Showing papers in "Justice Research and Policy in 2003"

Case-Managed Reentry and Employment: Lessons from the Opportunity to Succeed Program:

Abstract: The Opportunity to Succeed (OPTS) program was designed to reduce substance abuse relapse and criminal recidivism by providing comprehensive, case-managed reentry services to felony offenders who had drug offense histories. This article describes how a process and impact evaluation of the multisite OPTS program illuminates the importance of employment and related services for returning prisoners. The process component documented high levels of employment service utilization and referrals. The impact component—which utilized an experimental design—found that compared to probation and parole clients under routine supervision, OPTS clients had significantly higher levels of full-time employment during the first year after prison release. In turn, high levels of employment were associated with reductions in self-reported commission of person and property crimes, as well as reductions in drug dealing during a one-year follow-up period. The article highlights the evaluation findings and discusses challenges that...

Neighborhood Context, Police Behavior and Satisfaction with Police

Abstract: Residents in neighborhoods characterized by concentrated poverty and high violent crime rates report lower levels of satisfaction with police. The prevailing neighborhood-level explanation posits that such outcomes are a product of ecologically structured unconventional norms and values regarding crime and criminal justice. What remains unanswered, however, is whether variation in police behavior affects citizens' attitudes independent of neighborhood structural characteristics (e.g., concentrated disadvantage). To address this question, we use four independent sources of data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) to estimate a series of hierarchical linear models to assess the influence of neighborhood-level police behavior. Our results suggest that alternative patrol strategies advocated by proponents of community policing—foot and bike patrols—have a direct positive effect on citizens' satisfaction, net of neighborhood structure and known individual-level correlates (e.g., perceived quality...

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, but What Role Does Gender Play in Probation Recidivism?

Abstract: Over the past decade, women have accounted for an increasing proportion of arrestees, probationers, and prison inmates. The growing number of women in the criminal justice system, and their unique ...

Transforming Offender Reentry into Public Safety: Lessons from OJP'S Reentry Partnership Initiative:

Abstract: The Reentry Partnership Initiative (RPI) was one of three early efforts by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to explore community-based models for offender reintegration. This article describes the RPI concept as developed in eight sites, and the issues that are encountered in reframing reentry to focus on community-oriented public safety goals. It begins with a discussion of the RPI concept and presents a reentry model that incorporates features identified by the researchers and practitioners as the core components of the RPI approach. Following a discussion of the methods used in the study, results of the sites' efforts to design and implement the reentry model are presented, including potential implications for future efforts.

Mandatory Minimum Firearm Penalties: A Source of Sentencing Disparity?

Abstract: This paper capitalizes on information about firearm use available in a standard sentencing guideline worksheet to study who is ultimately convicted with a mandatory minimum firearm penalty in the s...

Returning Home: Preliminary Findings from a Pilot Study of Soon-to-be-Released Prisoners in Maryland

Abstract: In 2001, researchers at the Urban Institute launched a pilot study in the state of Maryland for a four-state, longitudinal research project examining prisoner reentry The first stage of the pilot involved self-administered surveys with 324 prisoners in the 30 to 90 days prior to their expected release This paper describes the research procedures that were employed to obtain this baseline data and presents some preliminary findings from the survey of soon-to-be-released prisoners The results presented include descriptive information on prisoner demographics, criminal histories, substance use, and family relationships, as well as correlation analyses of prisoner attitudes and expectations for life after release

Public Deliberation and Correctional Options in Maryland: The Results of a “Deliberative Focus Group” Process

Abstract: In a democracy, faced with unverifiable claims by individuals and groups to represent the “public interest,” public agencies, including those in criminal justice, must develop means to determine what the public, when well informed and aware of alternative viewpoints, would want the agencies to do. Polling and traditional focus groups are limited in their utility, and the agencies do not normally have resources to pursue more in-depth techniques. To build its knowledge base of public preferences for correctional options, Maryland's State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy (SCCSP) tested “Deliberative Focus Groups,” based on literature and practice in political theory. The cost-effective process delivered useful information and ideas for the SCCSP for future recommendations when alternative sanctions rise on the state's political agenda. The process also formed a model for other resource-challenged agencies in all policy areas to consider for their own future use.

From Rhetoric to Reality: How Police Officers View the Implementation of Generalized Community Policing

Abstract: Research literature on community policing has focused on its impact on police organizations or citizens, especially in jurisdictions where community policing was a specialized police function. Less is known about how police officers experience the process of implementing community policing, particularly when it is a generalized function affecting an entire organization and all of its employees. Using data from a midwestern agency, this study examines the way in which front line officers and supervisors experienced the implementation of a generalized community policing philosophy. Specific attention is given to factors that influenced the attitudes and experiences of those most directly affected by this organizational change. Findings suggest that perceptions and experiences were largely a product of the beliefs and attitudes of the individual officers. Implications for police managers and scholars are discussed.

Community Meetings as a Tool in Inmate Reentry

Abstract: Like most U.S. urban areas, Marion County (Indianapolis), Indiana, is experiencing increasing numbers of former inmates returning to the community. Concerned with the issue of inmate reentry, Indianapolis criminal justice officials, neighborhood leaders, and service providers decided to hold group meetings with individuals who had been released from prison within the last 60 days to convey a deterrence message coupled with social support. The meetings were patterned after an approach that had been successfully employed with gang members in Boston and Indianapolis. This article has two key goals. The first is to describe the problem-solving approach employed by Indianapolis officials, which involved analysis of inmate reentry and reoffending rates as a way of developing an intervention (community meetings). The second goal is to present evaluation findings on the impact of the meetings. Although there was some evidence of a longer period before rearrest for inmates attending the meetings, the multivariate analyses suggested that the meetings did not have a significant impact on the rate of reoffending. The results should be considered within the context of the relatively low dosage of a single meeting with a group of former inmates with extensive involvement in criminal activity. Although the meetings alone did not prove to have an impact on reoffending, they may prove to be a tool that could be used as part of a broader strategy that includes intervention prior to release from prison and follow-up after the meeting.

* locational precision in crime analysis: a case study in baltimore county, maryland

Abstract: Over the last decade, police departments in the United States and elsewhere began to adopt geographic information systems (GIS) technology, recognizing the advantages of a system that enables the inspection of crime patterns and spatial filtering and querying, as well as more sophisticated analyses. If GIS is seen as a “primary” innovation in law enforcement, refinements in both visualization and geographic precision can be considered a secondary wave. In a case study in Baltimore County, Maryland, aerial photography and global positioning systems (GPS) were introduced and evaluated in an effort to develop an understanding of the possible benefits and limitations of the technologies. Incident street addresses geocoded in the usual manner were compared to coordinates obtained from a GPS instrument accurate to within a meter. Analysis suggests that locational errors were greater for some crime categories than for others.