Michael Grabert
English 2000
Ms. S. Nash
April 18, 2008

Annotated Bibliography
The Prison System and Recidivism

1) "Closing the Revolving Doors of the Prison System in the US." Philadelphia Inquirer. 12 Nov. 2007. Philly.Com. 16 Apr. 2008.

Critical Review:
This website is very informative and very interesting. It is an opinion piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer and is somewhat trustworthy. Although it is an opinion and as a little bias, all facts and statistics in the article or back up with citations and a bibliography. The article is also very easy to read and will keep you interested.

Summary:
This article gives information about what offenders get when they leave and list places of where they might end up. It talks about how they can’t get jobs anywhere’s and have a hard time finding a place to put a roof over their head. They have no money for food and it’s hard to survive. The author then goes on to tell us about the revolving door theory that has been going on in the U.S. prison system for decades. Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen. Arlen Specter have formed a Recidivism and Reduction and Second Chance Act in the past year. The article then goes into detail about what the act hopes to accomplish.
2) "Criminal Offender Statistics." US Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs and Bureau of Justice Statistics. 8 Aug. 2007. BJS Publications. 16 Apr. 2008 .

Critical Review:
This article gave tons of facts and statistics; however, it lacked detail of content. Simply listing stats can give you good information, but to completely understand an issue you need a lot more information. It was very easy to read and understand. It gave a couple of charts which no other source gave. It was very reliable and trustworthy information considering it came from and U.S. Department of Justice website.

Summary:
This article gave tons of information on various things inside the prison system. It gave information on recidivism and stated characteristics of those most likely to recidivate. There was information on the differences between male and female prisoners and statistics which separated the two. They listed policies about substance abuse and the percentage of those in prison who are substance abusers. Finally they gave information about the prevalence of imprisonment in the United States and the likelihood of entering prison.
3) Katsiyannis, Antonis, and Joseph Ryan. "Juvenile Delinquency and Recidivism: the Impact of Academic Achievement." Reading and Writing Quarterly 24 (2008): 177-196. Academic Search Premier. LSU, Baton Rouge. 16 Apr. 2008. Keyword: recidivism in the police system.

Critical Review:
This Journal had tons of information; however, it was only about juveniles. The information it gave you was very helpful and beneficial. There were multiple authors and in-text citations which made it very trustworthy and credible. My only problem with this article is that it was a bit tedious to read and a little difficult to understand some of the bigger words it used.

Summary:
In this article researches are trying to correlate juvenile delinquency with a lack of academic achievement. They are constantly conducting experiments to see if those who do well in school behave better than those who do poorly in school. They have yet to find any direct correlation. The rest of the article goes into depth about some of the studies they have done and the results they have found.
4) Lange, Donna. "Heading Toward the Future." On the Edge of Disaster: Youth in the Juvenile Court System. Mason Crest, 2004. 106.

Critical Review:
This book source for the majority of the content is a little confusing. It starts with no lead in to the middle of a conversation. After the conversation the book starts spilling out real stats and facts about Juvenile delinquents. This part of the book is very informative and gives tons of information.

Summary:
Starting off with a conversation between a young boy in a Juvenile Correctional Facility and one of his teachers, the book gives the reader an inside look at the life of an inmate. Also through this dialogue we learn what this young boy has learned while he was in jail and why he wishes that he will never return. After the dialogue, the book starts to hand out tons of interesting facts and statistics. Some of the information given included recidivism rates of juveniles and the average number of juvenile delinquents in our country.
5) McGuire, James, Charlotte Bilby, Ruth Hatcher, and Clive Hollin. "Evaluation of Structured Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Programs in Reducing Criminal Recidivism." Journal of Experimental Criminology 14 (2008): 21-40. Academis Search Premier. LSU, Baton Rouge. 16 Apr. 2008. Keyword: recidivism in the police system.



Critical Review:
This article was very interesting and had tons of different and interesting information. Although the information was good, some of it was hard to pick up on because the article was a difficult to read and comprehend. The source was very reliable because it gave good information that is trustworthy. The information was credible because it was all backed up with in-text citations and had multiple authors trying to form the best article possible.

Summary:
This article had a lot to deal with recidivism and the intervention programs taking place that are designed to reduce the rates of recidivism. All of the intervention programs dealt with some sort of a social learning model. These models often studied male offenders who completed the programs. The researchers would then look at those who completed the programs as compared to those who did not go through the programs and see who recidivates.
6) "Prison Conditions: Overcrowding, Disease, Violence, and Abuse." Violence. Mason Crest, 2007. 64.

Critical Review:
I found this book to be very interesting. It contained lots of different and interesting information. It was very easy and enjoyable to read. It is not all confusing or difficult to comprehend. It is a very credible source.

Summary:
This book focused on the violence inside of the prison system between inmates. It shows how inmates learn acts of violence inside the prison and who they might learn it from. It talks about the different kinds of violence that prisoners most often use on other inmates and on guards. It talks about why violence occurs, who usually starts the violence, and where the violence normally takes place. It also talks about violence within races and between races.

7) “Recidivism." Office of Justice Programs. 20 Feb. 2008. National Institute of Justice. 16 Apr. 2008 .

Critical Review:
This source was one of the best that I found. It had tons of information including statistics, facts, and a detailed content. All the information is useable and credible. The website gave both a bibliography and supporting likes to make it more trustworthy, not to mention it is a U.S. Department of Justice website. The article was easy to read and understand.

Summary:
The website gives tons of information about recidivism and desistance. Desistance, a state of non-offending, is the opposite of recidivism. National statistics of recidivism are given. You also learn the concerns of the criminal justice system. The website also gives information on the evaluation process of federal prisons. After these evaluations examiners try to look for differences between effectiveness of privately and publically managed prisons.


8) Vacca, James. "Educated Prisoners are less likely to Return to Prison." Journals of Correction Education. Dec. 2004. CNET Networks, Inc. 16 Apr. 2008 .
Critical Review:
This source was very well written and very easy to understand. The information inside was very interesting and very useful. There was tons of information including both statistics and detailed content. It was very trustworthy and reliable because all the facts were backed up with in-text citations.

Summary:
In this article we learn about the education programs that are offered to those who are incarcerated. The most effective classes are those that help develop social skills, artistic development, and techniques and strategies to help avoid emotional trauma. The article discusses the percentages of those who take the classes that will recidivate as oppose to those who don’t take the classed and recidivate. Finally the article offers a personal account of a teacher of literacy in the College Degree Program at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in New York.