<p> This work describes prison chaplains and chapel volunteers from three perspectives: (1) a historical perspective which is used to investigate the role of religion in prisons, (2) the chaplains&rsquo; perspective on the partnership between chaplains and chapel volunteers, and (3) the volunteers&rsquo; perspective on the predictors of volunteering in prison ministry. </p><p> First, the study provides a historical perspective on the role of prison ministry workers in prisons by examining: (a) the role of religion in the philanthropic life of John Howard, an eighteenth century prison reformer, (b) the role of religion in satisfying socio-economic pre-conditions that led to prison reform during the period of the Industrial Revolution, and (c) the role of religion during the development and evolution of the penal systems in the USA. </p><p> Second, the study explores the partnership between paid chaplains working for over three months at ten state, medium to high-level security, men&rsquo;s prisons in Indiana, and chapel volunteers providing in-person ministry work. The study is primarily based on in-person, in-depth interviews with 25 chaplains. Using modified analytic induction, the research leads to identification of four roles adopted by chaplains: Pastoral Counselor, Religious Coordinator, Administrative Minister, and Advocate for Prisoners. The study describes the partnership in general and explains how chaplains in each of these different roles perceive conflict and collaboration with volunteers. </p><p> Third, the study constructs a sampling frame consisting of an estimated 916 to 1,132 chapel volunteers working in the ten prisons. The study is based on responses to a survey based on a convenience sample of 106 of these volunteers. The study uses OLS regression to test 32 hypotheses. Among other things, the study finds that statistically significant predictors of higher amount and higher frequency of volunteering to prison ministry include: being retired, shorter length of commute to prison, tenure as prison ministry volunteer, lower motivation to develop and strengthen social ties, and higher frequency of attending religious services. </p><p> The work concludes with a summary and discussion of the findings, implications for theory and practitioners (including policymakers, prison administrators, chaplains, and volunteers), as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.</p>

<p> Factors influencing incidents of transnational crime in Jamaica and the international community have been established in the literature. However, strategies to counter transnational security threats have been predicated on a foundation of re-activity, necessitating the need for proactive crime fighting efforts. This study investigated the effects of organizational agility, a proactive crime abatement strategy, on transnational crimes in Jamaica using quantitative analysis. An input-output framework based on economic theory, along with a multiple regression model provided the analytic foundation for this study. Thirty-two years of crime data between 1982 and 2013, one independent variable-organizational agility, and five control variables comprised the analytic model. Chief among the findings are that organizational agility as a proactive crime abatement strategy was found to be inversely related to incidents of transnational crime at &alpha; = 0.05 and that the overall model explained 91% of the variation in transnational crime incidents. </p>

<p>The purpose of the current content analysis was to identify response trends concerning social connections within the prison community in relation to participation in available programs and activities in 181 surveys completed by long-term inmates incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary in 2003. As social connectivity has been linked to decreased levels of violence and rule infractions, and this group of inmates will likely be the responsibility of the state for the rest of their natural lives, it is important to investigate the connections that they share with other inmates. The current analysis addressed the following three questions: Are the number of programs that inmates participate in and their rating of connection to the prison community related? Which programs do the inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary view as the most beneficial in aiding their connection to the prison community? What factors do inmates identify in their selected programs as valuable to forming and maintaining social connections within the prison community? In order to answer these questions, survey responses concerning inmate program participation, reasoning behind participation, and indications of connection within the prison community were input into a spreadsheet. The separated data was then subjected to content analysis. The program participation was compared to indicated level of prison connection. Written explanations of participation, in particular programming, were examined for similarities amongst all respondents. Results suggest a positive correlation between program participation and an increased sense of connection with the prison community, as well as concern for the well-being of others. Suggestions for future research include in-person data collection specifically designed to investigate inmate connections with the prison community and program participation, and an interview versus survey structure.

This dissertation explores learning, community, identity and transformation as these transpire in the situated practices and process of The Performance Project, an artist-facilitated performing group that began in a county jail. Interpretation and discussion respond to the primary philosophical framework of Deweyan pragmatism and to Etienne Wenger's theory of learning, Communities of Practice, which is grounded in the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which people learn and develop a sense of identity. Too, aspects of Performance Theory are employed, as is methodological scaffolding, proposed by ethnographers of communication, that supports an understanding of the ways language and ritual may point to sacred objects and principles around which a community is organized. This dissertation submits a theoretical entity for consideration, “facilitated communities of collaborative, performative, artistic praxis,” proposing a model for pedagogic application, and contributes to an area of inquiry that is, in the author's view, under-explored by scholars of communication or performance: what occurs, for whom, in collaborative creative processes derived from theatre practices and explicitly centered upon art, participation and change.