Research

The criminal justice system now serves as the chief provider of health care services to a significant portion of society. This includes the provision of physical and mental health care for offender populations who require substantial health care resources. To date, little is known or understood with regard to how these services and programs are being delivered. This book addresses the gaps in our knowledge by presenting a range of studies detailing the daily practices that occur in places where criminal justice and public health systems intersect. This includes an assessment of sheriff agency emergency communication systems, a study of problem behaviours and health using a juvenile sample, the challenge of treating mentally ill prison inmates with note of important gender differences, the impact of case management on justice systems, and a review of substance abuse cessation programs among pregnant women currently serving probation and parole sentences. Also included is a policy piece in which the authors call for an integrated model that is neither criminological nor public health specific. These readings provide a range of empirical examples that highlight important successes and challenges facing the criminal justice and public health systems. They suggest that integration and partnerships represent the most efficacious means to reduce critical social problems such as violence, poor health, and criminality. This book was originally published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Studies.

Transforming Corrections: Humanistic Approaches to Corrections and Offender Treatment, Second Edition offers an alternative perspective not easily found in the existing literature concerning the way in which individuals in the criminal justice system are understood and treated by those responsible for their care. This substantially revised edition of Transforming Corrections may be used as a primary source for courses focused on alternative approaches to corrections and offender treatment or as a supplementary text that will help to enhance the current conversation that is ongoing in the field of rehabilitative corrections. The wide-reaching focus of this collection is intended to provide a variety of alternative perspectives related to issues of theory, correctional practice and offender treatment. As such, Transforming Corrections could be adopted in introductory courses in criminology and criminal justice as well as graduate courses more specifically focused on issues related to offender treatment and correctional administration.

The United States currently provides a health care system that is neither efficient nor equitable. Despite outspending the world on health care, over three-fourths of developed countries produce better health outcomes. In response to these challenges the ¿Ecological School of Thought¿ has documented the impact that social, economic, and environmental circumstances play in health outcomes. This work utilized Structural Equation Modeling to assess the antecedents of sentinel health events in 309 United States counties. The adversity associated with socio-economic disadvantage, social disorganization, and a lack of health care resources, and their relationship with adverse health outcomes are explicated with clear policy implications. Support is provided for the notion that sentinel health events would be reduced through economic equity and the development of healthy environments where community social networks are promoted. Less support was found for saturating given geographical areas with health care resources in order to reduce sentinel health events. This study has relevancy for both the criminal justice and public health fields of study.