Vocational education and training provision and recidivism in Queensland correctional institutions
This project investigates the nature of vocational education and training (VET) programs being delivered in correctional centres, including the factors assisting or hindering the delivery of these programs to prisoners. The research also statistically determines the factors most associated with reducing the rates of return to prison of offenders. A brief review of past research was undertaken and interviews with those involved in the corrections system were conducted. As well, various databases were examined to investigate the factors most associated with offender recidivism. The first part of this report provides a review of Australian and other research into the nature of offenders, and in particular, the links between reduced rates of offender recidivism and access to education, training and employment programs at the prerelease and post-release stages. This is followed by a discussion of the findings from 145 interviews with correctional staff, prisoners and trainers in several Queensland correctional centres. Interviews examined staff and prisoner perceptions of the factors facilitating or acting as barriers to the provision of VET programs in correctional institutions. The final section of this report uses quantitative methods to examine the characteristics of offenders who become involved in VET while in prison, and their recidivism rates. The research found highly motivated offenders engaging in and completing multiple VET programs which were not only providing them with technical skills, but which also improved confidence, self-esteem, and broader sets of generic skills. They were very positive about the role that prison staff and trainers were playing in assisting them to develop skills to help them to re-integrate back into the community upon release. The availability and access to dedicated training workshops in correctional centres as well as to outside trainers (and in some cases, tutors) who were highly professional and respectful of prisoner needs, and their often disadvantaged backgrounds, were further supports for the continued emergence of a throughcare approach to prisoner management. Significant evidence emerged from the analyses explaining the importance of pursuing a more integrated program which develops employment skills is that offenders involved in VET were less likely to return to the corrective system. On average, being involved in VET before initial release was associated with a decrease in the chance of returning.
Predicting Two Types of Recidivism Among Newly Released Prisoners
Separate studies have shown that a variety of postrelease housing placements for returning prisoners can significantly influence recidivism. Research has also found that contextual factors such as economic disadvantage can also significantly predict recidivism. This study combines those lines of research by examining the effects of five categories of postrelease housing placements as well as contextual measures of economic disadvantage on recidivism for newly released Minnesota state prisoners. Using multilevel analysis techniques, this research found that with one exception, certain postrelease housing situations, along with several other individual-level control variables, were more robust predictors of recidivism than contextual measures of disadvantage and poverty. This study highlights the significant impact that postrelease housing placements can have on the reentry process.
Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths
During the past decade, media and medical forces have combined to create an alarming view of pregnant mothers who use illicit drugs. The result has been increased state control of these women and their infants. This in-depth study is the first in Canada to look at how mothers who use illicit drugs regard the laws, medical practices, and social services that intervene in their lives. Focusing on practices in western Canada, Susan C. Boyd argues that licit and illicit drug categories are artificial and dangerous and that the evidence for neonatal syndrome (NAS) is suspect and ideologically driven. She shows that women of colour and poor women are treated much more harshly by authorities, that current regulations erode women's civil liberties, and that social control is the aim of drug policy and law. The study highlights mothers' views of the NAS program at Sunny Hill Hospital for Children in Vancouver. Writing from a critical feminist perspective, Boyd exposes some surprising social fictions - those that separate 'good' and 'bad' drugs, as they do 'good' and 'bad' mothers.