisons" for "Cities"
Good article here on the difficulties cities are facing providing necessary services for aging Baby Boomers with facilities designed for younger people. Now, technically, not much of the content of the article is directly transferable from cities to prisons, but the concept is definitely something corrections is and has to be considering. Baby Boomers in prison are the fastest growing age group for many state prison systems, and the careful thought revealed in this article needs to be duplicated beyond the normal concerns just for the health care costs associated with that cohort. Especially since many of those many states have facilities aging just as fast or faster.
Friday, July 08, 2011
An Unpretty Picture
Painted here about the abundance of mentally ill and substance abusers not receiving appropriate health treatment as they get bound up in state correctional systems. In case the problem is new to you, here’s a brief excerpt of a really good analysis:
“Do the social costs of this massive transfer of addicts and the mentally ill to the U.S. prison system outweigh the benefits? According to the NEJM article by Josiah D. Rich and co-workers, “more than 50% of inmates meet the DSM-IV criteria for drug dependence or abuse, and 20% of state prisoners have a history of injection-drug use.” Rich estimates that up to a third of all heroin users pass through the criminal justice system each year. These figures are shockingly high, compared to the general population, even allowing for a higher level of drug use among the criminal population.
“The largest facilities housing psychiatric patients in the United States are not hospitals but jails,” they write. “More than half of inmates have symptoms of a psychiatric disorder… yet correctional facilities are fundamentally designed to confine and punish, not to treat disease.” Furthermore, as most people are aware, the punishment is not meted out equally: “By middle age, black men in the United State are more likely to have spent time in prison than to have graduated from college or joined the military and they are far more likely than whites to be sent to prison for drug offenses despite being no more likely that whites to use drugs.”
And there is one aspect of the sorry situation that receives almost no attention at all: Most prisoners are eventually released. This post-release period, says the NEJM article, “presents extraordinary risks to individuals and costs to society.” In the first two weeks after release, former inmates are 129 times more likely to die from a drug overdose than the average man or woman on the street. They are 12 times more likely to die, period. And here’s a nice touch: Most of them don’t have Medicaid or other medical insurance, and there is usually no primary care follow-up to assure that they have access to affordable medications, if they need them. Inevitably, these are among the people who make the local emergency room their primary care facility, at great cost to everyone involved. As the article states: "Addressing the health needs of this vulnerable population is thus not only an ethical imperative, but also of crucial importance from both a fiscal and a public health perspective."”
As always, you really do need to read the whole thing for all the details. Then follow up with a similar treatment from a more personal perspective here:
“Our job, whether on the justice side or the mental health side, is to try to develop better ways to identify those at risk and to intervene appropriately when the risk is high. But at the same time, we must take care not to respond inappropriately to those who are not at risk for violence.
Striking this balance is difficult. Perhaps impossible. But this should not keep us from continually questioning our response and attempting to craft rational―not reactive―responses to adverse outcomes.”
Fighting Fire with . . . Wha . . . ?
One of the more novel arguments out there about how California might suffer from moving more responsibility for inmates down to the county level—that the availability of inmates to fight the state’s annual massive forest and brush fires might drop, causing costs of the fires and fighting them to go up. Gotta admit, it’s creative. Might even be true.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
This Week at NCJRS
Lotsa good research abstracts up this week at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service if you hurry over. Here are some titles to get you excited and wanting more:
- Exemplar-Based Approach to Risk Assessment: Validating the Risk Management Systems Instrument
- From Diversion to Reentry: Recidivism Risks Among Graduates of an Alternative to Incarceration Program
- Halfway Back: An Alternative to Revocation for Technical Parole Violators
- Assaults in the Elderly-A Population-Based Study With Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics
- Impact of Comprehensive Services in Substance Abuse Treatment for Women With a History of Intimate Partner Violence
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
More Supervision, No Lunches?
Washington state corrections officials are testing a policy of ending breaks, including meal breaks, that leave already short-handed staffs even shorter-handed, especially in light of a couple of tragic incidents in the prisons recently. Not clear that the events would not have occurred anyway, but the current situation certainly hasn’t been working out for staff or inmates.
Tattoo or Not Tattoo?
Turns out inmates with prison tattoos end up also with more infractions and more likely to recidivate than those with non-prison and/or none at all. May be some interconnections there with marking yourself up for attention, but does give prison administrators something to profile on when necessary.
Loyalty and Uncertain Times
Interesting article here on how pressures on organizations and employees have pretty much kicked old-fashioned org loyalty to the curb. The generations seem to have had different reactions:
- “Baby boomers, among all workforce generations surveyed, expressed the strongest discontent with their employers and the greatest frustration that their loyalty and hard work has been neither recognized nor rewarded. Almost 1/3 of baby boomers surveyed say a lack of trust in leadership is a top turnover trigger.
- Generation X employees are clearly the group most likely to be looking at exit strategies from their current jobs, with only 28% expecting to stay with their current employers, citing lack of career progress.
- Millennials exhibit a sharply different view of a strong corporate culture, providing their employers have a strong commitment to corporate responsibility/volunteerism, and seeing work as "fun."”
Want to know how to still get good performance within your correctional organization? Well, click the link, genius.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Costs of Illegal Drug Use
Totaled and categorized here. Will it surprise you to learn that criminal justice system costs make up over half of the $193b. expense just by themselves? It will? Well, we won’t tell you. You need to read the whole thing then.
Speaking of Drug Costs
Turns out that Portugal’s “experiment” with decriminalizing drug use and getting addicts into treatment has reduced overall drug addiction in the country over the last 10 years. The decriminalizing isn’t given all the credit, but this certainly must be explained by those who argue that lessening drug enforcement will inevitably lead more people to use and abuse.
Speaking of Drug Costs II
Studies showing that ANY amount of alcohol in your system when you drive has negative effects, not just the .08 or whatevers. The big problem here should be obvious to corrections types though: if you criminalize the lower levels, what will you do to eventual corrections costs compared to other options for dealing with the problem? Won’t those prison dollars soak up the already dwindling dollars we have to treat those already in prison and treatment for alcohol abuse?
Friday, July 01, 2011
For Your Deep-Thinking Over the Holiday
A few items to ponder as you recover from that firecracker that didn’t quite make it out of your hand this long weekend:
Turns out that when you start smoking pot makes a big difference in its impact on your cognitive development. Before 15, it harshes your mellow. After 15, no real difference from non-users. Article really doesn’t make clear what happens when you are 15.
But, if smoking is a problem, then the texting generation may have an edge up in dealing with it. Although this study deals with getting off nicotine addiction, which is legal if deadly, you’d think there might also be some apps (we’re hip to the jargon) for other substance use, particularly pot.
So might optogenetics. Uh, what? That’s a new field involved with wiring brains to move patients toward or away from reward-seeking behaviors. The plan is to use it for people with Parkinson’s disease who have dopamine (reward-seeking brain chemical) problems, but the article also notes obvious possible future apps (cool, dude) for substance abusers in the not too distant future.
End of the month, getting that paycheck. May end up dead. Paycheck day (whether from work, Social Security, daddy’s trust fund, whatever) is a day of being out more, spending more, getting into accidents or whacked. So be careful out there, assuming you lived through yesterday.
Finally, an article making the now-tired case that government staff should treat those they interact with as “customers,” using corrections and inmates specifically as an example. You may find this line of thought valuable, but the article is part of that consultant-speak that ignores the fact that “customers” are the people who pay the bill when the check comes due, not the people those payers are paying you to interact with. Still, the idea that greater concern with getting inmates and probationers better prepared to deal with post-corrections life isn’t silly the way the rest of the article is.