Security Culture: Surveillance and Responsibilization in a Prisoner Reentry Organization

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 390-413
Author(s):  
Francis B. Prior

As they have become increasingly common, prisoner reentry organizations have become a topic of interest to ethnographers, particularly those focused on race crime and justice. Reentry organizations are typically understood in terms of the social services they provide with the purpose of easing their clients’ social reintegration after incarceration. However, ethnographers of nonprofit prisoner reentry organizations have interpreted them as linked to a broader project of disciplinary poverty governance. Based on participant observation and interview evidence of a government-run prisoner reentry organization in a large northeastern city, I argue that an overarching security culture structured not only the organization’s security and surveillance practices, but also its disciplinary service provision. I argue that security culture also helps explain staff attitudes toward clients, and clients’ response to the organization as an extension of their experience of punishment. This ethnography builds on previous work through its specific examination of frequently taken-for-granted concrete security practices in conjunction with social service programming in order to highlight the overall effects of a government-run prisoner reentry organization’s security culture.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Gasumova

This article presents the author’s definitions of “digitization of social service provision” and “digitization of social services” concepts and identifies the difference between them. It presents the results of an interview with 18 experts — the heads of institutions and organizations of social service provision implementing the rehabilitation of disabled people in Perm region. The research was conducted in 2019 and sought to identify problems and prospects for the digitization of the social services sphere. Interviewees rated their satisfaction regarding the convenience and time cost of automated systems that are currently being used in their organizations; characterized their needs in introducing various innovative interactive services, mobile applications, and other digital software; and expressed their attitude to various innovations. Social innovations were developed by the researchers and offered to experts by interviewers (for example, services for assessing the quality of work of specialists by service users, quick selection of the right social service, filing a complaint, referring a citizen to another organization, counseling in video mode, electronic appointment service, etc.). The research has shown how innovations can improve the performance of social service providers’ work and the quality of their interactions with citizens, which will ultimately increase the satisfaction of social service users and will positively affect the level of social well-being in society as a whole. A number of problems have been identified that currently impede the development of digitization: they are related to staff resources, the level of computerization, the lack of motivation among managers and personnel of social service organizations to implement innovative IT, and a certain distrust that such technologies can facilitate the activities of the organization and increase its effectiveness. Keywords: digitization, social service provision, social services, social institutions, social work


Author(s):  
Büşra Uslu Ak

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on everyone on the world since early 2020. The situation in Turkey is not different than the rest of the world. In the time of a pandemic, it is important, for everyone's safety, to identify ways to deliver social services without in-person contact; therefore, organizations must adopt models for remote and digitalized social service provision which can minimize risks to the health and safety of both for social service-receivers and providers. In this respect, this chapter has got three foci: the effects of COVID-19 outbreak on the social service-providing non-governmental organizations in the context of migration in Turkey, the needs of the asylum seekers as social service-receivers, and the digital measures of the non-governmental organizations in social service provision as a response to COVID-19 outbreak.


Author(s):  
J. Curtis McMillen ◽  
Danielle R. Adams

Social service settings offer numerous complexities in their staffing, consumers, and payer mix that require careful consideration in designing dissemination and implementation efforts. However, social services’ unique access to vulnerable populations with health problems may prove vital in efforts to improve the health status of many of our citizens and reduce health disparities. While a number of well-developed, blended dissemination and implementation models are being used in social service settings, they all require additional documentation, research, and field experience. Nonetheless, the lessons learned in the social services may help organizations in other sectors better implement health interventions with complex consumers in complex settings.


1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 73-85
Author(s):  
Peter Newbery

A study of existing research focusing on marginal and delinquent youths in Hong Kong makes it possible to describe a typical career path for marginal youths. They typically pass through five stages beginning with casually running away at the age of ten until eventually serving a second prison term at the age of 18. The age of 14 is an important turning point at which young people make crucial decisions, which either take them out of this path or fix them more firmly in it. The fact that 14 is a critical age has implications for labor laws, for the educational system and for the provision of social services. It is suggested that (rather than search for causes) this data makes it possible to identify the target group and prescribe interventions. 现时对香港边缘少年及年青罪犯的研究,可以清楚描述一个典型的边缘少年误入歧途所经过的阶段,就如十岁便离家出走 ... ... 十八岁便已经在监狱第二次服刑。 「十四岁」为这些少年,是他们生命中的一个转捩点,他们一是决定回归正途,或是更加泥足深陷,难以自拔。故此劳工法例、教育制度,以及社会服务等,应作出适当的修订及改革。 文中的资料并非为研究青年人误入歧途的原因,而是为确认出这类型的青少年及如何为他们提供协助。


Author(s):  
Olga Vasilyevna Zayats ◽  
Nadezhda Vladimirovna Osmachko

The paper reveals the essence and significance of digital socialization of older people, the importance of overcoming social exclusion by older citizens in terms of access to digital technologies. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the role of social service centers for the population, which act as agents of digital socialization of older people (based on the materials of a sociological study). The objects of the study were elderly people receiving social services in the Primorsky Center for Social Services of the Population, and senior citizens who were trained in computer literacy courses. The authors set the fol-lowing tasks: to determine elderly people’s interest in mastering computer literacy and how effective the “Internet ABC” program is. In addition, it was sup-posed to establish the importance of integrated cen-ters of social services for the population in ensuring computer literacy of pensioners. As a result of a sociological study, it was found that older people show a significant interest in modern information technologies. Computer courses organized on the basis of the center for social services help elderly people to get information about state and municipal services, work with the websites of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insur-ance Fund, Public Services and Multifunctional Cen-ter.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irechukwu Eugenia Nkechi ◽  
Chima Paul

This study attempted to determine the factors militating against effective social services administration and its unfolding empirical manifestations on the well-being of the rural dwellers in Gwagwalada Area Council in Abuja, Nigeria as well as its attendant effects on rural development. Based on the data generated from 200 respondents (rural residents and staff of the area council) using questionnaire, interview and personal observation, it was discovered that lack of involvement of the rural dwellers in decisions regarding the design and implementation of the social service programmes by the Council is one of the key factors. The paper recommends accordingly among others, that effective social services administration should reflect the wishes and aspirations of beneficiaries. 


Author(s):  
Katinka Kraus

Inclusion and the associated provision of social services is a central fundamental right in the European Union. Social services of general interest are based on the principles of an inclusive welfare state enshrined in EU primary law. However, the European Commission tends to interpret these social services rather economically. This paper shows that the way in which these services are provided in the Member States is decisive for the categorization of an economic or non-economic activity by the European Commission. Whether social services are to be classified as being related to economic activities and, therefore, subject to the competition and internal market rules depends on their organization and structure.


Management ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216
Author(s):  
Jacek Szołtysek ◽  
Aldona Frączkiewicz - Wronka

Abstract The application of supply chain analysis to the evaluation of the effectiveness of social service organizations The identification and analysis of value chains is a way to find the sources of an organization’s in-/efficiency, and an opportunity to explore how an organization is managed. Having in mind that an “organization network” is a form similar, in its functioning, to a separate organization, one may, using the value chain concept, investigate the management of local activity programmes, as of the networks they are. The researched partnerships introduced a management innovation, in that the social service provision organizations were brought together to form one chain. The researched organizations providing social services have introduced innovations in management that are supposed to unite organizations providing social services in a single chain. This kind of approach allows to obtain additional benefits, including the joint management of subjects composing the chain. In practice, it is also connected with sharing benefits between the participants in the chain, as well as replacing the elements of competition and suspicion with cooperation and trust. Delivering value to the beneficiary, under the provision of social services, is important not only from the point of view of humanity, but also in order to maximize the use of resources, usually insufficient to meet all the needs. The presented studies of supply chains of social services in Silesia showed, that some features of these newly created areas being subject of joint management, still crave for numerous improvements. What may help is logistics, in particular business logistics, having years of experience in the area of observation and active participation in the chain management. However, unconditional adaptation of these experiences is not possible due to the fact that developed methods are based on cost and maintenance compromises, which are insensitive to human needs when the service cost for the chain is not sufficiently profitable. Therefore, it is necessary to implement different methods of managing these chains, principles of which are described in the social logistics. The authors are convinced that combination of the efforts of the organizers of social services and experienced logistics professionals can bring a double benefit. In practical terms it may help to improve the delivery of services with no deterioration of their quality, and to increase the range of services (quantitative or qualitative) based on specific resources. In the epistemological dimension it may enable to develop rules to adapt the theory of logistics for the socially significant needs. Therefore, this paper can be considered as the beginning of the discussion in this regard.


1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-159
Author(s):  
Catherine A. Rivlin

Direct federal support and corporate philanthropy are two of the many mechanisms of social service delivery in the U.S. The ongoing federal retrenchment reflects both a public decision to reduce the overall level of spending and a pressure to reallocate responsibility for providing some social services from one source to another. The success of this reallocation depends on the match between provider abilities and incentives and the characteristics of the social programs demanded from that provider. The author draws from theory and recent history a partial list of criteria for policymakers to consider in deciding who should be responsible for providing various public services.


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