Digital Commons Network^™

The First Step Act Of 2018, Emily Brubaker

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The Trump Administration signed into law the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act or the First Step Act (FSA) on December 21, 2018. The bill is the product of several years of congressional debate regarding what might be done to reduce the overall size of the federal prison population while implementing mechanisms to maintain the safety of the public (James, 2019).

Perspectives On Covid, Glenn Bass

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The purpose of this paper is to delve further into the topic of Culture & Crisis: Reconciling Constitutionalism & Federalism in a Time of Crisis through Liberty University’s Helms School of Government & Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy. The United States of America is currently under siege by the COVID-19 virus. This virus has steadily killed hundreds of individuals and consequently nearly shutdown the American socio-economic system. Through a constitutional government and federal principles, the executive functions have been able to address this time of crisis. However, there are different views referencing exactly how to address the needs of …

Fighting A Losing Battle? Countering Terrorism Financing In Nigeria And Somalia, Vesna Markovic

Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department Faculty Articles

In the past decade, terrorist attacks in Africa have increased in frequency and lethality. Cutting off funding to terrorist groups is one important way to reduce these attacks. This research focuses on Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Somalia. A historical overview of terrorist financing and a current outlook of the methods used by both groups are followed by a review of the literature on countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). This provides a lens through which specific government responses to financing terrorism in Nigeria and Somalia are examined. The research found that although Nigeria has made strides toward …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

From Preschool To Prison: How School Resource Officers Produce Criminality, Brenda Vargas Tapia

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Police officers were introduced in the American school system to provide White communities with a sense of safety. However, these police officers are not well trained to provide students with support and instead are trained to deal with situations with force. The implicit bias of police officers criminalizes and punishes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students unfairly. School shootings have continued to enforce the idea that officers are needed. However, this notion is untrue. Policing in schools builds a school-to-prison pipeline that is now, in the online schooling era, translating to the Zoom-to-prison pipeline, which reveals that BIPOC …

Criminal Justice Update - May 2021, Haley B. Shultz

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no updates this month)
• Updates from the PA Legislature
• Updates from the Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Superior Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

Bail Discrimination: Racial Disparities In The United States Bail Determination Process, Collin Porter

School of Professional Studies

Nationwide, there is a systemic problem with bail determination: the process that a citizen goes through after they are arrested and before they go to trial to determine guilt or innocence for the crime they have been accused of committing. The United States leads all other countries with approximately half a million individuals detained before trial each year, a number nearly double the next highest country (China) (Nejdl, 2017). The high rate of pre-trial detention in the United States is due to both widespread use of monetary bail and the limited financial resources of most defendants; specifically, African American men. …

Differences In Discipline: Analysis Of Texas School Discipline Actions For Black Females, Norcise Lavette Williams

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to examine disproportionate disciplinary rates among Black girls and whether the disproportionality impacts reading achievement in comparison to White girls in Texas urban and suburban public schools, Grades 3–9, in the 2015-2018 academic years. To determine the extent to which inequities were present in the assignment of disciplinary actions for Black girls, the author used data from the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). The data included all female students enrolled in Texas public schools who received some form of disciplinary action in the 2015–2018 academic school years. Specifically, the …

Police Homicide: Race And Ethnicity, Christine Henderson, Aimee Quinn, Charles E. Reasons, Veronica Salas, John Vinson, Brittney Warf

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

During the pandemic, routines were interrupted lives were changed and during this time, many individuals spent more time watching the news to learn more about how long it would take to resume normalcy. When George Floyd was murdered by four police officers, time stood still and the world watched. Outrage was immediate. The pandemic offered everyone the opportunity to witness tragedy unfold in front of them a brutality which happens every day, yet is easily ignored. This article examines the incidence of police homicides of people of color, the lack of law enforcement to seek solutions to their own internal …

Examination Of The Effects Of Speech Disorders On Juvenile Delinquency And The Potential Benefits Of Speech Therapy For Offenders, Katie Paparelli

Senior Honors Projects

In the United States, there are currently over 50,000 juveniles housed in youth confinement facilities for delinquent acts ranging from truancy to murder. To decrease that number, it is pertinent to identify possible risk factors of juvenile delinquency, but also to establish impactful preventative strategies as well as reactive solutions. Speech disorders and speech differences have been identified as potential risk factors for juvenile delinquency. Having a speech disorder/difference has an undeniable impact on a child’s life, with potentially negative impacts ranging from poor engagement with school and bullying—both risk factors in themselves for juvenile delinquency. Unsurprisingly, researchers have found …

Disrupting The School-To-Prison Pipeline : Implementing Alternative Education Programs To Reduce Student Disciplinary Issues, Michael M. Burns

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Conventional punitive detention- and suspension-based correctional approaches to student disruptive behavior are widely considered ineffective and counterproductive. Instead of offering opportunities for change and growth, they punish students they deem incorrigible by excluding them from instruction. While effective alternative approaches and programs exist, their use is far less widespread than would seem indicated. The purpose of this study is to explore how schools with successful alternative educational and disciplinary programs manage to overcome resistance to change and create settings that sustain the education for these students who through repeated disruptive behavior tend to fail in conventional punitive disciplinary programs. Three …

Profiles In Leadership: Women Of Color Elected To Office In Massachusetts, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In 2015, UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy released the first-ever publication exploring the elected leadership of women of color in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts largely to make known the contributions of female electeds of color across the Commonwealth. The publication also aimed to delve into what hinders and what facilitates the elected leadership of women of color. This 2021 updated publication contains profiles of the 174 women of color who have been elected to key policymaking positions and offers quantitative analysis to better understand office-holding patterns.

Evident in the profiles is the centrality of community …

Chronic Absenteeism At One Arkansas High School, Michelle Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X …

Amber Alert System: An Analysis On How Access To Technology Has Affected Effectiveness, Elizabeth Balcom

Master's Projects

This research was conducted to examine whether the introduction of Wireless Electronic Alerts (WEAs) to the AMBER Alert system in 2012 has impacted the effectiveness of the system from 2009 to 2019.

A Comparative Study Of Recovery Ecosystems For Opioid Use Disorder In Portugal And Appalachia, Jonathan David Mullins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A comparison of the structure and effectiveness of recovery ecosystems for opioid use disorder in Portugal and Appalachia, with a focus on identifying areas for improvement within the Appalachian region.

Use Of Force Under Scrutiny: Impacts Of Body-Worn Cameras On Types Of Force Used By Police, Michaela Elizabeth Goldsmith

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

While several studies have examined the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on the frequency of use of force incidents with mixed results, research evaluating the impact of BWCs on types of force is scant. Utilizing 86-months of use of force report data from a medium-sized mid-Atlantic police department (36 months pre, and 50 months post-BWC implementation), the current study addresses limitations in prior BWC research and explores the potential relationship between BWCs and the level/types of force used through the use of Vector Autoregression Analysis.

Mental Health, Substance Abuse And Recidivism: Perceptions Of Key Justice System Stakeholders In Southern California, Tabari Zahir

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Despite the 2011 landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ordering the California authorities to address prison overcrowding, the Golden State still faces significant challenges dealing with the size of its correctional population. Recidivism plays a preponderant role in slowing down the momentum toward overcoming relatively high rates of incarceration across the state. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of key human services stakeholders about the intersection of three major challenges in the California criminal justice system: mental health, substance use, and recidivism. Embracing a continuum of care approach, this study ultimately attempted to explore …

Profiling A Unique Female Serial Killer: Aileen Wuornos's Life Of Violence, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Vision Zero And The Bay Area Response: Traffic Fatalities And Perceptions Of Pedestrian Safety In Local Politics And Public Policy, Christopher Farrell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this study, I examine how the "Vision Zero" traffic safety plan has been implemented in the cities of San Francisco and San Jose and, employing qualitative interviews, I explore the perceptions of local elected officials and community leaders of local advocacy groups to understand their emergent appraisals of how effectively the policy is working, as well as assess the political implications and impact of the initiative. I find that local elected leaders have a range of perceptions, but the majority of local elected leaders and community leaders agree that getting more cars off the road, improving public transportation, and …

Child Welfare Service Worker's Perspective Of The Juvenile Justice System, Valorie Antone, Kathryn Whitehead, Alexander Comeau, Zoe Donvan

Thinking Matters Symposium

Prior literature indicates youth who have had adverse childhood events or are diagnosed with a mental illness are more likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system (Chappard & Maggard, 2020). While research has been performed to involve juvenile justice workers and juveniles that have been involved in the system, there has been little involvement by the child welfare workers who have followed the trajectory of the youth from the beginning of involvement. This study investigates the perceptions of child welfare workers regarding youth involvement in the criminal justice system, addressing a current gap in the literature. In terms …

Parchman Farm Penitentiary Exists As Modern Day Slavery, Savannah Plaisted

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

This research explores the connections between convict leasing in the state of Mississippi and the current state of prison labor at Parchman Farm Penitentiary (Mississippi State Penitentiary). The use of unpaid labor, the grossly disproportionate representation of Black men, the inhumane and grotesque conditions of the prison, the abnormally high death rate, and the continued execution of a disproportionate number of Black men of today’s Parchman Farm and the version of the prison at its initial founding in 1901 will be analyzed. All of these factors combined provide the foundation for the argument that slavery never ended in the state …

Best Practices For Voter Engagement Within Higher Education, Alyssa Tomins

Honors Projects

It is imperative that higher education institutions learn more about how to recruit members of younger generations to participate in future elections. Young people have historically voted at low rates, but that trend has started to change in recent years as more resources are being devoted to voter engagement among young people. This leads to the interest of understanding what best practices and strategies have academic institutions utilized to advance voter engagement on their campuses. This qualitative study analyzes these best practices and strategies at 84 colleges and universities, all of whom are members of The Andrew Goodman Foundation Vote …

Police Shootings In The Mountain West, 2015 - 2021, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

The Washington Post publishes and regularly updates a dataset regarding the use of deadly force by police since 2015. This fact sheet extracts data for each state in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and presents a regional perspective on the total number of individuals shot and killed by police, including demographic variables such as race, gender, and age. Two additional variables are included in this examination: the presence or absence of mental illness in the individual killed by police, and the presence or absence of a body-worn camera in incidents of deadly force by police.

United States Judicial System Failures And Solutions, Braden P. Barker

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

For years, the American judicial system has unfairly punished the American people. These actions have led to serious societal consequences. We have prisons that sentence people to harsh punishment for nonviolent offenses, an overfunded and militarized police force, and racial biases that lead to the tragic killings of black people at the hands of the police that are intended to protect and serve us. This essay looks to diagnose the United States judicial system’s woes. More importantly, we take a look at what steps can be taken immediately to begin reversing the negative impact of these issues.

Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Zero-Tolerance Discipline, And The School-To Prison Pipeline, Lois V. Woods

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Zero-tolerance discipline policies led to the introduction of police on school campuses and have resulted in a disproportionate number of in-school arrests and referrals of Black middle-school students, subjecting them to the school-to-prison pipeline. Data shows the negative effects of zero tolerance; however, less is known regarding alternative evidence-based strategies such as the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). Grounded in the labeling theoretical framework, this study examined whether JDAI status (pre-JDAI and post-JDAI) could predict arrests and referrals while controlling for race, gender, and age. Secondary data were collected from a juvenile court in northwest Georgia on 1,303 middle-school students. …

Noble Intent Is Not Enough To Run Veterans Court Mentoring Programs: A Qualitative Study Of Mentors’ Role Orientation And Responsibilities, Anne S. Douds, Eilenn M. Ahlin, Cassandra Atkin-Plunk, Michael Posteraro

Public Policy Faculty Publications

Mentoring is a key component of veterans treatment courts, a diversionary problem-solving court for justice-involved military veterans. Mentoring programs are unique to veterans’ courts; no other problem-solving courts systematically include them as critical components of their court programming. Despite their prominence in veterans courts, little is known about mentor program operations and court expectations for mentors’ roles and responsibilities. This study examines mentors’ roles and responsibilities as perceived by mentees, mentors, and veterans treatment court staff. Using in-depth interview data from respondents from each of these groups, supplemented by observational data from court hearings and pre-court meetings, we identify three …

Evaluation Of Sport Facilities In Sport Cities In Jordan, Sari Hamdan

Al-Balqa Journal for Research and Studies البلقاء للبحوث والدراسات

The aim of this study was to evaluate facilities in sport cities in Jordan. The sample of this study consisted of (24) employees in sport cities the researcher bilt a tool and validity and reliability was done for the research tool. The results showed that sport cities were in a good condition, however, El-Hussien city was significantly better than the other sport cities. The researcher recommended to using the research tool of this study as instrumentation to evaluate sports facilities in sport cities.

Italian Ambitions In Syria And Lebanon (1870-1945), Ahmad Alshrideh

Al-Balqa Journal for Research and Studies البلقاء للبحوث والدراسات

The aim of this study is to clarify the Italian Ambitions in Syria and Lebanon (1870-1945), and shows the Italian orientation in this region, and to know the Italian methods to achieve its ambitions. The study talks about the Italian movement towards Lebanon, and the Italians Intervention in Lebanese civil war 1860. Finally, the study recalls the Italian claims her mandate to Syria and Lebanon as an alternative to the French mandate. The study concluded that, despite Italys efforts to achieve its ambitions in Syria and Lebanon, it deeply collides with the legacy institutions that established by England and France …

The Impact Of Implementing The Principles Of Good Governance On The Quality Of Administrative Reports In The Palestinian Municipal Councils, Faeyz Abuamria, Nasser Mohammad Soud Jaradat, Mohammad Shaded

Al-Balqa Journal for Research and Studies البلقاء للبحوث والدراسات

This study aims at clarifying the impact of implementing the principles of good governance on the quality of administrative reports in the Palestinian municipal councils. A questionnaire was designed to pilot the views of mayors, deputy mayors, directors, heads of departments and employees in Bethlehem and Hebron directorates. Results showed that it is too early to talk about sound governance at local councils in the absence of applying the minimal principles of governance such as accountability, transparency and involving staff in decision-making. Furthermore, the administrative reports administered by the heads of administrative departments do not reflect the real situation nor …

U.S. Prisons And System Reform, Darian Reimels

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Prison systems, specifically in the U.S., are a wicked problem. For years prisoners have been treated inhumanely inside and outside of prison, with everyone looking at them with a judgmental eye. This essay aims to point out and bring light to these issues within the prison system. Specifically, it focuses on how inmates are treated during and after serving their sentence, and solitary confinement. To better understand and explain the problems to you, extensive research was done. Articles were read, organizations were researched, and a documentary was watched to gather the information needed to write this essay. The results showed …