Recently in Corrections Category

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, February 9, 2010

Amid the most difficult economic situation since the Great Depression, state legislatures addressed sentencing and corrections policies that better manage correctional populations and budgets. In 2009, states fine-tuned sentencing laws, expanded community-based diversion programs, and created policies and programs aimed at reducing recidivism. California, Delaware, Maryland, Montana, Oregon and Washington increased the monetary thresholds for theft-related crimes, to better align low-level offenses with less severe penalties. States required presentence risk assessments to identify defendants appropriate for community-based sentences. In Illinois and New Hampshire, presentence screening that includes treatment recommendations must be completed for current military or veterans diagnosed with a mental illness.

Source: Sally J. MacKain, Bryan Myers, Lara Ostapiej, R. Arne Newman, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2010
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From the abstract:
There is growing demand for psychologists to work in correctional settings, and high vacancy rates indicate that efforts are needed to attract and retain employees. Job satisfaction has been associated with a variety of work-related outcomes such as productivity and turnover. In this study, 73 master's- and doctoral-level psychologists working in one state prison system responded to a job satisfaction survey based on one developed by Boothby and Clements (2002). Respondents rated their overall job satisfaction along with satisfaction of 18 individual job facets. Three general facets, (a) economics, (b) perceived organizational support, and (c) interpersonal relationships, all significantly predicted overall job satisfaction scores. Ratings of facet importance did not moderate the relationship between facet satisfaction and overall satisfaction with employment as a prison psychologist. Suggestions for the future use of the scale in other correctional systems are outlined, including supplementing ratings with open-ended questions to better target setting-specific sources of discontent.

Source: Sarah Hockenberry, Melissa Sickmund, and Anthony Sladky, U.S. Dept. of Justice. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December 2009

The Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) is designed to collect information regarding juvenile facilities (e.g., type, size, structure, security arrangements, ownership, services, and juvenile deaths) and their operations. While the number of juveniles in custody has decreased by 3%, overcrowding remains a problem with 31% of facilities at over capacity. Other findings include: although most facilities are small and private, most offenders are held in large public facilities; security features and size varied across types of facilities; facility crowding affected a substantial proportion of youth in custody; most juvenile offenders were evaluated for education needs and attended school while held in facilities; most youth offenders were housed in facilities that provided physical healthcare services; most facilities reported screening youth for substance abuse problems; most juvenile offenders are held in facilities that evaluate all youth for suicide risk on their first day; half of juvenile offenders are in facilities where in-house mental health professionals assess all youth; 9 tribal facilities provided data; and facilities overall reported 15 deaths of juveniles in custody over 12 months -- 4 were suicides.

Source: Connie Clem, American Jails, November/December 2009

The author contacted jail administrators across the U.S. asking what their agencies were doing to cope with decreased funding amidst economic troubles. This article shares their thoughts. Strategies for cutting costs are provided for the physical plant, operations, inmate programs and services, personnel, and population management. Ideas are also given for revenue options, making a plan to address cost savings, and the importance of public stewardship.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 228417, December 8, 2009

Presents data on prisoners under jurisdiction of federal or state correctional authorities on December 31, 2008, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series. This annual report compares changes in the prison population during 2008 to changes from yearend 2000 through yearend 2007. These are the only comprehensive national-level data on prison admissions and releases. Findings cover data on decreasing growth in state and federal prisons through declining admissions and increasing releases; imprisonment rates for prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year by jurisdiction; the number of males and females in prison; age, race, and gender distributions; the number of inmates in custody in state and federal prison and local jails; and custody incarceration rates. The report also includes the count for inmates held within facilities operated by and for the military, U.S. territories, Indian country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and juvenile authorities.
Related:
- Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09
- Felony Sentences in State Courts, 2006 - Statistical Tables
- Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009
- Jails in Indian Country, 2008

Source: Marie L. Griffin, Nancy L. Hogan, Eric G. Lambert, Kasey A. Tucker-Gail, David N. Baker, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 37, No. 2, February 1, 2010
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From the abstract:
In an era in which rising costs, shrinking budgets, and personnel shortages are common, it is increasingly important to provide a positive work situation to ensure worker stability. Research indicates that job burnout is a negative response that is harmful to the employee and to the organization. Depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and feeling a lack of accomplishment at work are all dimensions of job burnout. This study examined the association of job involvement, job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment with burnout among correctional staff. The findings highlight the significance of these variables in relation to burnout. Specifically, job satisfaction had an inverse relationship with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of reduced accomplishment at work, whereas job stress had a significant positive relationship with depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Job involvement also had a positive association with emotional exhaustion, whereas commitment to the organization had no relationship with any of the three dimensions of burnout.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 228230, December 2009

Presents the number of adults under community supervision (probation or parole) at yearend 2008 and the growth rates in these populations during the year and since 2000. The report examines factors associated with changes in the probation and parole populations, such as the number of entries and exits, the rate at which probationers and parolees exit supervision, changes in the populations within jurisdictions, and compositional changes in both populations. The bulletin also provides 2008 detailed data in appendix tables by jurisdiction, including entries and exits by type, gender, race and Hispanic origin, type of offense, supervision status, offenders (including sex offenders) tracked through a Global Positioning System (GPS), and other information.

Source: Jeffrey A. Schwartz, Cynthia Barry, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections, October 2009

This guide is intended for all jails, whether small, megasized, or somewhere in between; whether private or public; whether high security or minimum security; whether presentenced or sentenced. Whether a jail is a short- or long-term facility; a city, county, or regional facility; a holding facility or a full-service jail; emergency readiness is a crucial consideration, and the self-audit materials provided in this guide will be relevant.

Emergency preparedness is a central, even critical, issue throughout American corrections. Today, most public agencies must have emer­gency plans, and even private businesses have turned to disaster preparedness and business recovery planning. Jails, however, are not like other public agencies. They are responsible for the safety of large numbers of individuals who are usually locked up and cannot protect them­selves in many emergency situations. Further, and perhaps ironically, the very people who are locked up and whose safety must be assured are the source of the most frequent and most serious jail emergency situations. Finally, the first prior­ity for every jail is community protection, which means that even in the chaos of a major emergency, jails must ensure against escape.

Source: Greg A Greenberg, Robert A. Rosenheck, Psychiatric Services, Vol. 59 No. 2, February 2008

The relationship between homelessness and mental illness in jail inmates is examined. Inmates who had been homeless before incarceration made up 15.3% of the jail population, 7.5 to 11.3 times the rate of homelessness for the general public. Mental illness increased an inmate's probability of being homeless prior to incarceration.

Source: Steven K. Hoge, Robert B. Greifinger, Thomas Lundquist, Jeff Mellow, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 53, No. 6, published online December 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Correctional facilities have become, by default, one of the largest providers of mental health care for patients with serious mental illness. In its 2002 Report to Congress, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care has reported that most facilities do not provide quality mental health care, nor do they conform to nationally accepted guidelines for mental health screening and treatment. This article describes the product of a consensus panel of correctional health care experts, charged to develop performance measures, based on nationally accepted standards, for selected elements of psychiatric treatment behind bars, aimed to improve the quality of care. Performance measures were developed for medication adherence, suicide prevention, mental health treatment planning, and sleep medication usage.