American prisons are not a revolving door: most releasedoffenders never return

The dominant narrative around recidivism in America is that most released offenders go on to reoffend and return to prison. In new research, William Rhodes argues that this impression is wrong and that two out of every three released offenders never return to prison. He argues that previous estimates about recidivism have failed to take into account the overrepresentation of returnees in prisons. Accounting for this factor, he finds that only 11 percent of offenders return to prison more than once, and that the total time that offenders actually spend in prison is overestimated as well

A. The Debt Problem at the Crossroads

SUMMARY William Rhodes' article gives a positive evaluation of the Brady proposals; it puts forward the Mexican package as an example of the gains to be made by the implementation of the Brady Plan. RESUME Le point de vue des banquiers L'article de William Rhodes présente une évaluation positive des propositions Brady; il présente le marché mexicain comme étant un exemple des avantages que l'on peut obtenir grâce à l'application du Plan Brady. RESUMEN Puntos de vista de los banqueros El artículo de William Rhodes proporciona una evaluación positiva de la propuesta Brady y coloca el paquete mexicano como un ejempo de los beneficios posibles de lograr con la implementacion del Plan Brady

Pixelation effects in weak lensing

Weak gravitational lensing can be used to investigate both dark matter and dark energy but requires accurate measurements of the shapes of faint, distant galaxies. Such measurements are hindered by the finite resolution and pixel scale of digital cameras. We investigate the optimum choice of pixel scale for a space-based mission, using the engineering model and survey strategy of the proposed Supernova Acceleration Probe as a baseline. We do this by simulating realistic astronomical images containing a known input shear signal and then attempting to recover the signal using the Rhodes, Refregier, & Groth algorithm. We find that the quality of shear measurement is always improved by smaller pixels. However, in practice, telescopes are usually limited to a finite number of pixels and operational life span, so the total area of a survey increases with pixel size. We therefore fix the survey lifetime and the number of pixels in the focal plane while varying the pixel scale, thereby effectively varying the survey size. In a pure trade-off for image resolution versus survey area, we find that measurements of the matter power spectrum would have minimum statistical error with a pixel scale of 0.09 '' for a 0.14 '' FWHM point-spread function (PSF). The pixel scale could be increased to similar to 0.16 '' if images dithered by exactly half-pixel offsets were always available. Some of our results do depend on our adopted shape measurement method and should be regarded as an upper limit: future pipelines may require smaller pixels to overcome systematic floors not yet accessible, and, in certain circumstances, measuring the shape of the PSF might be more difficult than those of galaxies. However, the relative trends in our analysis are robust, especially those of the surface density of resolved galaxies. Our approach thus provides a snapshot of potential in available technology, and a practical counterpart to analytic studies of pixelation, which necessarily assume an idealized shape measurement method

The Effect of Multiple Depth Cues in the Perception of Occlusion

The perception of depth in visual displays containing multiple sources of depth information was investigated. A computer graphics system generated randomly textured visual patterns that were presented on a television screen. One half of each pattern moved continuously toward the remaining stationary half. The texture elements of the moving half of the pattern were deleted from view as they contacted the stationary pattern area. This kinetic occlusion of texture elements tended to be perceived as one surface passing behind another. Two experiments were performed in which the depth cues of brightness, texture density, and relative velocity were systematically added to kinetic occlusion patterns. The first experiment explored the effect of a single depth cue, brightness or texture density, when combined with kinetic occlusion. The moving half of each pattern consisted of adjacent horizontal sections. A moving section could contrast in brightness or texture density with the other moving sections or with the stationary area. Subjects reported the moving sections as passing behind the stationary area regardless of prevailing brightness or texture density differences. The effect of brightness or texture density was to vary the perceived depth ordering of the moving sections passing behind the stationary area. In the second experiment, brightness, texture density, and relative velocity were simultaneously combined with kinetic occlusion. The moving horizontal sections of a visual pattern could differ in relative velocity, and both the moving sections and stationary area could differ in brightness and/or texture density. The perceived depth ordering of the moving sections was determined by brightness and texture density; relative velocity did not exert a systematic effect. Subjects agreed in their judgments of the moving sections, but individual differences emerged in the judged depth of the stationary area relative to the moving sections. Occlusion was the most frequently occurring perceptual organization (i.e., all moving sections passing behind the stationary area), but other organizations occurred as well. The stationary area could be perceived as: 1) at a greater depth than all the moving sections; 2) at an intermediate depth between two moving sections; and 3) at the same depth as one of the moving sections. Some subjects used only one organization, whereas others used two or more organizations. These perceptual organizations represented different ways of resolving conflicts between kinetic occlusion and brightness/texture density combinations

The factors that influenced the decision to enter into a $1 billion fundraising campaign by two public higher education institutions

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that influenced the decision to enter into a $1 billion fundraising campaign by two public higher education institutions. The research was guided by two questions: What factors influenced the decision to enter into a$1 billion or more fundraising campaign in each of the two public higher education institutions? Were there factors shared by both institutions, and were differences apparent? Data were collected from 14 in-depth interviews with presidents, vice presidents for development, fundraising volunteers, fundraising campaign consultants, and other members of the staff who were familiar with the factors that entered into the decision to set the fundraising campaign goal at $1 billion at the University of Tennessee and the University of Maryland College Park. Four key factors common to both institutions emerged: Volunteers serving in fundraising roles for the university were very influential, volunteers serving in fundraising roles also served on the boards of oversight and used this position to influence the acceptance of the$1 billion campaign, prior fundraising success encouraged volunteers serving in fundraising roles to push for the $1 billion fundraising goal, and volunteer and administrative leadership ignored the$800 million recommendation of their consultant’s feasibility study. Fundraising volunteers appeared to have had considerably more influence at these institutions than any other single factor in entering into a $1 billion fundraising campaign. The findings are discussed in chapter 6, as are a discussion, methodological considerations, and recommendations for future research