Inmate Legal Information Requests Analysis: Empirical Data to Inform Library Purchases in Correctional Institutions

The introduction of legal content to Google Scholar made United States case law and law journal articles accessible to an unprecedented extent. With case law freely available and accurate bibliographic information for articles, could Google Scholar be accurate and complete enough for correctional institutions to forgo purchasing either print publications or fee-based services for these materials? This article empirically assesses whether Google Scholar can reliably answer the questions of inmates in a correctional facility, the Baltimore City Detention Center. As a comparison, the same questions are tested in Westlaw Correctional, a subscription database marketed to correctional institutions

Organizational stressors associated with job stress and burnout in correctional officers: a systematic review.

BackgroundIn adult correctional facilities, correctional officers (COs) are responsible for the safety and security of the facility in addition to aiding in offender rehabilitation and preventing recidivism. COs experience higher rates of job stress and burnout that stem from organizational stressors, leading to negative outcomes for not only the CO but the organization as well. Effective interventions could aim at targeting organizational stressors in order to reduce these negative outcomes as well as COs' job stress and burnout. This paper fills a gap in the organizational stress literature among COs by systematically reviewing the relationship between organizational stressors and CO stress and burnout in adult correctional facilities. In doing so, the present review identifies areas that organizational interventions can target in order to reduce CO job stress and burnout.MethodsA systematic search of the literature was conducted using Medline, PsycINFO, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. All retrieved articles were independently screened based on criteria developed a priori. All included articles underwent quality assessment. Organizational stressors were categorized according to Cooper and Marshall's (1976) model of job stress.ResultsThe systematic review yielded 8 studies that met all inclusion and quality assessment criteria. The five categories of organizational stressors among correctional officers are: stressors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, rewards at work, supervisory relationships at work and the organizational structure and climate. The organizational structure and climate was demonstrated to have the most consistent relationship with CO job stress and burnout.ConclusionsThe results of this review indicate that the organizational structure and climate of correctional institutions has the most consistent relationship with COs' job stress and burnout. Limitations of the studies reviewed include the cross-sectional design and the use of varying measures for organizational stressors. The results of this review indicate that interventions should aim to improve the organizational structure and climate of the correctional facility by improving communication between management and COs

Building Criminal Capital behind Bars: Peer Effects in Juvenile Corrections

This paper analyzes the influence that juvenile offenders serving time in the same correctional facility have on each other’s subsequent criminal behavior. The analysis is based on data on over 8,000 individuals serving time in 169 juvenile correctional facilities during a two-year period in Florida. These data provide a complete record of past crimes, facility assignments, and arrests and adjudications in the year following release for each individual. To control for the non-random assignment to facilities, we include facility and facility-by-prior offense fixed effects, thereby estimating peer effects using only within-facility variation over time. We find strong evidence of peer effects for burglary, petty larceny, felony and misdemeanor drug offenses, aggravated assault, and felony sex offenses; the influence of peers primarily affects individuals who already have some experience in a particular crime category. We also find evidence that the predominant types of peer effects differ in residential versus non-residential facilities; effects in the latter are consistent with network formation among youth serving time close to home.

Building Criminal Capital Behind Bars: Social Learning in Juvenile Corrections

This paper analyzes the influence that juvenile offenders serving time in the same correctional facility have on each other's subsequent criminal behavior. The analysis is based on data on over 8,000 individuals serving time in 169 juvenile correctional facilities during a two-year period in Florida. These data provide a complete record of past crimes, facility assignments, and arrests and adjudications in the year following release for each individual. To control for the non-random assignment of juveniles to facilities, we include facility fixed effects in the analysis. This ensures that the impact of peers on recidivism is identified using only the variation in the length of time that any two individuals serving a sentence in the same facility happen to overlap. We find strong evidence of peer effects for various categories of theft, burglary, and felony drug and weapon crimes; the influence of peers primarily affects individuals who already have some experience in a particular crime category.social learning, peer effects, social interactions, recidivism, juvenile crime, human capital accumulation

No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration

Reviews research on states' reliance on incarcerating juveniles in dangerous, ineffective, unnecessary, obsolete, wasteful, and inadequate facilities. Recommends ways to redesign corrections systems, including investing in non-residential alternatives

The Erie County Holding Center and Correctional Facility

The Erie County Holding Center is a maximum security detention center. The Center is used to house inmates before their trials. The Erie County Holding Center is located at 40 Delaware, Buffalo New York, 14202. The Erie County Correctional Facility is a medium security facility, which can house 1,070 inmates. It holds inmates who have committed a variety of different crimes. The Correction Facility also houses parole violators for the State of New York. These violators are held at the facility until they have had their final hearings for re-incarceration at different state facilities. Also, the facility steps in when the Holding Center is over-crowded

Making the Grade

With its July 2015 announcement of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, the U.S. Department of Education ushered in what could be a new era of expanded opportunities for postsecondary education in our nation's prisons. The Second Chance Pell Pilot makes students incarcerated in state and federal prisons eligible for need-based financial aid in a limited number of authorized sites—meaning postsecondary education is likely to become a reality for an increased number of the more than 1.5 million people in prisons nationwide.Research shows that—among other benefits to individuals, families, communities, and prisons—incarcerated people who participate in prison education programs are 43 percent less likely to recidivate than those who do not. This report offers lessons from the field on the implementation of these programs in corrections settings across the country

Rural Alaska Corrections Plan (A Summary)

Efforts to improve correctional services in the rural, predominantly Native communities of Alaska have been going on since before statehood. Complete implementation of plans developed by the Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency during the 1970s have been hampered by a number of factors: (1) the scope of the planning has tended to be confined to correctional facilities; (2) the problems faced by corrections in Alaska are complicated by diversity of communities served; (3) financial requirements have exceeded available resources; (4) the authority and responsibility for achieving the plans' objectives were unclear. This document offers proposals for a rural corrections plan which offers a comprehensive, systemic — rather than purely correctional — approach for improving public safety and corrections in rural Alaska. It describes the existing situation, philosophy, coordination and planning, organizational proposals, financing, and implementation.Alaska Corrections Master Plan CommitteeTentative Recommendations / Introduction / Background / Philosophy / Coordination / Organization: Statewide Operations; Local Community Operations / Financing / Implementation / Ma

Engineering Feasibility Study of Fire Island as a Location for a Future Correctional Facility: Final Report

The "Legal Factors" section appearing on page 38–50 of this report was prepared by Stephen Conn of the UAA Justice Center, School of Justice. / This report is part of the Fire Island Prison Feasibility Study, a project conducted jointly by the School of Justice and School of Engineering at University of Alaska, Anchorage under contract to the Alaska Department of Corrections. The project undertook to assess the feasibility of locating a correctional facility on a 4,240 acre tract of land on Fire Island, which lies in Upper Cook Inlet about three miles off Point Campbell within the Municipality of Anchorage. The project was divided into three major phases: (1) an assessment of future bed space needs of the Alaska Department of Corrections; (2) an evaluation of the physical site and cost estimates for prison construction and operation; and (3) a public opinion survey and open discussion.This report provides the final results of an engineering assessment and evaluation of a 4,240 acre tract of land on Fire Island for a proposed correctional facility. Fire Island is an island in Upper Cook Inlet about three miles off Point Campbell within the Municipality of Anchorage. The report describes climatic and geophysical factors on the island including temperature, precipitation, wind, topography, geology and soils, seismicity, slide potential, and coastal erosion; facility site evaluation including suitability of soils for building foundations, transportation and site access, utility availability (water, wastewater and solid waste disposal, electricity, and communications), and legal factors (constitutional issues, prison security, and access to prisons); and estimated construction costs. Comparisons with alternative prison sites at Palmer and Goose Bay, both located within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, are provided. A bibliography of land and facility studies of Fire Island is included.Alaska Department of Corrections1. Executive Summary / 2. Introduction / 3 . Location of the Fire Island Site / 4. Engineering Feasibility of Fire Island as a Potential Prison Site / 5. Estimated Construction Costs for Correctional Facilities / 6. Benefits and Liabilities of Alternative Sites / 7. Summary and Conclusions / References / Bibliography of Fire Island Land and Facilities Studie