Jailing Communities: The Impact of Jail Expansion and Effective Public Safety Strategies

Communities are bearing the cost of a massive explosion in the jail population which has nearly doubled in less than two decades, according to a report released by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI). The research found that jails are now warehousing more people--who have not been found guilty of any crime -- for longer periods of time than ever before. The research shows that in part due to the rising costs of bail, people arrested today are much more likely to serve jail time before trial than they would have been twenty years ago, even though crime rates are nearly at the lowest levels in thirty years. "Crime rates are down, but you're more likely to serve time in jail today than you would have been twenty years ago," said report co-author Amanda Petteruti. "Jail bonds have skyrocketed, so that means if you're poor, you do time. People are being punished before they're found guilty -- justice is undermined."The report, Jailing Communities: The Impact of Jail Expansion and Effective Public Safety Strategies, found jail population growth (22 percent), is having serious consequences for communities that are now paying tens of billions yearly to sustain jails. Jails are filled with people with drug addictions, the homeless and people charged with immigration offenses. The report concludes that jails have become the "new asylums," with six out of 10 people in jail living with a mental illness.The impact of increased jail imprisonment is not borne equally by all members of a community. New data reveal that Latinos are most likely to have to pay bail, have the highest bail amounts, are least likely to be able to pay and, by far, the least likely to be released prior to trial. African Americans are nearly five times as likely to be incarcerated in jails as whites and almost three times as likely as Latinos. Further exacerbating jail crowding problems is the increase in the number of people being held in jails for immigration violations -- up 500 percent in the last decade.In 2004, local governments spent a staggering $97 billion on criminal justice, including police, the courts and jails. Over$19 billion of county money went to financing jails alone. By way of comparison, during the same time period, local governments spent just $8.7 billion on libraries and only$28 billion on higher education."These counties just cannot afford to invest the bulk of their local public safety budget in jails, and we are beginning to see why -- the more a community relies on jails, the less it has to invest in education, employment and proven public safety strategies," says Nastassia Walsh, co-author of the report.Research shows that places that increased their jail populations did not necessarily see a drop in violent crimes. Falling jail incarceration rates are associated with declining violent crime rates in some of the country's largest counties and cities, like New York City

Senior Recital: Amanda Walsh, Soprano; Sara Hoffee, Piano; October 18, 2009

Kemp Recital HallOctober 18th, 2009Sunday Evening8:30 p.m

Is incident rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease associated with methotrexate treatment? Results from a multivariate analysis in the ERAS and ERAN inception cohorts

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Objectives To assess predictive factors for rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) in two early RA inception cohorts with a focus on methotrexate (MTX) exposure. Design Multicenter prospective early RA inception cohort studies; the early RA study (ERAS) and the early RA network (ERAN) Setting Secondary care, ERAS 9 centers, ERAN 23 centers in England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland Participants Patients with new diagnosis of RA, n=2701.Standardised data including demographics, drug therapies and clinical outcomes including the presence of RA-ILD were collected at baseline, within 3- 6 months, at 12 months and annually thereafter. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcome was the association of MTX exposure on RA-ILD diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were the association of demographic, comorbid and RA specific factors on RA-ILD diagnosis and the association of MTX exposure on time to RA-ILD diagnosis. Results Of 92 eligible ILD cases, 39 occurred in 1578 (2.5%) MTX exposed and 53 in 1114 (4.8%) non-MTX exposed cases. The primary analysis of RA-ILD cases only developing after any csDMARD treatment (n=67) showed MTX exposure not to be associated with incident RA-ILD (O.R. 0.85 CI 0.49, 1.49 p=0.578) and a non-significant trend for delayed ILD diagnosis (O.R. 0.54 CI 0.28, 1.06 p=0.072). In an extended analysis including RA-ILD cases present at RA diagnosis (n=92), MTX exposure was associated with a significantly reduced risk of incident RA-ILD (O.R. 0.48, CI 0.3, 0.79 p=0.004) and longer time to ILD diagnosis (O.R. 0.41, CI 0.23, 0.75 p=0.004). Other independent baseline associations with incident RA-ILD were higher age of RA onset, ever smoking, male gender, rheumatoid nodules and longer time from first RA symptom to first out-patient visit. Conclusions MTX treatment was not associated with an increased risk of RA-ILD diagnosis. On the contrary evidence suggested that MTX may delay the onset of ILD.Peer reviewe

Inside Online Charter Schools

Online charter schools -- also known as virtual charters or cyber charters -- are publicly funded schools of choice that deliver student instruction via telecommunications. Today, about 200 online charter schools are operating in the United States, serving about 200,000 students at the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels. Although online instruction is increasing rapidly, there have been few studies of their operations and effects. In innovative new research funded by the Walton Family Foundation, the National Study of Online Charter Schools offers a rigorous analysis of online charter schools and their effects. Mathematica Policy Research's report provides the first nationwide data and analysis of the operations and instructional approaches of online charter schools, based on data collected in a survey completed by 127 principals of online charter schools across the country and public data from the U.S. Department of Education

Patient perspectives on improving osteoarthritis management in urban and rural communities

© 2018 Ali et al. Introduction: Although there is no cure for osteoarthritis (OA), there are lifestyle modifications that can mitigate symptoms such as pain, and improve management of the disease. This information is not always translated to community-dwelling seniors. Individuals in rural areas often face additional challenges due to geographic isolation and decreased access to community services. Methods: We used qualitative research methodology (hermeneutic phenomenology) to better understand the lived experiences of urban and rural community-dwelling seniors diagnosed with OA. We explored their sources of information about OA, how they manage their OA pain, and how OA management could be improved in the community. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 20 information-rich participants (11 urban, 9 rural) in Ontario, Canada. All participants were aged \u3e65 and diagnosed with OA. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim. NVivo 11 Pro qualitative software was used to code transcripts. Results: Thematic analysis revealed 9 key themes where 8 were common to urban and rural participants, and 1 was unique to rural participants. Most significant among the common themes was the description of the social network as a source of OA information, the trial-and-error approach used for OA management, and the individual contextualization of OA management. Our results suggest that there are several common experiences among urban- and rural-dwelling seniors living with OA, including the desire for support over time, but also a unique experience to rural-dwelling seniors, namely lack of access to local care. Conclusion: These findings can be used to improve translation of OA information in both urban and rural communities in Canada, highlighting that common strategies may be effective in different contexts for this disease

Shifting Patterns of Nitrogen Excretion and Amino Acid Catabolism Capacity during the Life Cycle of the Sea Lamprey (\u3cem\u3ePetromyzon mariunus\u3c/em\u3e)

The jawless fish, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), spends part of its life as a burrow-dwelling, suspension-feeding larva (ammocoete) before undergoing a metamorphosis into a free swimming, parasitic juvenile that feeds on the blood of fishes. We predicted that animals in this juvenile, parasitic stage have a great capacity for catabolizing amino acids when large quantities of protein-rich blood are ingested. The sixfold to 20-fold greater ammonia excretion rates (JAmm) in postmetamorphic (nonfeeding) and parasitic lampreys compared with ammocoetes suggested that basal rates of amino acid catabolism increased following metamorphosis. This was likely due to a greater basal amino acid catabolizing capacity in which there was a sixfold higher hepatic glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity in parasitic lampreys compared with ammocoetes. Immunoblotting also revealed that GDH quantity was 10-fold and threefold greater in parasitic lampreys than in ammocoetes and upstream migrant lampreys, respectively. Higher hepatic alanine and aspartate aminotransferase activities in the parasitic lampreys also suggested an enhanced amino acid catabolizing capacity in this life stage. In contrast to parasitic lampreys, the twofold larger free amino acid pool in the muscle of upstream migrant lampreys confirmed that this period of natural starvation is accompanied by a prominent proteolysis. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase III was detected at low levels in the liver of parasitic and upstream migrant lampreys, but there was no evidence of extrahepatic (muscle, intestine) urea production via the ornithine urea cycle. However, detection of arginase activity and high concentrations of arginine in the liver at all life stages examined infers that arginine hydrolysis is an important source of urea. We conclude that metamorphosis is accompanied by a metabolic reorganization that increases the capacity of parasitic sea lampreys to catabolize intermittently large amino acid loads arising from the ingestion of protein rich blood from their prey/hosts. The subsequent generation of energy-rich carbon skeletons can then be oxidized or retained for glycogen and fatty acid synthesis, which are essential fuels for the upstream migratory and spawning phases of the sea lamprey’s life cycle

Use of the measure your medical outcome profile (MYMOP2) and W-BQ12 (Well-Being) outcomes measures to evaluate chiropractic treatment: an observational study

Background: The objective was to assess the use of the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP2) and W-BQ12 well-being questionnaire for measuring clinical change associated with a course of chiropractic treatment. Methods: Chiropractic care of the patients involved spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), mechanically assisted techniques, soft tissue therapy, and physiological therapeutic devices. Outcome measures used were MYMOP2 and the Well-Being Questionnaire 12 (W-BQ12). Results: Statistical and clinical significant changes were demonstrated with W-BQ12 and MYMOP2. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that MYMOP2 was responsive to change and may be a useful instrument for assessing clinical changes among chiropractic patients who present with a variety of symptoms and clinical conditions

Case 4 : The Unique Role of Leadership in Public Health

Sarah Johnson was given the task to create a Public Health Leadership Hub within the OPHA website that could provide resources for development of leadership for professionals in the Public Health sector. Another task was to work on developing an initial curriculum for an intensive leadership development program. Both of these tasks would be a part of the development of a Leadership Center at OPHA. Some of the ground work was already done by the Ontario Public Health Association, including a program proposal. Sarah started doing a scan on developments taking place in this field in Canada and other parts of the world. Sarah’s own findings, along with a report from the Community Health Nurses of Canada, made it clear to her that there was a possibility of addressing this knowledge gap through the provision of learning resources combined with an educational program. A Leadership Reference Group was created to provide advice on the program content, delivery, possible participants, speakers, teaching methods, and duration. This reference group included representatives from OPHA’s Board of Directors, academics, long time public health leaders, OPHA’s Executive Director, some staff members, and Sarah. Based on an assessment of gaps and opportunities, OPHA’s Public Health Leadership Center planned to focus on five areas: Mentoring and Coaching Leadership Development and Training Networking and Communities of Practice Leadership Research and Resource Center An Annual Leadership Summit and Leadership Award

Building Community And Generosity In The Context Of Graduate Education

The academy trains students in complex intellectual work and tends to reward the performance of one's own intelligence, both in coursework and in conferences. But in collaborative digital projects, this sort of focus on the individual is detrimental to the group dynamic, which necessarily needs to take shape around more than just the individual. In the Scholars' Lab's Praxis Program, a year-long introduction to digital humanities by way of project-based pedagogy, we consistently noted this tension in our fellowship cohorts. Each year, we consistently struggled to promote healthy collaboration centered on shared buy-in and generosity. While these are important needs and understandable desires, we hoped to use the year with us as an opportunity for them to work beyond this framing. We eventually realized that the problem was in expecting the students to act in a way different than they were used to acting in other parts of the academy. In short, we realized that the problem was one of training - our students were trained to perform in seminar-type environments in a particular mode, and it was a mistake to expect them to do anything else. This talk discusses workshops and exercises for our graduate student fellows that encourage students to reorient their collaborative practices away from a focus on the self and towards creating more generous and kind community spaces. We will discuss, in particular, a series of activities focused on community and collaboration for our students that discusses questions of de-centering yourself, building up rather than deconstructing, leading from trust and kindness, and more. The whole process is meant to help the students recognize that these conversations deserve a space in academic discourse, that academic practice can be different than they find elsewhere, and that this conversation can be a space in which to, in some small way, begin to shape a different kind of scholarly work