Corrections Today articles from February 1997

Corrections Today archives from February 1997

Hoop star makes a difference in the lives of youths. (Jeff Lisath, deputy warden of administration at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville)
February 1, 1997... Like many, Jeff Lisath always has been a dreamer. However, the difference is, this deputy warden of administration at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville makes his dreams come true. His love of basketball began around age 13...

The Warden Wore Pink.
February 1, 1997... Gender discrimination in the corrections profession is not unusual. This was true especially in the early 1970s when Tekla Dennison Miller began forging her way as a corrections pioneer. The Warden Wore Pink is a firsthand account of Miller's...

Captured on Film: The Prison Movie.
February 1, 1997... Most of us received our first glimpse of the prison world on the silver screen of our local movie theater long before we came to work in the criminal justice system. The isolated world of the prison makes sensational subject matter for a...

Learning life lessons inside a correctional facility.(Column)
February 1, 1997... As I enter the facility where I teach GED classes two afternoons each week, I remember the words of a local preacher who told the story of a man who was robbed. When writing in his journal one evening, the man became determined to list reasons...

105th Congress faces diverse criminal justice agenda.
February 1, 1997... The 105th Congress, which began on Jan. 7, faces a diverse array of criminal justice issues. Some of these issues were left unresolved in 1996, and they are being joined by several new challenges. There have been some changes since the last...

Bringing the lessons of prison riots into focus. (includes related article on the fearful future of prison riots due to increasing prison populations)
February 1, 1997... Hindsight is always 20/20. After riots like New Mexico and Attica shook the criminal justice community, corrections practitioners began to take stock of lessons they could learn to help prevent similar tragedies from occurring. Large, crowded...

Emergency preparedness: a BOP follow-up report. (Bureau of Prisons)(Population Boom)
February 1, 1997... In July 1994, Corrections Today contained an article on emergency preparedness which focused on how the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) approaches tactical issues. The article told what to do in the event of a major disruption of institutional...

Ted Gest. (journalist of the U.S. News & World Report)(Outside Looking In: Four Journalists Examine Criminal Justice Issues)
February 1, 1997... "An alarming trend, folks," warned the lecturer, pointing to a population chart. "By 3000 A.D., all Americans will be retired or in prison." This recent Wall Street Journal cartoon reflected a grim reality for correctional officers. For more than...

Julia Cass. (journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer)(Outside Looking In: Four Journalists Examine Criminal Justice Issues)
February 1, 1997... As I write this, I am thinking of a s, tory I just completed about Pennsylvania's first nursing home prison - a geriatric and long-term medical care wing that's part of a new prison being retrofitted from a former state mental hospital....

Dan Morain. (journalist for the Los Angeles Times)(Outside Looking In: Four Journalists Examine Criminal Justice Issues)
February 1, 1997... It was not James Gomez's best day. Gov. Pete Wilson had just called for a criminal investigation of Corcoran State Prison, and Arty. Gen. Dan Lungren agreed to open the probe. Seven inmates had been fatally shot by correctional officers since the...

Michael Isikoff. (journalist for Newsweek)(Outside Looking In: Four Journalists Examine Criminal Justice Issues)
February 1, 1997... Few developments in recent years have ha, d a more disturbing impact on America's criminal justice system than the war on drugs. A series of mandatory sentencing laws - enacted during the height of antidrug hysteria in the mid-1980s - has caused...

Controlling prison crowding.(Population Boom)
February 1, 1997... Faced with growing jail and prison populations fueled by the "War on Drugs," U.S. correctional systems have invested heavily in expanding their bed capacities. Yet, the construction boom has not caught up with the population boom in most states....

Remembering the Camp Hill Riot.(Population Boom)
February 1, 1997... Editor's Note: In July 1996, Robert Freeman wrote an article for Corrections Today dealing with post-riot litigation. This related piece, excerpted from Freeman's book, Strategic Planning for Correctional Emergencies, offers a firsthand account...

Violence behind bars. (prison officers killed in the line of duty)(In the Line of Duty)
February 1, 1997... Editor's note: Reprinted from the July/August 1996 issue of American Police Beat with the permission of the author. Approximately 1,500 inmates had gathered for the noon meal at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. One of the...

The effects of the Duran Consent Decree. (negotiated agreement between the inmate population and the New Mexico Department of Corrections regarding prison operations)
February 1, 1997... Although violence within corrections is fairly common, it only captures society's attention when it erupts on a large scale, such as a prison riot. On Feb. 2, 1980, perhaps the bloodiest prison riot in American history occurred at the New Mexico...

Preventing security crises at youth centers. (juvenile detention and correctional centers)
February 1, 1997... America's festering problems now funnel a torrent of disaffected youths into the nation's bulging juvenile detention and correctional centers. As administrators look for alternatives to incarcerating youths, many are turning to programs to manage...

Inmate rights: sparks for staff training.
February 1, 1997... Nearly every correctional officer (CO) has known, read about or heard of an officer being sued by inmates. Good defenses against inmate lawsuits start with interest in the subject and common sense. Both state and federal courts treat inmate...