Digital Commons Network^™

He’S ‘Like A Math Magician’: One Man’S Path Towards Clemency, Steven Vago

Capstones

This is a profile on Bobby Ehrenberg, an incarcerated person who recently applied for clemency after turning his life around. https://medium.com/@steven.vago/hes-like-a-math-magician-one-man-s-path-towards-clemency-9bcea1cfdfdc

Holding Both: Witness Aid Workers' Experiences Supporting Intimate Partner Violence Survivors In District Attorney Offices, Ovita Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social workers and advocates practice in district attorney (DA) offices as witness or victim aid workers providing intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors counseling, advocacy, resources and information as they enter the criminal legal system (CLS). Their experiences, in particular how stress and vicarious trauma (VT) manifested for them in this unique setting within the criminal legal system, had not yet been examined. This phenomenological study sought to better understand (1) how social workers and advocates in a prosecutor’s office experience practice with intimate partner violence survivors, (2) their experiences of stress, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and supports, and (3) …

The Freddie Gray Uprising: Persistence And Desistance Narratives Of Community-Engaged Returning Citizens, Maurice Vann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explored how selected returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Freddie Gray Uprising of 2015 quelled community violence, stopped looting, and cleaned up the community in the aftermath made meaning of their experiences of the unrest. The central purpose of this study was to collect and analyze the life stories of returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Uprising. These men who had been incarcerated for between 5 and 20 years responded to government officials who called on them to quell violence in their neighborhoods that stemmed from the in-custody homicide of Freddie Gray.

The informants provided narratives …

After 31 Years In Prison, Lee Chalk Asks For Forgiveness., Jeffery Harrell, Brenda Leon

Capstones

Lee Chalk has spent more than three decades in state prison, and is now applying for executive clemency to have his sentence ended early. He is guilty of a crime, being involved in an armed robbery turned deadly which killed two people. Our project explores the potential for transformation and rehabilitation inside prison, and the personal and political ramification of mass incarceration and extreme sentencing.

https://medium.com/p/738d1cb28532/edit

A shorter version of the capstone was also published with Gothamist here: https://gothamist.com/news/ny-prison-clemency-parole-cuomo

Law And Society: The Criminalization Of Latinx In The United States, Gabriela Groenke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States leads the world in incarceration with just over 2.2 million people in state or federal prisons or local jails in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016). Although the number of incarcerated individuals has declined by about .5 percent since its peak in 2008 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016), the fact remains that mass incarceration is an epidemic in the United States. Over the last decade much has been written about the effects of mass incarceration on people of color, with many analysts pointing to the fear of crime as contributing to the formulation of current policies, which …

Urbanely Chained: Issues Within A City, Esther Shittu

Capstones

Each city in the United States bears its own burdens. In New York, one glaring burden is transportation, the second is the criminal justice system that seems to be packaged into one main facility: Rikers Island. The video and animation below explore these two issues. In Urbanely Chained: 219 West, the problems are examined within the scope of a television news magazine show. In Urbanely Chained: Gladiator Island History, the deep-rooted history of Rikers is explored.

Every month, students in the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism produce a news magazine show that highlights different human interest stories. As a …

Effectiveness Of Social Work Reentry Programs At Preventing Recidivism, Daniel C. Grijalva

Publications and Research

Each year in the United States, thousands of individuals are released from prisons and must reintegrate into society. Ensuring these individuals obtain adequate employment upon release is key to keeping them from returning to the penal system. This paper examines different social work programs that attempt to secure employment for ex-offenders. This paper reviews the obstacles these programs face and considers how social workers can improve the effectiveness of these programs at preventing recidivism. This paper acknowledges that some of these programs have achieved moderate success in preventing recidivism but recognizes the need to research current programs’ methodologies so that …

Evaluating Reliability In Resources [Library], Christopher Mchale

Open Educational Resources

This assignment was developed for students in CJF 101 Criminal Justice who attend a 1-hour library session. This session is aligned with the Integrative and Global Learning core competencies.

This session seeks to introduce students to critical evaluation as the important skill that involves questioning different elements of an information resource to determine its authority on the topic it addresses. Students will practice this process by engaging in a discussion about the reliability of a specific resource. They will be encouraged to contribute to an in depth evaluation of a resource as a group.

This session will give students the …

Procedural Justice For Youth: Discrepancies In The Provision Of Defense Counsel For Youth In The Juvenile Justice System, Emily K. Pelletier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Youth in the juvenile justice system experience racially disparate outcomes at all contact points throughout the system process, despite race-neutral state policies governing the juvenile justice system. States provide defense counsel for indigent youth in the juvenile justice system through policies containing race-neutral language; however, each state maintains different policies protecting youth rights to defense counsel. This study questions the relationships among state policies protecting youth rights to defense counsel, racially disparate outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system, and state socioeconomic and racial composition. The study relies on content analysis to transform qualitative state policies into quantitative data …

Masculinity And Disproportionate Risk Of Contact With The Criminal Justice System: Findings From A Select Sample Of Low-Income Black Males In New York City, Michael G. Pass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Official statistics document that Black males experience disproportionate contact with the criminal justice system (CJS). Existing theory and research suggest that this contact may be attributed to unique attributes of Black masculine behavior. Utilizing a meta-analysis of Black masculinity studies and content analysis of narratives from a select sample of Black males, ages 19-50, the current study examines the similarities and differences between the construction and performance of normative or traditional masculinity, as measured by Mahalik et als’ CMNI and the attributes of Black masculinity as defined in the literature. A goal of the study was to assess whether Black …

The Long Road Back, Brooke Williams

Capstones

This project is a documentary film about the criminal case of Lorenzo Johnson. Johnson was convicted of a murder in the mid-90s and sentenced to life imprisonment in the state of Pennsylvania. Johnson has always maintained his innocence. In 2012, a federal appeals court sided with Johnson and released him. He returned to his home state of New York to speak out against wrongful convictions. However, less than 6 months later, the Supreme Court decided Johnson's original conviction should be upheld and he was forced to return to prison to serve the remainder of his life without the possibility of …

Post-Treatment Drug Use, Recidivism, Analogous Behaviors, And Perceptions Of Fairness: Examining Whether Parolees With Low Self-Control Will Benefit From The Collaborative Behavioral Management Intervention, Sriram Chintakrindi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation tested Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) low self-control theory and its relationship with post-treatment outcomes by conducting a secondary-data analysis of a randomized controlled trial on parolees (n=569) called the Step'n Out study (2005). The Step'n Out study (2005) compared the results of a control group (standard parole) with an experimental treatment for parolees called the Collaborative Behavioral Management (CBM) intervention which was designed to improve substance-use treatment outcomes, reduce drug use, and reduce recidivism for parolees participating in the study.

Low self-control theory states that individuals with character traits that are impulsive, risk-seeking, self-centered, and display volatile temper …

Crime In The Library! The Special Collections Of Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College Of Criminal Justice/Cuny: A Repository Profile., Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

Started as a small collection of books to support the New York Police Department (NYPD), Police Academy, the library of John Jay College of Criminal Justice has a rich history and built important collections in just over four decades.

Digitizing Criminals: Web Delivery Of A Century On The Cheap., Ellen A. Sexton, Ellen Belcher Dr.

Publications and Research

This article presents the process, challenges and lessons learned from carrying out a small digital project to create a web resource of unique historic materials related to crime in New York City. All aspects of digital project management are discussed including selection, infrastructure, budgeting, workflow and delivery. Experiences from project administration, including management of a combination in-house and outsourced digitization and metadata are discussed. Formation and management of the resulting web resource is explained, which is the product of a creative amalgamation of commercial and open source software. Challenges encountered are presented with suggestions for practical solutions and considerations …