Leslie A. Leip

Testing and Developing Theory in Drug Court: A Four-Part Logit Model to Predict Program Completion

The expansion of drug courts into numerous additional jurisdictions continues at a rapid pace. Despite this, and the commensurate growth of drug court literature, there remains a surprising paucity of empirical studies that test and develop an underlying theory for drug court. This research is an empirical study that analyzes and tests therapeutic jurisprudence as the theory behind the drug court mission and its day-to-day operations. A logit model is used to assess the strength of specific theoretical components on an offenders ability to complete the drug court program. The findings indicate, among other things, that the manner of interactions between the judge and offenders can increase the likelihood of an offenders ability to remain abstinent and stay engaged in treatment for the duration of the drug court program.

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.

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.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Executive Order 12898: Environmental Justice for All?

This article examines several federal and state laws, such as the Worker Protection Standards and the Florida Pesticide Law, to determine whether the goals of these laws are being achieved in the State of Florida. A survey based on questions pertaining to various laws was used to gather data on farm workers in three South Florida counties. Face–to–face interviews were conducted with farm workers in Palm Beach and Indian River counties, Florida, in 1997 and in Collier County, Florida, in 1999. Overall, the findings indicate that farm workers in South Florida have been exposed to pesticides through direct or indirect spraying. The findings of the study reveal that federal and state laws—currently in place to protect the workers from pesticide exposure—are not effectively implemented, and farm workers are uninformed of the laws that exist to protect them from pesticide exposure. The study concludes with policy recommendations that will improve the implementation and enforcement of the current laws, which are designed to protect farm workers from pesticide exposure.

Victim participation in the new juvenile court: Tracking judicial attitudes toward restorative justice reforms

Although victims’ rights legislation is now challenging juvenile justice professionals to give crime victims a role in decision making, juvenile courts have traditionally focused primarily on the individual needs and risks of young offenders. Recently, the restorative justice focus on repairing harm has helped to link victim involvement to a broader juvenile court mission that includes victims, as well as offenders and communities, as stake-holders in the justice process. Based on a national survey of U.S. juvenile court judges, as well as qualitative data from focus groups in four states, this article examines attitudes toward crime victim participation at several levels of the juvenile justice system. The impact of individual experience, organizational environment, and professional ideology on these attitudes is examined using multivariate analyses to explain differences in support for the focus on victim involvement as one component of restorative justice. Implications for implementation of restorative justice policy and practice, as well as for future research, are considered.

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.

Turning off jail turnover: do generational differences matter?

Reducing turnover in America’s jails is a significant fiscal concern and a serious organizational challenge. When determining how to improve retention, the private sector has been influenced by the literature on generational relevance. To explore whether similar cohort-driven motivators might be productively directed toward reducing jail turnover, the application of generational relevance theory to jails was empirically tested. To assess the impact of retention-related variables on various age cohorts working in America’s jails, a national survey was administered to jail staff throughout the country. Results indicate that less than half of the variables included in the analysis reached levels of statistical significance when analyzed by generational cohorts, and even among significant variables, over one-third were age-driven by nature. Although the findings do little to advance the cause of generational relevance theory, they are not without merit for jail administrators seeking to reduce turnover, pointing toward the universal appeal such intrinsic factors as treating people fairly, creating a positive work climate, and assuring that employees are listened to, have input, and are recognized, respected, and appreciated. Essentially, results indicate that reducing jail turnover is more likely to be a product of initiatives that are generically requisite than generationally relevant.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A CASE STUDY OF FARM WORKERS IN SOUTH FLORIDA

ABSTRACT One purpose of this study is to examine the complex government infrastructure that implements and enforces laws that were created to protect farm workers from environmental hazards. The second purpose is to present a case study on farm workers in South Florida to determine whether the federal and state laws are protecting this occupational group from environmental hazards related to pesticide exposure. A survey based on questions that pertain to various laws was used to gather data on farm workers in two South Florida counties. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with farm workers at several migrant farm worker day care centers in Palm Beach and Indian River County, Florida. The findings of the study reveal that federal and state laws which are currently in place to protect the workers from pesticide exposure do not adequately protect the workers from exposure to harmful pesticides and farm workers are uninformed of the laws which exist to protect them from possible pesticide exposure. The study concludes with policy recommendations that will improve the implementation and enforcement of the current laws designed to protect farm workers from pesticide exposure.

The Impact of Job Expectations, Workload, and Autonomy on Work-Related Stress Among Prison Wardens in the United States:

Prison wardens manage both external pressures and internal challenges that affect work-related stress. Using data from a national survey of prison wardens, we examined the impact of conflicting job expectations, workload, and job autonomy on work-related stress among prison wardens. The ordered logistic regression results showed a significant and positive relationship between conflicting job expectations and work-related stress. The results also showed a significant and positive relationship between unmanageable workloads and stress on the job. We found a negative and significant relationship between job autonomy and work-related stress, though the relationship was relatively weak. The importance of this study lies in its ability to help isolate factors that affect job stress among prison wardens, which in turn may produce better organizational support, management, and human resources policy to improve conditions for prison wardens, staff, and inmates.

Job Satisfaction and Work-Related Stress: Results From a National Survey of Prison Wardens

The job of prison warden encompasses numerous external pressures and internal challenges, along with commensurately high performance expectations, the cumulative impact of which may be reflected in the job satisfaction and work-related stress of incumbents. Using data gathered from a national survey of prison wardens, we examine the impact of work-related stress, depersonalization, and the authority to carry out responsibilities on job satisfaction levels of prison wardens across the nation.