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In an attempt to evaluate the impact of vocational education programming on post-release performance, a study was conducted to gather follow-up data on students who were released from the Department of Correctional Education School at Natural Bridge Juvenile Correctional Center (NBJCC) during the 1993 and 1994 calendar years. The population for this descriptive study consisted of 167 males age 17 to 21. Data were successfully collected on 137 members of the population. Findings from the study were as follows: 1. Nearly half of the total study group were employed. 2. Approximately one fourth of the total study group continued their education. 3. Students who earned a vocational education certificate of completion were more likely to be employed than students who earned a lesser vocational certificate of credit or no vocational certificate at all. 4. Students who earned a vocational certificate of completion and a General Education Development (GED) certificate were more likely to be employed than all other NBJCC students. 5. Less than half of all vocational program completors were employed in a field related to their vocational training. 6. Nearly half of all vocational program completors were employed in food service. (Not a field of vocational training at NBJCC) Based on the findings and conclusions in this study, recommendations for policy practice and research in vocational education are provided. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Tennessee wardens’ leadership practices and correctional officer job satisfaction. Utilizing the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), the relationship between correctional officers’ perception of the warden’s leadership practices and the LPI norms were examined. Additionally, utilizing the LPI, the relationship between self-ratings of the warden’s leadership practices and the observer rating of the LPI were assessed. Lastly, utilizing the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and observer LPI, correlations were examined between the correctional officers’ job satisfaction and their perception of the warden’s leadership practices. Findings of this study showed lower correctional officers ratings of the wardens on the five LPI subscales than the inventory’s norms. In a comparison of the LPI wardens’ self-perception and the correctional officers’ observer perception, correctional officers rated the wardens lower than the wardens rated themselves. The overall ratings of the correctional officer Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS)were neutral. However, of the nine JSS subscales, the results identified the nature of their work and supervision as the most positive. Pay, contingent reward, and promotional opportunities were rated as the primary reasons for job dissatisfaction. Additional findings indicated a positive relationship between job satisfaction and each of the five subscales of the LPI. / Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership

Employees desire performance feedback which helps them understand what they are doing well, what they are doing wrong, and how to develop so that they can advance in their careers. Yet, many comment that they do not receive enough performance feedback to help them understand if they are being successful in their work or where they can improve. In this qualitative study, I pursued the question of what might prevent supervisors from providing performance feedback to their direct reports by interviewing a group of front-line supervisors and their wardens in two Midwest Prisons. My goal was to identify what the supervisor participants believed performance feedback was, how they understood and explained their personal feedback delivery practices, and how they learned to deliver feedback. My research methodology involved three stages of data collection, including collecting a range of documents from the prison system, one-on-one interviews with the two wardens who led the two prisons involved in the study, and one-on-one interviews with 16 Sergeants. I leveraged Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC) as the theoretical lens of this study. As Kolb (2014) explains, every time an individual has an experience, they have the opportunity to learn from that experience. I was curious to understand if a group of supervisors in a correctional work environment learned how to deliver and improve upon their performance feedback practices through the on-going delivery of feedback. Through the data analysis process, I found that both Warden participants deeply valued performance feedback as a teaching method and see it as an important method supervisors can utilize to enhance Correction Officer (CO) growth and development. Additionally, I found that the majority of supervisor participants (15/16) believed and understood delivery of performance feedback to COs to be a function of their rank, while a slightly smaller majority (10/16) explained it as a responsibility of their rank. Further, I found that the supervisor participants naturally employed a comprehensive range of performance feedback best practices including being positive and supportive (14/16), providing praise for work done well (13/16), correcting poor performance or incorrect understanding of policy or procedure (12/16), and conducting the feedback exchange as a conversation (10/16). Finally, I found that the supervisors’ beliefs and understandings of how they learned to provide performance feedback align with Kolb’s ELC. A majority (13/16) of the supervisor participants explained that they learned to deliver performance feedback through experience (having an experience, ELC first mode) in the supervisory role, while half of the supervisor participants (8/16) described how they learned to deliver performance feedback to Correction Officers (COs) through reflecting on prior experience (reflecting on experience, ELC second mode). Several of the supervisor participants (5/16) explained how they thought through and planned (Abstract Conceptualization, ELC third mode) their feedback conversations with COs, while a small minority (2/16) of the participants spoke to their practice of experimenting with new approaches when delivering performance feedback (Active Experimentation, ELC fourth mode) to COs. I close my study by offering recommendations based on the findings to front-line supervisors, wardens, and to trainers and educators working within correctional organizations.

This exploratory study was conducted in the Commonwealth of Virginia and included Wardens, Department of Correctional Education Principals, community college Deans, and community college personnel assigned as prison program coordinators for college/correctional institution programs. Those were the total number of instructional managers responsible for postsecondary programs in medium and maximum security correctional institutions in the Commonwealth during November 1986. Surveys and interviews were used to obtain individual perceptions of responsibilities to be assigned to colleges and correctional institutions when agreements are for educational programs are developed. Agreements used by colleges that were members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and correctional institutions were reviewed. There was no consistency among the states' agreements in the responsibilities included or in the institution assuming the same or similar responsibilities. A review of journal articles describing responsibilities in existing or proposed college/correctional institution programs revealed no consistency in the responsibilities necessary to be included in agreements. The responsibilities found in the state agreements as well as those in the journal articles provided examples of reasonable responsibilities for instructional managers to consider when developing agreements for college programs in correctional institutions. A survey form was developed and administered to instructional managers. College coordinators of college/prison programs provided the largest percentage of responsibilities to be included in agreements, but correctional institution instructional managers overall responded with a larger number of necessary responsibility statements than college instructional managers. Generally instructional managers chose responsibility statements in the categories of Instruction, Curriculum Support, and Equipment and Supply to be included in agreements. Responses to the open-ended question asked during the interview phase revealed problems in the current structure of the college/prison programs. Many problems were appropriate for the categories of Faculty and Staff, Students, and Instruction. Wardens articulated the highest number of problems and were the only group of instructional managers to express concern about inmates as students in the community at the time they were released from the correctional institution. Instructional managers ranked Student and Faculty and Staff categories of responsibility statements as most important to include in agreements although they did not select them to be included in agreements. Recommendations for improving the current method of providing college programs to incarcerated persons include the development of a statewide system composed of state level leadership. Individual colleges need to improve the quality of support and transitional services for students. / Ed. D.

The transformation of the Department of Correctional Services into an institution of rehabilitation and the promotion of corrections as a societal responsibility brought a new dimension to the release policy of South Africa. A new Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 came into effect and the Department of Correctional Services published a White Paper on Corrections during 2005. The idealistic correctional goal of protecting the community while rehabilitating the offender has served as a reason for conducting research into the parole process from a South African perspective. The qualitative aim of the study is to explore parole as a phenomenon and to describe the process involved in successfully reintegrating an offender into the community. The significant role that Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards play in the parole process and the emphasis they place on community safety, the interest of the victim and the rehabilitation and control of offenders as part of their mission statement are highlighted in the study. / Penology / M.A. (Penology)

The transformation of the Department of Correctional Services into an institution of rehabilitation and the promotion of corrections as a societal responsibility brought a new dimension to the release policy of South Africa. A new Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 came into effect and the Department of Correctional Services published a White Paper on Corrections during 2005. The idealistic correctional goal of protecting the community while rehabilitating the offender has served as a reason for conducting research into the parole process from a South African perspective. The qualitative aim of the study is to explore parole as a phenomenon and to describe the process involved in successfully reintegrating an offender into the community. The significant role that Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards play in the parole process and the emphasis they place on community safety, the interest of the victim and the rehabilitation and control of offenders as part of their mission statement are highlighted in the study. / Penology / M.A. (Penology)