Jeanne B. Stinchcomb

BEYOND ZERO TOLERANCE Restoring Justice in Secondary Schools

Zero tolerance policies in secondary schools now embrace an array of misbehaviors varying widely in seriousness. Their utility has therefore come into question, especially because they do not address causal factors and generally maintain an emphasis on suspension and expulsion. In contrast, responses based on a restorative justice philosophy embrace stakeholders in an interactive process to repair harm by addressing the nature of the misbehavior and resulting damages. In an effort to examine the applicability of restorative justice principles to disciplinary policies in educational settings, the explorative results of a pilot project are presented. Quantitative outcomes indicate reduced behavioral referrals and suspensions. Qualitative descriptions likewise point toward positive directions. Overall, findings are supportive of employing restorative justice principles in response to school-related misbehavior, which could be combined with traditional practices (for more serious offenders) in a synergistic approach to restoring order in our schools, responsibility in our students, and, ultimately, hope in our communities.

Scared smart or bored straight? Testing deterrence logic in an evaluation of police-led truancy intervention

Student truancy in secondary schools has increasingly been identified as an issue that merits the attention of the criminal and juvenile justice systems. This paper presents evaluation results from a recent study of a truancy intervention collaborative initiated and administered by a local sheriffs department in a large urban county in the southeastern United States. Findings provide a provisional test of a deterrence approach to truancy intervention. Implications are considered in the context of expanded criminal justice boundaries and an increasingly dominant role for law enforcement in what has traditionally been considered the informal responsibility of public educators.

Predicting the Likelihood of Rearrest among Shock Incarceration Graduates: Moving Beyond Another Nail in the Boot Camp Coffin

With the early stages of emotional enchantment with their symbolic appeal over, boot camps are increasingly being subjected to accountability measures. Despite their public popularity, research thus far has often cast doubt on the practical ability of such interventions to fulfill their expectations. This study of a 90-day, jail-based shock incarceration program adds to the mounting empirical evidence suggesting that boot camps may not be producing desired results. Realistically, however, such results are unlikely to extinguish this politically viable sentencing alternative. In exploring variables beyond program participation that might contribute to recidivism, this study found relationships between the likelihood of being rearrested and race, type of release, number of prior felonies, age, and sentencing points (criminal history). The implications of these findings for both judicial sentencing considerations and structural program modifications are discussed along with the challenges of constructing a matched comparison group for offenders serving jail rather than prison time.

Drug courts: Conceptual foundation, empirical findings, and policy implications

While drug courts have emerged on the criminal justice policy-making agenda with considerable fanfare in recent years, they have now reached the point in their operational advancement and political advocacy where continued growth and development are becoming more dependent on the strength of empirical evidence. Along with insights obtained from descriptions related to the history and function of drug courts, their divergence from traditional judicial practices, and their role in the new paradigm of therapeutic jurisprudence, this article analyzes the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the drug court evaluation literature. From a public policy perspective, these empirical assessments are considered in conjunction with the conceptual foundations and implementation strategies associated with contemporary drug courts, in an effort to address their future potential to maintain a prominent position on the public policy agenda. As with similar public initiatives, it is argued that the long-term survival of drug courts can be strengthened to the extent that they are based on theory that is solidly anchored to policy, policy to practice, and, ultimately, practice to evidence-based outcomes.

Should I Stay or Should I go? Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intent of Jail Staff Throughout the United States

Research on turnover in the correctional workplace has predominately focused on investigating the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intent among prison staff. In an effort to broaden that level of inquiry to encompass the jail workforce, this study analyzes data from a national survey of 1,924 line-level jail staff to assess the impact of both work-related variables and personal characteristics on the intention of employees to resign. Although not randomly generated, respondents represent 46 states and are generally reflective of what is known about composition of the national line officer jail workforce in terms of demographics. Descriptive results indicate that the majority of jail officers are satisfied with their jobs and have no intention of quitting. Further logistic regression modeling confirms related literature indicating that the most influential variables are dynamic factors such as job satisfaction and work environment, rather than the static variables associated with individual employee characteristics, such as gender, age, or race. Since the environmental variables investigated are amenable to change, it would appear that, with greater insights into these dynamic precursors of thoughts about quitting, jail administrators can develop strategic initiatives targeted toward proactively reducing the fiscal cost and intangible impact of voluntary turnover.

From rehabilitation to retribution: Examining public policy paradigms and personnel education patterns in corrections

The literature is saturated with discussions of how public policy paradigm shifts over the past several decades have affected everything from escalating prison populations to accelerating tax burdens. However, observers have not examined whether the transition from the medical model to the justice model has influenced the educational qualifications of custodial staff. Theoretically, one might assume that a treatment focus demands higher educational standards than a control orientation. The evidence presented herein largely refutes that assumption. In addition, there is some doubt as to whether advancing educational achievements will continue. Reasons for the dissonance between public policies and the educational credentials of line-level operational personnel are discussed, along with potential future implications.

Presentence Investigation Reports: A Relevant Justice Model Tool or a Medical Model Relic?:

As the clinically driven paradigm associated with the earlier era of criminal justice policy making known as the medical model has been replaced more recently by the legislatively defined prescriptions of the justice model, accompanying changes have occurred throughout the system. From the discretion of judges to the crowding of correctional institutions, few criminal justice operational practices have escaped the influence of changing public policy ideologies as the political pendulum has swung over time; presentence investigation (PSI) reports are no exception. Once the back-bone of a microoriented emphasis on the individual offenders potential for change, the nature, role, and impact of PSIs have been transformed as the system has shifted to policy-based sentencing practices that place higher value on personal accountability and procedural uniformity. Social forces that have shaped these alterations over time are explored in this article, along with how they have progressively affected and altered the basic functions of PSIs. Practical staff-related consequences of these developments are discussed, along with implications for future PSI utility and alternative research methodologies for exploring its potential influence.

Expanding the Literature on Job Satisfaction in Corrections A National Study of Jail Employees

While few variables have been studied with greater frequency than job satisfaction, outcomes have largely reflected ambiguous and inconsistent findings. To advance empirical knowledge as it relates to job satisfaction in corrections, this research design addresses a number of shortcomings prevalent in extant correctional literature. In that regard, it uniquely focuses on the rarely explored work environment of jails in the United States, incorporates a nationwide target population, includes both personal and organizational variables in the analysis, and employs a multifaceted inferential methodology based on the strength of causal analysis. Results indicate that it is not the personal variables such as age, race, gender, or ethnicity that primarily account for the job satisfaction of jail line staff, but rather, organizational variables. These include a supportive work climate, empowerment/autonomy, and compensation/benefits, with the greatest contributor being the employee’s overall work environment. Implications of the findings for sheriffs and jail administrators committed to the long-term process of elevating employee job satisfaction are discussed.

From Optimistic Policies to Pessimistic Outcomes: Why Won't Boot Camps Either Succeed Pragmatically or Succumb Politically?.

Abstract Although much of the evaluation research conducted to date on correctional boot camps has produced less-than-favorable results, unimpressive outcomes do not appear to have had a significant impact on their steadfast endurance. To some extent, this may be a reflection of the basic reality that correctional practices have not traditionally been strongly influenced by empirical research. Yet, in this era of public accountability, fiscal constraints, and demands to identify “what works,” similarly consistent findings might well have sounded the death knell for less notable correctional interventions. Why have boot camps been spared? Addressing this question calls for an analysis of the policy-making process itself, since the untimely endurance of a popular initiative may have more to do with the conditions promoting its acceptance than the conclusions discouraging its continuance. Probing boot camps from the perspective of the public policy process-ranging from conceptualization to formulation, implementation, and ultimately, evaluationoffers valuable insights into where breakdowns may have occurred between initial intentions and ultimate outcomes. Moreover, if correctional boot camps are not ready to succumb politically, perhaps such insights can provide guidance toward undertaking the modifications necessary to enhance their chances of succeeding pragmatically.

Using Logic Modeling to Focus Evaluation Efforts

Abstract ABSTRACT De spite con siderable ad vo cacy for the prin ci ples of the - ory-based eval u a tion, in prac tice such ap proaches are of ten more con cep - tual than op er a tional. This ar ti cle ex plores how the ory-based eval u a tion can ad vance be yond the ideo log i cal stage through the ve hi cle of logic mod el - ing. Il lus tra tions from cor rec tional in ter ven tions are used to dem on strate how pro gram the ory, in ter ven tion pro cesses, and eval u a tion meth od ol ogy can be united through mod els that vi sually dis play hy pothesized causal link ages. Both the prag matic and the the o ret i cal util ity of logic mod el ing are ad dressed, par tic u larly in terms of how it can help to bridge gaps be - tween re search ers and ad min is tra tors, guide op er a tional im prove ments, and more ef fec tively align pol icy-mak ing with re search find ings, thereby con - trib ut ing to the on-go ing pro cesses of both the ory-build ing and pol icy de - vel op ment.