No abstract

A number of parolees are returning to the community with programming needs that may not have been addressed during their incarceration; these unmet needs may subsequently affect their successful reintegration into the community. Although there is an increasing female parole population, there has been a paucity of research concerning female parolees. The current study examines the types of needs identified at intake from a sample of 546 female parolees. The results revealed the following. First, if a parolee was employed, had stable living arrangements, and was assessed as needing and receiving some type of drug and/or alcohol program intervention, she was less likely to fail on parole. Second, many of these women were underassessed for having needs for drug and alcohol treatment as well as employment, housing, and other assistance. This underassessment may be because of an increasing emphasis on parole supervision (i.e., custody) rather than treatment in parole agencies.

The Michigan Department of Corrections implemented an innovative Life Skills Program that focused on addressing the special needs of female inmates. The primary purpose was to enhance basic life skills such as employability, coping with stress, and parenting. Female inmates participated in the Life Skills Program prior to their release and continued during the months immediately following their release from prison. Using a quasi-experimental design, the pre-tests and post-tests of program participants were compared with a similar comparison group. Analyses included comparing test scores on specific program areas such as emotional empathy, self-esteem, coping resources, problem solving, parenting stress, employability, and well-being. Follow-up data on parole violations or new convictions were also compared. Overall, the Life Skills Program does address some of the special needs of female inmates. The authors' recommendations include necessary enhancements in program implementation and evaluation research on programs for female inmates.

This research examined the extent to which research methods textbooks in psychology and general social science discuss feminist challenges and approaches to social science (N = 40 textbooks). Two dimensions were examined. First, within the “nonsexist” dimensions, textbooks were analyzed to determine if they used nonsexist language and if they discussed ways to avoid sexist bias in research. The second dimension was “profeminist.” Within this dimension four subdomains receiving considerable attention from feminist researchers were explored: (a) epistemology (or “ways of knowing”); (b) objectivity and subjectivity; (c) the relationship between the researcher and the researched; and (d) qualitative versus quantitative methodologies. Results demonstrated that although the majority of the textbooks did not use sexist language, they did not move much beyond this standard. There was little discussion of feminist challenges to these research issues. When the textbook authors did mention these topics, their analyses were most often inconsistent with feminist approaches.

No abstract