Showing category: ICPA Networks

ICPA Research and Development Network Activity Report – 2018

The ICPA R&D Network is an informal collection of both researchers and other corrections professionals committed to promoting evidence-informed practice in our field. With a current signed-up count of more than 60 members from 18 countries, the group concentrates on a few major activities in realizing its mission — ‘To effectively disseminate research-informed correctional knowledge and promote its application for the advancement of professional and humane corrections and prisons world-wide’. In view of the size and spread of the Network, most communication among members is conducted via e-mail, mostly as follow-through from our Annual Network Meeting in conjunction with the Annual ICPA Conference. The following are some of the key […]

ICPA Technology Solution Group: Bucharest 2016 Meeting Overview

Since there were a lot of new people joining this Expert Group meeting, we’ve started with a short introduction and a brief explication about ICPA and the Statement on the use of Technology in Offender Management witch can be found on our website.

Technological Disparity Across Prison Services

This paper reports on a survey that was conducted by the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) and European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EuroPris) in 2016. These organizations strive to share, collaborate and learn from others and promote the interaction between prison and correctional services worldwide. This survey gives an unique insight in the status quo of prison and correctional services around the globe (36 prison services in 33 different countries) on the topic of technology in general and offender information management systems more specifically. In this contribution we describe the general characteristics of the prisoner information systems that were surveyed, the need that jurisdictions felt to change […]

Review of: “Use of Research Evidence by Juvenile Justice and Youth Service Professionals: A Research Note.”

In the early 1960s and 1970s the classical liberal ideal of ‘pure’ science was being slowly eroded by a growing body of pragmatic discourse which explored the need to use scientific inquiry (i.e., basic/applied research) to promote economic growth and inform social policy. Ever since, there has been ongoing debate as to the merits of applied (i.e., ‘real world’) research and its ability to inform (social) policy.  The journal article (noted above) begins with a sound overview of the merits of evidence-based/evidence-informed research. As the authors duly note, there still exists a degree of disconnect between policy-makers and researchers – as Chapman (1979) is quoted as saying: “social scientists and […]

The Potential of Community Corrections to Improve Safety and Reduce Incarceration

As the size and cost of jails and prisons have grown, so too has the awareness that public investment in incarceration has not yielded the expected return in public safety. This creates an opportunity to reexamine the wisdom of our reliance on institutional corrections—incarceration in prisons or jails—and to reconsider the role of community-based corrections, which encompasses probation, parole, and pretrial supervision. However, it could also be an opportunity wasted if care is not taken to bolster the existing capacity of community corrections. With this report, Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections provides an overview of the state of community corrections, the transformational practices emerging in the field (including those […]

Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Community Corrections: The Principles of Effective Intervention

Until recently, community corrections has suffered from a lack of research that identified proven methods of reducing offender recidivism. Recent research efforts based on meta-analysis (the syntheses of data from many research studies) (McGuire, 2002; Sherman et al, 1998), cost-benefit analysis (Aos, 1998) and specific clinical trials (Henggeler et al, 1997; Meyers et al, 2002) have broken through this barrier though and are now providing the field with indications of how to better reduce recidivism. This research indicates that certain programs and intervention strategies, when applied to a variety of offender populations, reliably produce sustained reductions in recidivism. This same research literature suggests that few community supervision agencies (probation, parole, residential community corrections) in the U.S. are using these effective interventions and their related concepts/principles.

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures -The Tokyo Rules

Istanbul Protocol

Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Counter-extremism policy: an overview

Since the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001, the UK’s approach to combating terrorism has evolved from focusing on the threat posed by foreign nationals affiliated with Al-Qaida and related groups, to the threat from “home grown” terrorists. In recent years, government policy has increasingly sought to confront the underlying causes of terrorist behaviour, including extremist ideologies.

Facts and Fictions about Islam in Prison: Assessing Prisoner Radicalization in Post-9/11 America

This report assesses the radicalization of Muslim prisoners in post-9/11 America. In the last decade, Muslim prisoners have been scrutinized for ties to terrorist and other extremist organizations, not to mention characterized as both a “threat” and a “danger” to national security, due to the influence of foreign jihadist movements. However, closer scrutiny shows that these fears have failed to materialize—indeed, despite the existence of an estimated 350,000 Muslim prisoners, there is little evidence of widespread radicalization or successful foreign recruitment, and only one documented case of prison-based terrorist activity. Nonetheless, some prison systems have implemented an aggressive posture toward these inmates and have made suppressive tactics their bedrock policy.