Justice, Corrections

Someone once asked me how I hold my head up so high after all I have been through. I said it's because no matter what, I am a survivor, NOT a victim.          - Patricia Buckley

Volunteering with victims of crimes can be a somber experience, yet many find this area of human services to be intrinsically rewarding and psychologically satisfying. This edition of Along the Web explores formal volunteering that aids and addresses victims of crime. Author Erick Lear will review a diverse group of websites, including: direct services provided to victims; services for the victims’ loved ones; self-help groups; and online services. Lear also includes websites that provide relevant information for volunteer administrators, with a focus on tips, resources, and tools to assist with volunteer management in crisis-oriented settings.

In this feature article, Elisa Kosarin introduces behavior-based interviewing as an extremely effective screening method for assessing highly-skilled volunteer applicants. 

Kosarin’s article is based on the author’s extensive experience working for Fairfax Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) in Virginia, where highly specialized volunteers advocate for the best interests of abused or neglected children living under the court’s protection. Using behavior-based interviewing techniques, a  reassessment of volunteer screening and interviewing processes produced dramatic and positive results for the program, including: a significant decrease in the number of volunteers dropping or not taking cases (from 25 percent to 2 percent in just two years); and a dramatic increase in volunteer retention (from 29 percent to 48 percent over five years). As Kosarin explains, the implementation of behavior-based interviewing played a major role in this turnaround.

In addition to providing a short narrative on Fairfax CASA’s shift to behavior-based interviewing, the article includes:

• A step-by-step guide for implementing the method in a volunteer program;
• Practical guidelines for conducting the interview;
• Examples of how the method is applied in various other programs.

The BBC News Web site reports that the worldwide prison population stands at around nine million, with the U.S., China, and Russia ranked as the three countries with the most prisoners. Together, these three nations imprison half of all the world’s prisoners, with the U.S. having the highest ratio of prisoners per 100,000 of the population.

The Russian writer Dostoevsky noted that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Around the world, states take varying approaches to the purpose of prison for those who are convicted, adopting approaches from liberal at one extreme to authoritarian at the other in their treatment of prisoners. In many countries, all prisons are state run, while others use private providers or a mixture of both. Some solely exist for punishment and exclusion, some attempt rehabilitation and skills training.

Ten years after Susan J. Ellis’ Voices from the Past, ‘On the Inside: The Tradition of Volunteers in Prisons,’ this edition of Along the Web offers an update of Web sites about volunteerism behind prison gates and what they reflect about the ‘degree of civilization’ volunteers encounter.

During the 1960s, interest surged across the United States for the engagement of community volunteers on behalf of juvenile and adult offenders in the courts and corrections systems. What was then the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare funded a range of initiatives and studies to support this movement. This Voices from the Past article quotes from various official reports that detail the results of this volunteer involvement and recommend future actions. Many of the points raised in the 1960s remain relevant and e-Volunteerism wants to help them stay in circulation. Granted, much has changed involving this topic over the past 50 years, but other things have very much stayed the same. 

At the Regional IAVE Conference in India early in 2002, Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first and highest ranking woman in the Indian Police Services, shared some of her experiences in helping the poor of Delhi. In this first-person article, Dr. Bedi discusses a very special organization that she helped to found:

"There is a saying 'where there is a will, there is a way.' Whenever such sayings are put into practice in any appropriate form these become an example for others to emulate. I will share with you one such story which proves this.

"Fifteen years ago, fourteen serving police officers - and I was one of them - of Delhi Police, came together and registered a non-governmental organization called 'NAVJYOTI'. It was set up to prevent crime through methods of prevention, correction, treatment, rehabilitation and social development."

Volunteers from the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Misery of Public Prisons began visiting incarcerated people in 1787. Over the next 117 years, the organization continued its efforts to improve prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners. Today the same organization continues its work as the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

In 1895, Warden J.W. French, the first Warden at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, realized that Federal prisoners needed an incentive to foster positive behavior. He and Chaplain F.J. Leavitt pioneered the idea of inviting people from the community to assist their institution, especially in providing literacy courses and religious services.

While much of society turns its back on convicted offenders, volunteering in prisons has always been a calling for others, both in the US and elsewhere. This article looks at how community activists, religious evangelicals, and compassionate idealists made – and still make – an impact on prison life.