Some veterans live longer in prison: what we don’t know is why and how

There are more than 100,000 veterans in U.S. prisons, but until now, little has been known about their mortality rate. In new research drawing on new data from the National Corrections Reporting Program in three states, Jeremy Luallen finds that veterans admitted at younger ages have an increased chance of dying, while those who are admitted over the age of 40 have a lower probability. He writes that the next step for researchers is to look at how and why veteran inmates die

Aging baby boomers partly explain the rise in older prisonpopulations

Inmates over 50 are the fastest growing population in federal and state prisons, leading to an increased need for, and cost of, prison healthcare services. But what is driving this aging prison population? In new research, Jeremy Luallen finds that rather than harsh sentencing regimes, a significant portion of this ‘graying’ of the prison population is linked to the Baby Boomer-related aging of the general population. They write that in light of the importance of this inescapable demographic change on prison populations, states should focus their efforts on reducing inmate and healthcare costs and ensure any new policies have sunset provisions

Federal Sentencing Disparity: 2005-2012

Federal Sentencing Disparity, 2005-2012, examines patterns of federal sentencing disparity among white and black offenders, by sentence received, and looks at judicial variation in sentencing since Booker vs. United States, regardless of race. It summarizes U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, discusses how approaches of other researchers to the study of sentencing practices differ from this approach, defines disparity as used in this study, and explains the methodology. This working paper was prepared by Abt Associates for BJS in response to a request by the Department of Justice’s Racial Disparities Working Group to design a study of federal sentencing disparity. Data are from BJS’s Federal Justice Statistics Program, which annually collects federal criminal justice processing data from various federal agencies. The analysis uses data mainly from the U.S. Sentencing Commission

Impact of Denial of Sexual Offenses on Sentencing and Treatment Strategies

The prevalence of sexual offenses calls for a reevaluation of how the system treats offenders and addresses indicators of risk. How an individual convicted of a sexual offense accepts or denies the assault can weigh heavily on the sanctions imposed upon them, and how the system processes the offender. Acceptance of guilt is an important goal in offender treatment programs, and denial is reportedly used as an indicator of high risk of recidivism. Deeper examination into how individuals who deny their offense are understood and processed throughout treatment aids in the identification of best practices for working with sex offender denial. Assessing practitioner conceptions of sex offender denial and treatment strategies targeting denial via interviews established a more in-depth understanding of how the criminal justice system engages with deniers. This study utilized interviews with probation officers and treatment staff to compile a comprehensive analysis of how professionals in the criminal justice system address sex offender denial. Key themes within the topic area of sex offender denial and treatment that arose through practitioner interviews consisted of how the criminal justice system processes these individuals, common characteristics of the sex offender criminal population, the role of denial in offending behavior and treatment, best practices for addressing denial in probation and treatment, and goals and strategies in sex offender probation and treatment

A brief review on the mechanisms and approaches of silk spinning-inspired biofabrication

Silk spinning, observed in spiders and insects, exhibits a remarkable biological source of inspiration for advanced polymer fabrications. Because of the systems design, silk spinning represents a holistic and circular approach to sustainable polymer fabrication, characterized by renewable resources, ambient and aqueous processing conditions, and fully recyclable “wastes.” Also, silk spinning results in structures that are characterized by the combination of monolithic proteinaceous composition and mechanical strength, as well as demonstrate tunable degradation profiles and minimal immunogenicity, thus making it a viable alternative to most synthetic polymers for the development of advanced biomedical devices. However, the fundamental mechanisms of silk spinning remain incompletely understood, thus impeding the efforts to harness the advantageous properties of silk spinning. Here, we present a concise and timely review of several essential features of silk spinning, including the molecular designs of silk proteins and the solvent cues along the spinning apparatus. The solvent cues, including salt ions, pH, and water content, are suggested to direct the hierarchical assembly of silk proteins and thus play a central role in silk spinning. We also discuss several hypotheses on the roles of solvent cues to provide a relatively comprehensive analysis and to identify the current knowledge gap. We then review the state-of-the-art bioinspired fabrications with silk proteins, including fiber spinning and additive approaches/three-dimensional (3D) printing. An emphasis throughout the article is placed on the universal characteristics of silk spinning developed through millions of years of individual evolution pathways in spiders and silkworms. This review serves as a stepping stone for future research endeavors, facilitating the in vitro recapitulation of silk spinning and advancing the field of bioinspired polymer fabrication

Multivalent glycoconjugates as vaccines and potential drug candidates

Pathogens adhere to the host cells during the first steps of infection through multivalent interactions which involve protein–glycan recognition. Multivalent interactions are also involved at different stages of immune response. Insights into these multivalent interactions generate a way to use suitable carbohydrate ligands that are attached to a basic scaffold consisting of e.g., dendrimer, polymer, nanoparticle, etc., with a suitable linker. Thus a multivalent architecture can be obtained with controllable spatial and topology parameters which can interfere with pathogen adhesion. Multivalent glycoconjugates bearing natural or unnatural carbohydrate antigen epitopes have also been used as carbohydrate based vaccines to stimulate an innate and adaptive immune response. Designing and synthesizing an efficient multivalent architecture with optimal ligand density and a suitable linker is a challenging task. This review presents a concise report on the endeavors to potentially use multi- and polyvalent glycoconjugates as vaccines as well as anti-infectious and anti-inflammatory drug candidates