Criminal Justice System offenders

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Sherry Immediato immediato solon
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by Sherry Immediato immediato solon »

Posted by Sherry Immediato <immediato@solonline.org>
The Society for Organizational Learning is currently applying for a grant for an action learning study to bring sustainable business enterprise to communities experiencing high rates of prisoner returns on the assumption that lack of gainful employment opportunities leads to continued criminal activity. The principal investigator is Alan Mobley at San Diego State University.

From much work in this field, we know a great deal about the complexity of urban dynamics. My reading of this literature in detail is not current, so I am not remembering whether anyone has specifically addressed the question of prisoner returns/recidivism as it relates to other neighborhood dynamics. Law enforcement policies are of specific interest, particularly connected to neighborhood policing that did not exist when early urban dynanmics work was done. Can anyone suggest papers they have written or work they are currently doing in this area (or other references you particularly like)?

Those working on this project would like to engage the local communities who will participate in this study in a diagnosis of their current dynamics. I think it would be helpful to share some prior work, rather than starting from scratch.

I'll assume these as basic references.

Alfeld, Louis E., and Alan K. Graham. 1976. Introduction to Urban Dynamics.

Forrester, Jay W. 1969. Urban Dynamics.

Graham, Alan K. 1974. Understanding Urban Dynamics: An Analysis of Garn's Interpretation. In Readings in Urban Dynamics, edited by N. J. Mass.

Mass, Nathaniel J., ed. 1974. Readings in Urban Dynamics.

Schroeder, Walter W., III. 1975. Urban Dynamics and the Suburbs. In Readings in Urban Dynamics, edited by W. W. Schroeder, III, R. E. Sweeney and L. E.Alfeld.

Schroeder, Walter W., III, Robert E. Sweeney, and Louis E. Alfeld, eds. 1975. Readings in Urban Dynamics.

Thank you!
-- C. Sherry Immediato,
Managing Director SoL (Society for Organizational Learning)
25 First Street, Suite 414
Cambridge, MA 02141 USA
e-mail: Immediato@solonline.org
Posted by Sherry Immediato <immediato@solonline.org>
posting date Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:59:09 -0500
E.Rouwette E.Rouwette fm.ru.nl
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by E.Rouwette E.Rouwette fm.ru.nl »

Posted by ""E.Rouwette"" <E.Rouwette@fm.ru.nl>

Dear Sherry,

In 2004 people from the Dutch Ministry of
Justice, Significant and Radboud University
developed a model of the Dutch criminal justice
system together with participants from the police
force, public prosecution, courts, sentence
enforcement and other organisations involved in
the administration of criminal justice. The
specific question that prompted the project was
on the impact of 40,000 extra cases processed by
the police on other parts of the criminal justice
system. A paper on the preliminary outcomes of
the project ('Modeling crime control in the
Netherlands') is in the 2004 conference
proceedings that are available from the system
dynamics homepage on http://www.systemdynamics.org/society_activities.htm.
We have been doing other modelling work in this
field on topics such as development of a DNA
databank and traffic safety, and are planning to
start work on the issue of recidivism and multiple offenders.

Carolus Grutters at Radboud University has been
doing work in the field of justice, including a
dissertation on refugees seeking asylum in the
Netherlands. He has a paper in the 2002
conference proceedings. Rod MacDonald at SUNY
Albany has also done work related to justice, see
for example his work on traffic safety in the
1998 proceedings (both the 2002 and 1998 proceedings are on the web).

By the way, I think having the conference
proceedings on the web is a great resource.
Thanks to the people at the home office for doing all this work.

Best regards,
Etiënne Rouwette
Radboud University Nijmegen
Posted by ""E.Rouwette"" <E.Rouwette@fm.ru.nl>
posting date Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:26:51 -0500
GRUTTERS Carolus c.grutters jur.
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by GRUTTERS Carolus c.grutters jur. »

Posted by GRUTTERS Carolus <c.grutters@jur.ru.nl>
Dear Sherry,

As Etienne Rouwette all ready pointed out in his reply to this list there are a number of (criminal) justice related studies.

Next to a model on the Dutch criminal justice system (by Radboud University + Significant) and my model of the Dutch asylum procedure (dissertation 2003 in Dutch) there are only a few references in SD literature on the justice domain:

Beijdorff 1986
R.O. Beijdorff, ‘CRISYS: A Model of the Criminal Justice System in the Netherlands’, in: Conference Proceedings of The 1986 International Conference of the Systems Dynamics Society (in: Sevilla, Spain) 1986.

Bernstein 1994SD conf 1994
D.S. Bernstein, ‘Dynamics of New York City Court System’, in: Conference Proceedings of The 1994 International System Dynamics Conference’ (Sterling, Scotland) 1994.

Bernstein 1998
D.S. Bernstein, ‘Eroding Goals: A Look at Criminal Justice Policy’,
in: Conference Proceedings of The 16th (1998) International Conference of the System Dynamics Society (Quebec, Canada) 1998.

Hernández & Dyner 2001
J. Hernández & I. Dyner, ‘Crisis in Colombian Prisons: Cause or Consequence of a Flawed Judicial System?’, in: Conference Proceedings of The 19th (2001) International Conference of the System Dynamics Society (in: Atlanta, Georgia) 2001

Lee 1981
Lee, H.-K., A System Dynamic Study of a Criminal Justice System and an Appraisal of Its Correctional Education, (unpublished) Thesis, University Of Minnesota 1981

McCold 1993
P.E. McCold, The role of fiscal policy in producing prison population
dynamics: a trend analysis and dynamic simulation of felony offender processing in York State 1975-1988 (dissertation State University of New York at Albany), Albany: State University of New York 1993.

Shaffer 1976
W.A. Shaffer, Court Management and the Massachusetts Criminal Justice System, (unpublished) Thesis, M.I.T. 1976

Levin, Roberts & Kirsch 1975 (?)
THE PERSISTENT POPPY: A Computer-Aided Search for Heroin Policy
* Gilbert Levin, Albert Einstem College of Medicine,
* Edward B. Roberts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
* Gary B. Hirsch, Pugh-Roberts Assoc., Inc..

greetings,


dr Carolus Grütters

==
Law & IT and
Centre for Migration Law (CMR)
Faculty of Law
Radboud University Nijmegen

PO Box 9049,
6500 KK Nijmegen
The Netherlands

http://www.ru.nl/rechten/rit
http://www.ru.nl/law/cmr
===

Radboud University Nijmegen
Posted by GRUTTERS Carolus <c.grutters@jur.ru.nl>
posting date Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:33:25 +0100
TGAEggers aol.com
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by TGAEggers aol.com »

Posted by TGAEggers@aol.com
Particularly so when one focuses on ""point-of-arrest,"" to ""point-of release,"" of the incarcerant, probationer, parolee. This is a most fertile area of exploration I would think. I have spoken with a few of the SD experts (those far surpassing my arena of expertise technologically, SD software wise) who have expressed a potential interest in creating a ""management flight simulator,"" that would focus on perhaps, ""jails, prisons, & community corrections"" arena's.Correctional practitioners at the Executive, Senior Level-Leader, and Managerial levels in these divisions, could undertake ""scenario prediction and analysis"" processes via areas of emphasis, that would consider both internal varialbes correctionally speaking, and external variables such as ""managing the external environment (more to it than this I'm sure), in a safe environment, leading to de je vous, when push comes to shove in the real world (day-to-day correctional environment). A little half-baked at this point perhaps, but a thought to think... Your thoughts???

John Eggers, Ph.D
Correctional Program Specialist
U.S. Dept. of Justice
Federal Bureau of Prisons
National Institute of Corrections, Academy Division
Longmont, CO
Posted by TGAEggers@aol.com
posting date Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:36:23 EST
Gary Hirsch GBHirsch comcast.net
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by Gary Hirsch GBHirsch comcast.net »

Posted by ""Gary Hirsch"" <GBHirsch@comcast.net>
John,

I think you're right that Management Flight Simulators or Microworlds would provide a good framework for helping people in local criminal justice systems understand the complexities of those systems and need to manage them coherently rather than as a collection of pieces. One could even start earlier, before the point of arrest, and examine potential impacts of preventive programs and ways of managing the pool of ""potential criminals"" to keep them out of the system altogether. Many years ago, two colleagues and I developed such a model of heroin addiction. This was before it became easier build flight simulators around models, but we were able to use the model somewhat interactively with a range of policymakers in New York City to examine potential remedies and understand the need for comprehensive solutions. ( The book about this work, mentioned earlier in this discussion thread, was called The Persistent Poppy and is out of print, but an article summarizing the work c! an be found in the June, 1972 edition of the American Journal of Public Health (Vol 62, No. 6, P. 861-873) that is available in any health science library.)

Though I'm not aware of any Management Flight Simulators in criminal justice, some of us have done similar work in other fields such as health care. One paper you might want to look at describes a Microworld that was developed to help people understand how to provide health care in an integrated manner rather than as disjointed parts of a system in name only. The Microworld was typically used in workshops with hospital trustees and other community leaders, medical staff, and hospital adminstrators to create a shared perspective on strategies for managing integrated delivery systems. You can find the paper at:

http://www.systemdynamics.org/conf1998/ ... /00018.PDF

Another field in which this has been done is port security. A paper you might want to read describes a simulator of container port operations that was used in workshops that brought together port operators, shippers, longshoremen's unions, and Coast Guard and other government personnel to examine the effects of proposed security measures on the smooth flow of containers through the port. You can find it at:

http://www.systemdynamics.org/conf2003/ ... RS/377.pdf

I think you'll be able to extrapolate from the work described in these papers to how a similar approach might be implemented in corrections and criminal justice.

Gary Hirsch
Posted by ""Gary Hirsch"" <GBHirsch@comcast.net>
posting date Tue, 27 Dec 2005 11:06:17 -0500
TGAEggers aol.com
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by TGAEggers aol.com »

Posted by TGAEggers@aol.com
Gary,

I thank you for your recommendation on applicable readings. I concur that if a way exists, focusing on areas ""prior to point-of-arrest,"" would be the best course of action. This focus, I would think, may very well bring more SD practitioners to the fray as it is much more encompassing than than just the CJ or Correcitons world.

My regard,
John
Posted by TGAEggers@aol.com
posting date Wed, 28 Dec 2005 16:38:39 EST
Gary Hirsch GBHirsch comcast.net
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Criminal Justice System offenders

Post by Gary Hirsch GBHirsch comcast.net »

Posted by ""Gary Hirsch"" <GBHirsch@comcast.net>
John,

Many of us have been in the fray for some time. There are already many pieces out there in the SD literature that address various aspects of the ""prior-to-arrest"" stage in the criminal justice system, the social causes of criminal behavior. As Sherry mentioned in her original QUERY, the urban dynamics literature is quite relevant. The health care simulator I cited in my last post, developed by Sherry and me and several colleagues, has a community health status module built around a concept of ""social risk"" that is also relevent. Work done by Jack Homer and Bobby Milstein on ""syndemics"" relates to this topic as well. (see http://www.systemdynamics.org/conf2002/ ... Homer1.pdf ) The heroin work I mentioned earlier and Jack's work on cocaine touch on another key aspect. (Readers of this list are invited to cite other work of a similar nature that I've neglected to mention.) These pieces could be helpful in any future effort that focuses on the problems of incoherence in the criminal justice system and includes the pre-arrest phase.

The key to doing some useful work in this area is finding communities willing to go beyond simply paying lip service to the ""systemic nature"" of crime and use SD tools to develop coherent, implementable strategies. There is also a need for funders who can see the value of doing this and provide support that may be beyond the means of individual communities that are already struggling with the costs of crime.

Gary Hirsch
Posted by ""Gary Hirsch"" <GBHirsch@comcast.net>
posting date Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:37:41 -0500
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