Recently in Corrections Category

Source: Bren Gorman, State Health Notes, Volume 29, Issue 522, September 2, 2008

The health-care costs of aged prisoners are often three times that of younger ones. Some states are hoping that early release of these prisoners will help arrest ballooning prison budgets.

Source: Pew Charitable Trusts, Public Safety Policy Brief, No. 6, July 2008

Some offenders need to be put in prison. Others can be managed safely on probation in the community. But judges and prosecutors often face the difficult task of figuring out what to do with defendants who don't fit cleanly into either group.

Source: Minnesota Dept. of Corrections, 2008

Services needed by youth with mental health disorders involved with Minnesota's justice system are assessed. Sections of this report in addition to an executive summary include: introduction; the Minnesota Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Initiative; the process -- the most critical issues to address involving collaboration, identification, diversion, and treatment; first-round Initiative issues to be tackled; summary of Task Force recommendations; and a comprehensive list of recommendations considered by the Initiative.

Source: Mark A. R. Kleiman and Angela Hawken, Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. 24 no. 4, Summer 2008

A system relying on swiftness and certainty of punishment rather than on severity would result in less crime and fewer people in prison.

Source: Corrections Today Magazine, Vol. 70 no. 4, August 2008

This month's publication focuses on work force issues. Articles include:

• Oklahoma's Quality Assurance Experience: Continuous Improvement Through Employee Empowerment, Teamwork, Diversity and Best Practices
By Deborah K. Boyer
• The Feminization of the Community Corrections Work Force
By Jo G. Holland
• Recruiting and Retaining Staff Through Culture Change
By Brian E. Cronin, Ralph Kiessig and William D. Sprenkle
• Work Force Improvement: Developing Staff Through Professional Certification
By Gloria Boyd and Allen Peaton
• One Juvenile Facility's Answer to Retention: Training and Mentoring
By Marlo Hesse
• Missouri's Eastern District Finds Success With Work Force Initiative
By Scott Weygandt, Scott Anders, and Felix Mata
• The Growing Wave of Older Prisoners: A National Survey of Older Prisoner Health, Mental Health and Programming
By Anthony A. Sterns, Greta Lax, Chad Sed, Patrick Keohane and Ronni S. Sterns

Source: Mikel Chavers, State News, August 2008
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States' prison populations are expected to grow in the next decade and prison costs are projected at almost too much to afford. With so many people behind bars, some states are employing strategies to keep people from returning to prison and spending money on treatment programs, while some states face a future of building expensive jails.

Source: Kim Shayo Buchanan, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Vol. 42, 2007

The negative impact of "gendered racialization of women prisoners" on their treatment in prison, in particular, the "legal and institutional indifference" practiced in situations involving sexual abuse by prison staff is examined. This article is comprised of these sections: custodial sexual abuse in women's prisons; the structure of status hierarchy; impunity or the remedial brick wall -- the prison grievance procedure, barriers to accountability due to civil impunity, and constitutional deference and deliberate indifference; and conclusion.

Source: South Carolina Department of Corrections, 2007

Performance of and outcomes associated with the South Carolina Department of Corrections are reported, partially through the use of performance measures. Sections of this document are: executive summary; organizational profile -- base budget expenditures and major program areas; elements of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for agency accountability -- leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, measurement, analysis, and knowledge management, workforce resources, process management; and results -- customer satisfaction, mission accomplishment, financial performance, human resources results, and regulatory/legal compliance and community support.

Source: Albany Medical Center, 2008

Information is presented by the Albany Medical Center's AIDS Program (AMCAP) about its programming. Points of entry include: telemedicine education; HIV clinical consultations -- a free telephone service; national videoconference series; "CME Monographs for Correctional Prescribing Clinicians"; "Nursing Care of the HIV-Infected Inmate" -- a monograph series; self study order form; inmate education materials -- "Bilingual Inmate Health Education Newsletter," "Women's HIV Videotape Initiative," and "Communicable Diseases: Are You at Risk?"; HIV Resource List for Corrections Professionals; and education and outreach contact information.

Source: Steve Inskeep, Morning Edition, August 13, 2008

At the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a dozen babies are spending time behind bars. Too young to say the word "crime," they are participants in a program that enables inmate mothers to raise their children in their cells.

The program is one of many across the country designed to meet the unique needs of mothers who are locked up. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population. At the Ohio Reformatory, the warden estimates that 75 percent of the 2,300 inmates housed there are mothers.