Table of Contents:
- Opening the “Back Door” to Control a Local Jail Population: Emergency Release
- Justice-Involved Youth and Trauma-Informed Interventions
- The Inside-Out Model: A Community Reentry Program for Female Inmates upon Jail Release
- Effect of Extra-Legal Factors on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Sentencing Recommendations, Roles, and Practices
By: Kenneth Adams and Terry L. Baumer This research investigates the public safety aspects of a jail emergency release (ER) cohort by following this group of inmates for one year after release. Overall, the ER inmates have a slightly higher rate of post release arrest (23.1%) compared to other inmates (18.9%), owing to warrant arrests which may pre-date incarceration. In terms of outright arrest (on the spot), ER inmates (5.9%) have a comparable rearrest rate as other inmates (5.3%). The ER group also has noticeably higher failure to appear (FTA) rate (29.5%) compared to other releases (11.1%). Overall, the ER inmates do not greatly increase the risk of serious harm to the community, suggesting that pre-trial release policies could be more liberal without posing sizeable risk to the community. Expanded release policies also would bring a substantial savings in pre-trail jail detention costs. Differences in FTA rates, however, present considerable costs in terms of court administration and judicial integrity. More sophisticated and aggressive follow-up notifications could reduce these costs, perhaps to the point that differences in FTA rates become a minor problem. Justice-Involved Youth and Trauma-Informed Interventions
By: Precious Skinner-Osei, Laura Mangan, Mara Liggett, Michelle Kerrigan, and Jill S. Levenson Professionals working in the juvenile justice system must consider the impact of trauma on justice-involved youth when creating interventions and policies. Most youths involved with the justice system have a history of childhood adversity. Juvenile justice service systems should work to implement trauma-informed interventions that address the needs of youth with mental health and traumarelated disorders. The adoption of a trauma-informed approach throughout the juvenile justice system and the implementation of interventions for juvenile offenders with a history of trauma exposure has enormous potential benefits for justice-involved youth, the staff who work with them, their families, and the community at large. The Inside-Out Model: A Community Reentry Program for Female Inmates upon Jail Release
By: Cassie D. Schmitt-Matzen
Based off of standard program planning models, the Inside-Out Model takes a Logic, Interactive, and Asset-Based Community Development Model and fuses them to form the Inside-Out Model. The model is based on the premise that one must start from the inside to plan an effective program. Theoretically, a community will only make changes in their community by focusing on the resources inside their community. Furthermore, this article takes the Inside-Out Model and applies it to a community reentry program for female inmates upon release from jail. From the practical side, the model focuses on each woman (the inside) and develops outward to the community resources. The Inside-Out Model for this community reentry program is explained for practitioners to know precisely how to go about each stage in the program planning process.
Effect of Extra-Legal Factors on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Sentencing Recommendations, Roles, and PracticesBy: Sheri Jenkins Keenan and Jeffrey P. Rush The traditional method of studying dispositional outcomes by pre-court and court level officials in the juvenile court system focus on legal and extra-legal variables. A number of studies have documented variations in case processing by police, probation officers, and judges in the juvenile court. Missing from the research is the influence that juvenile probation officers have on judicial decision making. This study sought to examine the relationship between individual characteristics of juvenile probation officers: age, gender, race, level of education, tenure, and jurisdiction, and their perceptions regarding their sentencing recommendations, roles, and probation practices. Chi-square tests of independence were used to understand the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Several significant interactions were found among the independent variables gender, level of education, and tenure. Suggestions for future research are offered.