Corrections Today articles from August 1999

Corrections Today archives from August 1999

Hate crime: not new, but still alarming.(Editorial)
August 1, 1999... The hate crime problem is not new; it is not unique to the United States. However, that does not make it less of a concern to those of us in the correction profession. I am troubled that hate crime is the topic of this issue of Corrections...

Learning not to hate.(hate that underlies hate crimes can be unlearned)
August 1, 1999... Although the targeted groups may change, hatred and its consequences do not. Individuals are not born prejudiced. Instead, prejudice is a learned emotion and behavior. Thus, it can be learned. What is it that makes people hate? For...

Integrity at its finest.(Best in the Business)(citation of correctional officer Greg Polzin)
August 1, 1999... The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. This certainly is true in Greg Polzin's case. Corrections was an integral part of his early years - His father retired as assistant superintendent of the Gordon Correctional Center in Gordon, Wis.,...

Lone Star State doesn't go it alone.(Texas Correctional Association)
August 1, 1999... In Texas, everything is bigger. Take the Texas Correctional Association (TCA), for example. According to Executive Director Roy Bohrer, "TCA is the only professional corrections group in Texas that encompasses everyone who is working in or...

Effective strategies for managing litigation and working with attorneys general offices.
August 1, 1999... One of the pressing problems confronting adult and juvenile correctional departments is the effective management of a burgeoning litigation caseload that encompasses everything from systemwide class action conditions of confinement lawsuits to...

Understanding and responding to youth gangs: a juvenile corrections approach.(Hate Crimes)(Cover Story)
August 1, 1999... During the past two decades, the United States has seen the youth gang problem grow at an alarming rate. According to the National Youth Gang Center, the number of cities with youth gang problems has increased from an estimated 286 with more...

Hate crimes: state and federal response to bias-motivated violence.
August 1, 1999... Chained to the back of a pickup truck by the ankles and dragged to death - One man's life ended in a heinous murder and the public's conscience awoke to the horrifying headlines describing the mutilated remains of a black man scattered along a...

Can tolerance be taught?(understanding and reducing incidence of hate crimes)
August 1, 1999... The typical hate crime offender is a first-time offender, or "a teen-ager who goes out Saturday night looking for someone to bash," says Jack Levin, author of Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed. He estimates that no more than...

Stop the hate: Massachusetts Task Force creates student civil rights project to combat problem.(hate crimes)
August 1, 1999... Massachusetts Task Force Creates Student Civil Rights Project to Combat Problem Hate crimes create fear, mistrust and hostility among society members. They occur in communities worldwide and no one is exempt from them. However, society...

Civil rights lawyers organize a national response to hate crime.
August 1, 1999... BIAS VIOLENCE IS SEVERELY UNDERREPORTED BY VICTIMS, PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF IGNORANCE OF THE LAW, DISTRUST AND FEAR OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS, AND LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL BARRIERS. In 1963, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law...

Applying correctional intelligence to law enforcement investigations.
August 1, 1999... The traditional motivating factors a correctional agency uses to form gang intelligence units typically are related to incidents of "gang-motivated" disruptive behavior within its facilities. However, what if no documented history of gang...

Poisoning the Web: hatred online.
August 1, 1999... Editor's Note: The following is reprinted verbatim from Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online with permission from the Anti-Defamation League, 1999. INTRODUCTION The tragic and horrifying events that unfolded on April 20, 1999, in...

Capital Punishment in the United States - A Documentary History.(Review)
August 1, 1999... eds. Bryan Vila and Cynthia Morris, Greenwood Press, (203) 226-3571, 1997, 337 pp. The United States has legally executed nearly 15,000 people since colonial times; more than 7,700 of those have taken place in the 20th century. Currently,...

The 2000 crime bill: the starting points.
August 1, 1999... The 1994 Crime Act is up for reauthorization by Congress in 2000. The debate on this important topic has already begun with Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and the Clinton administration, all promoting their own versions of what the...

Courts decide on unconstitutional confinement and family visitation.
August 1, 1999... Craig v. Eberly, U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, 1998 In this Colorado case, Bobby Woods Craig Jr. claimed that he was subjected to unconstitutional conditions of confinement while incarcerated at the Otero County Jail. Specifically,...

Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement forms partnership.
August 1, 1999... The Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement (OCJTP) was created within the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) in March 1995. From the start, OCJTP has sought to advance the skills of those who help offenders find, obtain and...

One hundred years of conditional release in Canada.
August 1, 1999... In the June 1999 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, Sasha Abramsky's article, "When They Get Out," discusses the problem of releasing large numbers of offenders from U.S. prisons. The author examines how prisons produce crime by creating more...

New technologies protect officers and inmates.
August 1, 1999... Imagine being able to subdue an inmate by lighting up a cell with bright green lasers from a handheld flashlight. Picture yourself temporarily disabling an inmate with an electric shock from 30 feet away, or firing a projectile that combines...

American Correctional Association standards: shaping the future of corrections.
August 1, 1999... Editor's note: The following article originally appeared in the Correctional Accreditation Association of Ohio's newsletter, CAAO Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 1. Are standards regarding unit management in prisons too inflexible? How should...