This article explores how the implementation of the penal harm movement within a correctional health care system can lead to the ill-treatment and torture of prisoners. Through an interpretive/inductive analysis of reports written by a federal court monitor and 103 letters written by prisoners to a federal court monitor overseeing a consent decree of a county mega jail located in the United States, we identify six areas of ill-treatment and torture at the jail's medical facilities: (1) using medical care to humiliate prisoners;(2) withholding medical care from HIV-positive prisoners and those with AIDS; (3) withholding medical care from other prisoners; (4) exposing prisoners to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation; (5) using dental care as a means of ill-treatment and torture; and (6) falsifying prisoners' medical records. Because correctional medical personnel work in a system that subordinates their professional canons to the efficiency-based rationality of the new penology and the ethical relativism of the penal harm movement, we conclude that some correctional health providers sympathetic to the custodial subculture abdicate their ethical obligations, and that the result is illtreatment and torture of prisoners.

Florida's Community Control Program is the nation's largest intermediate sanction (home confinement) program for felons. The question addressed in this research is the effectiveness of this sanction compared to imprisonment, as measured by recidivism. The rearrest, reconviction, imprisonment, and recidivism survival of the first cohort of convicted felons sentenced to Community Control were tracked for nearly five years and compared to the recidivism of a partially matched group of convicted felons released from prison. The findings from the research show that the recidivism rates and survival curves of the two groups are essentially the same. Approximately 4 out of 5 felony offenders sentenced to Community Control or prison recidivated during the five-year study.

The purpose of the present study was twofold: First, to determine how individuals would perceive the elderly criminal when compared to the adult and juvenile criminal; and second, to determine if individuals would assign different punishments for the elderly criminal when compared to the adult and juvenile criminal . The subjects were 102 respondents divided into three groups of 34 respondents each (elderly, college students, and law enforcement officers). These groups were further divided into equal subgroups by sex. Respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of a brief scenario describing a crime being committed followed by a list of attributes to be assigned for each of six conditions in which the age of the offender (elderly, adult, and juvenile) and the sex of the offender varied. Findings showed that the elderly criminal was perceived in a significantly more positive manner than the adult or juvenile criminal and that the elderly criminal received a significantly more lenient sentence than the adult criminal. There were no differences between the adult and juvenile with respect to sentencing. The results were interpreted in terms of their practical implications for the criminal justice system.

Offenders incarcerated in jails in Hillsborough County, Florida, had the opportunity to participate in an education program using computer-assisted instruction for basic literacy education and GED preparation. Although literacy levels were low with a tested mean of sixth grade prior to entering the program, participants made statistically significant gains in knowledge during 6 weeks of instruction. Overall, participants gained 2.40 grades during this period. Significance tests based on gender, race, and age were conducted with males, Blacks, and juveniles showing significantly higher gains in knowledge within these groups. However, when a logistic regression model was created using low/high gains as the dependent variable, only age remained significant indicating an interaction effect with gender and race. Participants in the program showed high levels of satisfaction with the program, and 90% had plans to continue their education upon release from incarceration. Based on the research conducted thus far, the program is operating successfully.

This paper examines the impact of diverse clinical field experiences on rural teacher candidates’ perceptions of their ability to effectively teach urban, diverse students. The literature framework supporting the study builds on Nieto’s description of socially-just pedagogy and responsive approach to diversity while meeting national education program standards despite declining resources. Researchers gauged candidates’ perceptions of the impact of working with students from race, language and class backgrounds different from their own.  Findings revealed four significant impacts: increasing capacity to use culturally-relevant practice, boosting ability to differentiate for urban learners’ diverse needs, understanding the importance of strong relationships, and raising candidate self-efficacy and desire to teach in diverse schools.