Corrections Today articles from February 1998

Corrections Today archives from February 1998

Influencing public perception. (corrections professionals)(Editorial)
February 1, 1998... Remember 20 years ago? People smoked. Anywhere. Every-where. And few people objected to it. Then the media took a stand. More and more people became aware of the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke. People who didn't smoke stood up. Those of...

All in a day's work. (Buena Vista Corrections Center and Saginaw Parole Office parole agent Mary Anne Malek)(Best in the Business)
February 1, 1998... Why is it that the people most deserving of recognition are the least receptive to it? Mary Anne Malek, parole agent for the Buena Vista Corrections Center and Saginaw Parole Office, i,n Saginaw, Mich., is one of those people. She doesn't enjoy...

Openness is the best policy. (community relations)(Column)
February 1, 1998... Taxpayers have a right to know what's going on in their prison systems, good or bad. As public employees, it is our duty to keep them informed. Working with reporters and allowing them access to our prisons and inmates is an important part of any...

Taking a balanced approach to media access.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... In Virginia, we take a balanced approach to correctional management with the understanding that protecting the public s safety is the first and foremost responsibility of state government. We try to do this in the most efficient, cost-effective...

Media access: where should you draw the line? (includes related article on California's media access policy)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... While the Media May Not Always Portray Corrections In a Positive Light, They Do Serve a Purpose You've just spent the last four months providing volumes of information and extensive prison access to "60 Minutes," including two hours of...

Don't believe everything you hear: the real story behind California's media access policy.
February 1, 1998... The Real Story Behind California's Media Access Policy Most of you probably have read or heard somewhere in the media that California prisons have banned media interviews with inmates. It's not true. Inmate interviews are permitted. The media...

What does the public really think? A survey of the general public's perceptions of corrections yields some surprising results.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... If you asked 10 people to give you a description of a correctional officer, what do you think they would say? "Oh, they'd probably call us 'rednecks' or 'Bubbas,'" one correctional officer replied. "Most people still have that 'Cool Hand Luke'...

Corrections' public relations dilemma: a good PR plan can effectively counter negative public perceptions.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption," the warden of Shawshank Prison embezzles money, kills inmates and destroys evidence that would have set an innocent man free. In "Natural Born Killers," Tommy Lee Jones plays the sadistic warden of...

Sex, lies and videotape: Illinois shares lessons learned from a public relations debacle.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... Imagine your worst public relations nightmare as a correctional administrator. One of the largest television stations in your state acquires a videotape in which one of the most notorious mass murderers in your prison system engages in sexual...

Changing public opinion: correctional administrators have an obligation to attempt to influence public policy.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... Correctional Administrators Have an Obligation To Attempt to Influence Public Policy Every day from one corner of our country to the other, hundreds of thousands of men and women wake up to bells, horns, whistles, commands and the clanging of...

Handling foreign media requests: in an era of global communications, corrections professionals must learn how to manage requests from foreign news organizations.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... A foreign journalist who claims to be employed by the Hokkaido Shimbum Press (Japan) requests to visit your correctional facility to interview a high-profile inmate. The inmate is serving a sentence for crimes he committed while a member of an...

Old habits die hard; corrections professionals constantly struggle against negative stereotypes.(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... You're sitting at home, legs propped up, a nice cool drink in hand, watching the evening news, when a story about your local probation and parole office appears on the screen. The reporter is well-tailored and has a smooth professional delivery,...

An interview with Tom Fontana: the producer of "Homicide" and "Oz" reveals his perceptions of life in prison.(Cover Story)(Interview)
February 1, 1998... Last year, HBO aired a series entitled "Oz," set in the fictitious Oswald Penitentiary. The eight-episode series, a rather graphic depiction of life in prison, has been lauded by some who say it could be the best deterrent to crime since "Scared...

To the max: supermax facilities provide prison administrators with more security options.
February 1, 1998... Over the past decade, correctional systems around the nation have activated several high security prisons, which are popularly known as "supermax" institutions. These facilities are designed to hold the most violent, disruptive or escape-prone...

New rules in juvenile justice design: as Congress passes new laws on juvenile crime, architects confront the challenges of housing these youthful offenders.
February 1, 1998... In the wake of the skyrocketing rate of violent juvenile crime between 1985 and 1992, Congress crafted a series of bills that impose tougher penalties on teen-age offenders. And while the number of teen-agers arrested for violent crimes has...

1998 federal budget includes increased criminal justice funds.
February 1, 1998... Even with the balanced budget agreement, Congress and the Clinton administration again managed to increase the amount of federal money spent on criminal justice. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) 1998 federal budget grew by $1 billion to $17.5...

Sex offender management.
February 1, 1998... In November 1996, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) participated in "Promoting Public Safety through the Effective Management of Sex Offenders in the Community," a national summit sponsored by Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson...

Partnering for solutions. (disciplines within state corrections)
February 1, 1998... Creating open dialogue between the various disciplines within state corrections is a relatively new concept. The South Carolina Correctional Association (SCCA), a multidisciplinary organization consisting of corrections professionals,...

Training enhances victim services.
February 1, 1998... Victims have been an invisible and forgotten part of the criminal justice system for too long. Today, they are emerging from the wilderness and claiming their rightful place. In an October 1996 article in State Government News, Anne Seymour notes...

Capital Punishment in the United States - A Documentary History.
February 1, 1998... Perhaps no issue in American culture has been as passionately debated as capital punishment. Academicians, lawmakers, correctional experts and concerned citizens all have become active in offering their, at times, unbridled ideology. This...

OJJDP operates training center. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention)
February 1, 1998... The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) National Training and Technical Assistance Center seeks to upgrade and expand the professional skills of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention practitioners and increase...