Digital Commons Network^™

Law School News: 'Injustice Dehumanizes Everyone It Touches' 1-31-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The 15th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Keynote Address 1-28-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden, Andrea Hansen

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Recidivism Among Previously Incarcerated People Enrolled In Riverside County Whole Person Care, Ndifreke Emmanuel Etim

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The United States continues to policy shift towards reducing the number of incarcerated people; however, many people released from incarceration will be rearrested due to re-entry challenges. Several re-entry programs, such as the Whole Person Care pilot, have been developed to address these challenges and ensure that formerly incarcerated people successfully transition into the community. The primary aim of this project is to explore the determinants of recidivism among previously incarcerated people enrolled in the Whole Person Care pilot in Riverside County. This study suggests early linkage to services, such as mental health and substance use treatment services, will reduce …

Evaluating Integrated Treatment On Recidivism For Female Offenders In Criminal Justice System, Oyin T. Popoola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The burden of co-occurring disorders (CODs) among offenders in the criminal justice system (CJS) in the United States, particularly among the female population, is threatening the communities. About 80% of women in the CJS were diagnosed and treated for CODs, and 63% tend to be rearrested. The study examined the possible influence of CODs, integrated treatment of CODs, and gender, on recidivism while controlling for other demographic factors. The study was based on the conceptual framework of integrated dual disorder treatment (IDDT) and feminist criminology theory. Cross-sectional quantitative study design was applied on a secondary dataset from the 2017 Treatment …

Preventing Sexual Violence: Alternatives To Worrying About Recidivism, Eric S. Janus

Faculty Scholarship

How can it be that in the era in which almost one million Americans are on sex offender registries—most of whom are publicly stigmatized on websites, banished from their homes, shunned from their jobs, prevented from uniting with their families and traveling internationally, forced into homelessness, all of which increases their risk for suicide, and shames their spouses and children, even if their offenses occurred long in the past—that the #MeToo movement would explode, revealing widespread sexual misconduct against women, by powerful men, protected by iconic institutions? How can we have had three decades of the most aggressive, “spare-no-expense” laws …

A Phenomenological Study Of Christian Conversion And Recidivism In Ex-Prisoners, Christopher Featherstone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recidivism rates are high in the United States. According to the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, within 5 years of being released, 77% of ex-prisoners are arrested, with 37%

arrested within the first 6 months and 57% arrested within the first year. Past research has

indicated that religiosity functions as a protective factor in relation to criminal behaviors

that is consistent across genders and developmental periods. The purpose of this

qualitative study was to examine Christianity as a protective factor against offending. The

theoretical framework of the study, self-determination theory, with its focus on

individuals’ growth tendencies based on self-motivation and …

Psycho-Social Processes Of Desistance In Post-Release Reintegration Of African American Ex-Offenders, Ladawn Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Virginia’s incarceration statistics revealed a significant increase in recidivism 6-36 months post-release, the highest jail occupancy rate in the United States in 2014, and the seventh highest prison occupancy rate in 2016. African American males are the highest incarcerated population every year statewide. Virginia’s diversion initiative, implemented to address recidivism and overcrowding, had a high failure rate among enrollees in reported outcomes from 2010 to 2015, a lower number of African American enrollees compared to White enrollees, and inconsistent funding from 2007 to 2015. This phenomenological case study focused on the reintegration experiences of African American ex-offenders in Virginia through …

Transforming Trauma: Performing The Works Of William Shakespeare As Rehabilitation For Incarcerated Individuals, Elyssa Mersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is the summation of my research and exploration into the history, social ramifications, and individual psychological impact of incarceration and the use of theatre as a vehicle of rehabilitation. Throughout my studies, I encountered evidence in the forms of personal accounts from theatre practitioners, scholarly articles, inmate testimonials, and historical journals regarding the success of such carceral theatre programs in the reformation of the prisoners they serve. How have past prison procedures and strategies hindered or helped inmates in their preparation for their transition from life in a penitentiary to reintroduction into larger society? What are the financial …

Effects Of Prerelease And Reentry Programs On Male Recidivism In The Midwest, Tenisha N. Mack

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine the effectiveness of prerelease and reentry programs on recidivism from the perspective of male ex-offenders. The prison population in the United States in 2.3 million according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Most ex-offenders recidivate in the first 3 years. Prerelease and reentry programs are responsible for successful reintegration for many ex-offenders. However, this study revealed that a holistic approach to rehabilitation pre-and postrelease contributed to a better quality of life for ex-offenders, their families, and communities. The operant conditioning and social cognitive theories provided the theoretical foundation for this …

Remorse, Not Race: Essence Of Parole Release?, Lovashni Khalikaprasad

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Examining The Criminogenic Effect Of Imprisonment On Drug Offender Recidivism, Tiffany Jean Vedder

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies have found criminogenic consequences of imprisonment when testing the deterrence hypothesis, yet few studies were found that examined the magnitude of post release criminal offenses among the drug offender population. The specific deterrence and criminogenic effects of imprisonment were the theoretical frameworks that guided this study of Harris County, Texas, to determine if incarceration predicted serious reoffending among low-level drug offenders. A Journal of Science and Law (Scilaw) archival dataset based on Harris County court records was used to build the sample. Chi-squared test of association and logistic regression statistics were used to analyze a sample of first-time drug …

The Predictive Ability Of Self-Efficacy On Recidivism Among Adult Male Offenders, Marianne Kelly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With crime rates high and increasing numbers of offenders receiving community-based corrections sentences, factors related to risk of recidivism should be a high priority for researchers. The impact of crime on offenders, victims, and communities is costly. Traditional punishment has done little to reduce crime, particularly among repeat offenders. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive ability of self-efficacy on recidivism, based on social cognitive theory. The research design was quantitative and nonexperimental, using regression analyses. The nonrandomized sample consisted of adult males incarcerated on felony charges at a large urban jail in the Midwest of the …

An Exploration Of Recidivism Based On Education And Race, Michael Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with over 2,200,000 individuals in jails and prisons. From 1970 to 2000, the U.S. prison population increased by 500%. African American men are rearrested 72.7% of the time within 3 years of their release from prison. African Americans have a higher incarceration rate than any other racial group in the United States; nearly 1,000,000 African Americans are in jail or prison. Moreover, 60% of African American men who drop out of school are incarcerated by the age of 30 years old. Researchers have demonstrated that education can reduce …

Effects Of Laws, Policies, And Rehabilitation Programs On African American Male Juvenile Recidivism In Southwest Georgia, Kizzie Donaldson-Richard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The laws, policies, and rehabilitation programs of Georgia’s juvenile justice system need to be revisited, especially given the documented rates of recidivism of African American male juveniles in southwest Georgia. The primary purpose of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate youthful offenders and to ensure that recidivism, defined as 3 or more arrests within 3 years after release, does not occur. Data have suggested that corrective behavior sanctions, rehabilitation programs, and lenient sentencing have escalated African American male juvenile recidivism rates, particularly in Dougherty and Tift Counties, Georgia. The purpose of this qualitative methodological study was to explore the …

Community-Based Workers’ Treatment And Relationship With African American Men With Dual Diagnosis, André V. Haley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Helping professionals have a role as service providers when working with African American men with dual diagnosis and incarceration histories. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to understand how helping professionals provided community-based treatment and established a helper/helpee relationship with this population of African American men. Hirschi’s social control theory provided the framework for the study. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data from 9 helping professionals who worked with this population in the Northeast United States. Yin’s 5-step model for case studies was used for data analysis and thematic coding. Findings indicated that professionals lacked competency …

Offender Participation In Multiple Rehabilitation Programs To Reduce Recidivism, Jonathan Michael Yearwood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Rehabilitation programs are critical for reducing recidivism rates and reintegrating offenders into the community. Despite the recognition that offenders face many challenges, few scholars have investigated the relationship between prisoners who receive more than 1 rehabilitation program and recidivism. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational cross-sectional study using archival data from a correctional facility in Barbados was to assess the relationship between age, education, employment, and multiple rehabilitation programs on recidivism. The conceptual framework of this study was grounded in the lifecycle theory, the social learning theory, the social cognitive theory, and the social disintegration theory. The primary research question …

Perceptions Of The Reentry Process Among African American Male Ex-Offenders With Multiple Incarcerations, Chanae Latrice Lumpkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Within 3 years of their release from the criminal justice system, almost 7 out of 10 released African American males go back to. There is limited social science research into how these ex-offenders perceive their lived experiences after release. The research questions that guided this inquiry related to understanding the post-prison experiences of African American males with a history of multiple incarcerations. The conceptual framework was guided by Tajfel’s social identity theory and Becker’s social reaction theory. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 6 African American males with a history of multiple incarcerations who had been released from …

Juvenile Arrest And Recidivism Rate In Fulton County, Georgia, Norell Combs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of a Juvenile Justice Department in the United States justice system is to prevent juvenile offenses and to promote the smooth transition of young offenders when they are leaving rehabilitation centers and reentering society. That purpose essentially dedicates itself to fight against rehabilitation of youth. The Department of Juvenile Justice in Fulton County, Georgia (DJJFC), has created rehabilitation programs to facilitate this transition process for young offenders. Fulton County including its citizens, school system, parents, and juveniles would benefit from this issue being resolved. The purpose of this research was to explore the juvenile arrest and recidivism rates …

Evaluating Implementation And Adaptation Of Moral Reconation Therapy At A Local Jail, Branwen Gregory

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Recidivism among criminal offenders has been a persistent and intractable problem for many decades. Cognitive behavioral interventions, particularly when implemented with adherence to the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) treatment model, have proven to be effective in reducing recidivism rates. However, real world circumstances in penal institutions place restrictions on how these programs are implemented and may make it difficult for these interventions to be instituted with integrity and/or adherence to the RNR model. This is a particular challenge at local jails, which house shorter-term populations and have fewer resources. Currently there is a lack of research looking at the effectiveness of treatment …

Relationships Between Education Track, Adverse Childhood Experience, And Recidivism Among Juveniles, Catherine Gammage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A high recidivism level, despite attempts by regulatory agencies and various institutions to decrease it, is currently a disturbing problem of the juvenile justice system. Adjudicated youth released from residential treatment centers are often reincarcerated within 3 years after their release. Residential treatment centers provide mandated educational and treatment services for all incarcerated youth. The educational programs offered by residential treatment centers should include academic and career technology programs which support community reintegration. The opportunity for students to receive a high school diploma and industry certifications for career readiness is an important way to decrease recidivism for juveniles. This study …

Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism, J. J. Prescott, Benjamin David Pyle, Sonja B. Starr

Faculty Scholarship

People convicted of violent crimes constitute a majority of the imprisoned population but are generally ignored by existing policies aimed at reducing mass incarceration. Serious efforts to shrink the large footprint of the prison system will need to recognize this fact. This point is especially pressing at the time of this writing, as states and the federal system consider large-scale prison releases motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those convicted of violent crimes constitute a large majority of older prisoners, who are extremely vulnerable to the spread of the virus behind bars. Excluding them from protective measures will deeply undermine those …

The Growth And Need For Veterans Treatment Courts, Chad Lennon

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reducing Recidivism Rates, Oscar Padilla

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This main purpose of the project is to support Santa Cruz County to reduce recidivism rates. Defining recidivism from the county's perspective and discussing the factors that contribute to recidivism helps to understand the problem this project seeks to address. A discussion of the consequences of high recidivism rates helps the community understand why something must be done. AB 109 is an important bill that impacts this population in Santa Cruz county allowing for innovative solutions to be implemented. With AB109 funding a new service center was created to serve this population. The Santa Cruz Probation Service Center (PSC) opened …

Eradicating Recidivism: Evangelism For African American Men Impacted By Mass Incarceration, Anthony Mark Berry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Prison Industrial Complex impacts 2.3 million people, affects the poor, and the nation's minority family's ability to retain a sense of unity. These data impact community health with the absence of the father figures, lack of power to gain viable income, and in some cases, the right to vote. The issue decimates African American young men. This topic is needed because the research suggests a cyclic nature of excavation of human capital by incarceration and is depleting communities of capital by jailing wage earners from the Black community. Voting capital is dwindling in some states where felony crimes remove …

“Can I Be Something More Than The Worst Thing I Had Ever Done?”: The Difficulties Of Reentry After Incarceration In Kentucky, Larissa Dm Heslop

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the difficulties that people face upon reentry after incarceration in Kentucky. An ethnographic background was used to understand the current situation of incarceration and reentry in Kentucky. Mass incarceration, Kentucky incarcerated population demographics, high costs of incarceration, and Kentucky politics on incarceration are covered in the ethnographic background. A literature review was used to give context to difficulties that people face such as clothing, disenfranchisement, education, employment, family relations and social support, housing, transportation and basic needs, mental health, religion, and stigma. Ethnographic research methods, which consisted of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, were used to …

Gender Disparities In Plea Bargaining, Carlos Berdejo

Indiana Law Journal

Across wide-ranging contexts, academic literature and the popular press have identified pervasive gender disparities favoring men over women in society. One area in which gender disparities have conversely favored women is the criminal justice system. Most of the empirical research examining gender disparities in criminal case outcomes has focused on judges’ sentencing decisions. Few studies have assessed disparities in the steps leading up to a defendant’s conviction, where various actors make choices that constrain judges’ ultimate sentencing discretion. This Article addresses this gap by examining gender disparities in the plea-bargaining process. The results presented in this Article reveal significant gender …

Intervention Response To The Trauma-Exposed, Female Juvenile Offender: A Review Of Effectiveness In Reducing Recidivism, Ashley M. Thomann

Social Work Theses - Archive

When analyzed by general factors of effectiveness (Lispsey, 2009) and concepts of gender-responsivity (Day, Zahn, & Tichavsky, 2015) that target the needs of female juvenile-justice involved youth, reviewed studies show the concomitant need to address trauma-based mental health concerns with attention to the quality of implementation and appropriateness of setting in which the intervention is effectuated. Findings show effective intervention for this population aims to target the youth's negative internal mechanisms related to trauma-subsequent psychosocial problems. These studies further suggest that trauma-sensitive modalities have the potential to mitigate further risk of problematic external behaviors. This position of this review is …

The Impact Of A Felon's Overall Well-Being On Education, Employment, And Recidivism, Shandrika S. Mcnair-Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examines the relationship between the self-reported mental well-being of a felon concerning their educational choices, employment opportunities, and recidivism. The study is a correlational quantitative study that used a multiple regression to analyze the data. Data were examined from visitors to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. The data were collected from the convenience sample of 106 unemployed or underemployed felons seeking employment and/or training. The study found that there was no statistical significance between the self-reported mental well-being of a felon and their employment choices or recidivism. A significant regression equation was found with a statistically significant …

Disciplinary Segregation’S Effects On Inmate Behavior: Institutional And Community Outcomes, Youngki Woo, Laurie A. Drapela, Michael F. Campagna, Mary K. Stohr, Zachary K. Hamilton, Xiaohan Mei, Elizabeth Thompson Tollefsbol

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Disciplinary segregation (DS) is practiced in a variety of correctional settings and a growing body of research explores its subsequent effects among offenders. The present study contributes to this literature by analyzing the impact of short-term DS on violent infractions and community recidivism among a sample of inmates in Washington State. We assessed the impact of DS on these outcomes from deterrence and stain theory perspectives while controlling for social support variables such as visitations and correctional programming. Mentally ill offenders were excluded, as their abilities to make rational choices may be inconsistent with deterrence theory. Results show DS does …

Occupational Therapy In Prisons, Amber Carmean, Amanda Boman, Katie Kowalski, Joselyn Walsworth

Community Based

This study investigates the needs of incarcerated individuals upon reintegration into the community. In this article, we use thematic analysis to dissect two prison documentaries in order to best assess the needs of these individuals to inform occupational therapy intervention. Occupational therapy seeks to empower individuals while analyzing needs and how the individuals can be best supported. Our analysis shows that there are many needs that go unaddressed prior to community reintegration leading to a higher chance of recidivism recurring. Through better understanding the needs of individuals, occupational therapy can become better informed on how intervention can benefit this specific …