Equine-facilitated prison programs have become more prevalent and operate in correctional facilities in 13 states throughout the United States. However, there is a deficit of empirical knowledge to guide them. This article reviews 19 studies of prison-based animal programs and centers on patterns in the literature. It reveals how previous studies…

The Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program (MASEP) is a court-mandated driving under the influence (DUI) intervention for persons convicted of DUI. This study describes the evolution of the curriculum, evaluates the effectiveness of MASEP in reducing recidivism, and examines whether recent program revisions have led to improvements in…

Driving while intoxicated (DWI) courts have recently gained traction as a potential solution to the problem of repeat DWI offending. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of peer-reviewed studies that have examined their effectiveness. Thus, the current study compared DWI court graduates to a group of similar offenders who completed probation.…

Prior research indicates that probation programs that include efforts to change cognitive orientations and social patterns can enhance their effectiveness. This article reports an evaluation of an enhanced probation program, Changing Lives Through Literature, which uses a form of bibliotherapy to increase its rehabilitative effect. Controlling for…

Existing studies of reentry programs in the United States focus on the successes and failures of reentering offenders when compared to matched reentering offenders who did not receive structured reentry services. Little attention has been focused solely on the reentry participants themselves, and on how the level of program exposure may be related…

Case management is commonly regarded as the foundation of effective service provision across a wide range of human service settings. This article considers the case management that is offered to clients of community corrections, identifying the distinctive features of case management in this particular setting, and reviewing the empirical evidence…

Faith-based organizations administer many of the prison-based programs aimed at reducing recidivism. Many of these organizations also manage treatment programs for substance abusers, at-risk juveniles, and ex-offenders. Much of the research on religiosity and delinquency indicates that the two are inversely related. Therefore, it seems plausible…

Drug courts are reinventing the drug testing framework by experimenting with new methods, including use of the sweat patch. The sweat patch is a band-aid like strip used to monitor drug court participants. The validity and reliability of the sweat patch as an effective testing method was examined, as well as the effectiveness, meaning how likely…

The purpose of this study was to explore the risk factors and the impact of a prostitution diversion program on prostitution recidivism. Risk factors and recidivism were explored using chi-square, t tests, and survival analysis. Participants were 448 individuals who were arrested for prostitution and attended a prostitution-focused diversion…

African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than Whites to be incarcerated, and are also disparately affected by HIV, hepatitis C, and substance use. Reaching these populations as they leave prison is important given high rates of substance use and sexual risk-taking behaviors among U.S. prisoners. A 12-session, culturally appropriate,…

In 2006, the administration of a state-run, secure juvenile correctional facility initiated an attempt to transform its institutional culture using a strength-based approach to assessment and case planning. This resulted in a rapid improvement in institutional climate. The current study revisits this setting several years later to see if those…

As DUI Courts continue to expand through the United States, research needs to match the growth to inform administrators and the public on the effectiveness of these courts. The current study found that participation in a DUI or Misdemeanor/DUI Drug Court (23%) reduced recidivism compared to a comparison group (37%) with court filing records that…

South Africa has alarmingly high crime rates and a significant proportion of offences are committed by juveniles. Recent legislation seeks to protect children by providing for their diversion out of the criminal justice system. The primary objective of this paper is to describe research undertaken to develop minimum standards for diversion…

Juvenile awareness programs like Scared Straight became popular crime prevention strategies during the 1970s. Juvenile offenders and at-risk youth who participate in these programs are taken to prisons where inmates use confrontational methods to recount stories about violence, sex, and abuse perpetrated by fellow inmates while living a life…

In this study the authors examined the influence of length of participation in a community-based reentry program on the odds of reconviction in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. A structured telephone survey of reentry program alumni was conducted with 75 transition-age (18-25 year-old) young men. Binary logistic regression analysis…