Prison Misconduct and the Use of Alternative Resolutions by Correctional Officers in Therapeutic Communities and Other Custody Units

This mixed methods study uses official records and interviews with inmates and staff to compare misconduct in therapeutic communities (TC’s) and the use of alternative resolutions (in lieu of formal charges by correctional officers) to other prison units. Prisoner misconduct has been studied using individual self-reports or aggregate prison rates, but unit level differences between TC’s and other prison wings are often overlooked. Restorative justice and diversion approaches are much studied in the community corrections literature but correctional officer use of alternatives to charging, such as mediation, is not well understood. The study examines differences in prisoner behavior by unit function by comparing misconduct over a 24 month period in therapeutic communities to general population, worker, protective custody, mental health, and high risk units. Study findings show lower misconduct in TC’s, including more serious misconduct such as fights. Furthermore, a significant proportion of overall charges were diverted into alternative resolution (AR)s, particularly within therapeutic communities. Interviewees reported a different approach taken in the TC toward discipline with a greater use of interaction, informal warnings, and application of AR, as opposed to formal charges. Future research is recommended using qualitative research strategies to appraise the alternative resolution decision process and prisoner-staff perceptions of discipline.

Paraspinal Muscle Activity Differences in Various Subtypes of Idiopathic Scoliosis

Background: Scoliosis refers to deviation of spinal alignment in three dimensional planes. In response to functional demands Muscle fibers change in motor unit function. Knowledge of difference in muscle fiber activity in functional situations allows us to plan curve specific effective physical therapy. Methodology: All study subjects were categorised based on Rigo Classification and assessed for para spinal muscle activity by Surface Electro Myography at cervical, thoracic, lumbar, concave- convex sides of apex and lumbar /lumbo sacral regions of spine in general sequence and curve specific sequence. Results: Total number of subjects were 25 (16 female and 9 male). Age ranging from 12 to 39 years and Risser from 1-5. Overall maximum amplitudes recorded in antigravity positions. Amplitudes of as low as (M±σ = mean± standard deviation) M±σ: 0.92±0.79µv to M± σ: 1411.6±734.9µv were found. Conclusion: Differences in right and left paraspinal activity was observed in general and specific sequences, but this difference was not consistent in general and specific sequence surface electro myography. Maximum amplitudes found at lumbar and lumbo sacral regions on antigravity positions than other positions. Convex side has more activity than concave sides at apex regions. Differences were not similar in all positions, this difference in left and right side was varying with curve type and type of movement. Results of paraspinal activity may be used for planning of suitable exercises after achieving best possible correction in sagittal and frontal planes. Key words: Paraspinal muscle activity differences, idiopathic scoliosis, deviation of spinal alignment.

Nonlinear deformation of circular discrete ribbed plate under influence of pulse loading

The stress-strain state of a circular disc, discretely finned in a circle, under the influence of the pulse loading, is numerically investigated. Thus the geometric nonlinearity between displacement and deformation is taken into account. The structure consists of boarding and reinforced ribs, the materials of which are the same and obey Hooke's law. The sections of the ribs are constant. The height of the ribs and their locations are specified using a unit function. It is considered that the plate is deformed under the influence of the pulsed loading. A numerical method is used to solve the problem.

annotation of gesture and gesture / prosody synchronization in multimodal speech corpora

This paper was written with the aim of highlighting the functional and structural correlations between gesticulation and prosody, focusing on gesture / prosody synchronization in spontaneous spoken Italian. The gesture annotation used follows the LASG model (Bressem et al. 2013), while the prosodic annotation focuses on the identification of terminal and non-terminal prosodic breaks which, according to L-AcT (Cresti, 2000; Moneglia & Raso 2014), determine speech act boundaries and the information structure, respectively. Gesticulation co-occurs with speech in about 90% of the speech flow examined and gestural arcs are synchronous with prosodic boundaries. Gesture Phrases, which contain the expressive phase (Stroke) never cross terminal prosodic boundaries, finding in the utterance the maximum unit for gesture / speech correlation. Strokes may correlate with all information unit types, however only infrequently with Dialogic Units (i.e. those functional to the management of the communication). The identification of linguistic units via the marking of prosodic boundaries allows us to understand the linguistic scope of the gesture, supporting its interpretation. Gestures may be linked at different linguistic levels, namely those of: a) the word level; b) the information unit phrase; c) the information unit function; d) the illocutionary value.