Research on juvenile offender treatment and intervention has called for a shift from a deficits-based to a strengths-based approach (Marshall, Ward, Mann, Moulden, Fernandez, Serran, & Marshall, 2005; Wormith, Althouse, Simpson, Reitzel, Fagan, & Morgan, 2007; Zeldin, 2004). One potential approach to treatment fosters a sense of psychological empowerment in youth. Although research has yet to explore the experience of psychological empowerment within incarcerated youth, theory on empowerment suggests that it could help youth to create both cognitive (e.g., increased self-esteem, increased confidence) and behavioral (e.g., improving quality of life, social integration) changes in their lives (Cargo, Grams, Ottoson, Ward, & Green, 2003; Holden, Crankshaw, Nimsch, Hinnant, & Hund, 2004a). Empowerment-based programming may also help youth develop specific psychosocial capacities, such as competence, confidence, and self-efficacy, which are necessary skills for future success and community reintegration. The purpose of the current study was to establish a measure of psychological empowerment (PE) and explore potential behavioral correlates of PE for young men within Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) correctional and re-entry facilities. Using a cross-sectional, non-experimental design, quantitative data from self-report surveys of incarcerated youth on PE in three settings within correctional facilities as well as OYA staff ratings of behavioral success in five skill areas was collected. Confirmatory factor analyses did not support the three-factor structure of PE. A single-factor structure of Intrapersonal PE was found to fit the data in three correctional settings. The present study has implications for the reconceptualization and reoperationalization of psychological empowerment in this unique context. Using the confirmed sub-scale, results of hierarchical linear models indicated that Intrapersonal PE was a significant predictor of behavioral success in two of the five OYA domains. Even with an imperfect operationalization of PE, there was partial evidence for the predictive ability of Intrapersonal PE.

Overcrowding is a serious problem in prisons and jails. Most people who are in prison and jail have substance abuse problems. Long-term, intensive, therapeutic community, substance abuse treatment in prison has proven effective in reducing arrests, amounts of incarceration and time until first arrest. Jails, with their shorter times of incarceration, make long-term treatment impossible and therapeutic communities or milieu therapy difficult. There are few substance abuse treatment programs in jails and even fewer outcome evaluations to determine effectiveness so it is not known if jail treatment is effective. Graduates of the Inmate Recovery Program (a short term, day treatment style, jail-based substance abuse treatment program) were compared four years before and up to five years after treatment with a nontreated control group and a treatment drop-out group. The IRP group had fewer arrests, less time incarcerated, a bigger drop in rates of incarceration and a longer time lapse until first arrest than the drop-outs. The IRP group had less arrests, a longer time lapse until first arrest, a bigger drop in rate of incarceration and less incarceration in two out of five years than the control group. IRP produced a conservative net avoided cost of incarceration of $786,593.89 alone. This is equivalent to an average savings of $3,480.50 per client for the average three and a half years after treatment. Experiences prior to IRP also impacted treatment results. Subjects with fewer previous prison sentences; fewer prior arrests; less time incarcerated the year of treatment; more prior alcohol and drug related arrests; a job, or another legal source of income; who were older; and had more DUII arrests before treatment were associated with fewer arrests and less time incarcerated after treatment. This information may help improve future IRP performance. Therefore the Inmate Recovery Program has a variety of favorable impacts and appears to also be a cost-effective program. / Graduation date: 1996

Victim-offender mediation, a component of restorative justice, has been a valuable tool for rehabilitating juvenile offenders since the late 1970s. Victim offender mediation brings crime victims and offenders together to reach agreements for restitution and community healing. Resolutions Northwest, a non-profit organization in Multnomah County, offers a victim-offender mediation program to juvenile offenders and their victims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the recidivism rates for juvenile offenders who went through Resolutions Northwest's victim-offender mediation program as opposed to offenders who went through the traditional justice system. It was hypothesized that the participants in this program would have lower recidivism rates than the juvenile offenders who were not given this restorative justice option. Records on juvenile offenders who successfully completed the victim-offender mediation program were collected from Resolutions Northwest. These records were then compared to a secondary data set. This secondary data was from the Tri-County Juvenile Information System database, supplied by the Multnomah County Department of Adult and Community Justice to Professor William Feyerherm as part of the Casey Foundation supported Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. It was found that 41.6% of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative group reoffended within one year of their original arrest. In comparison, only 20.3% of the Resolutions Northwest group reoffended within a year of their victim-offender mediation program completion. It was also investigated as to whether the juveniles in both groups reoffended a second, third or even fourth time within a one year period. The explorations into second, third and fourth reoffenses yielded similar results in that the juveniles from Resolutions Northwest had significantly lower recidivism rates than those from the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative group.