Promising practices for delivery of court-supervised substance abuse treatment: perspectives from six high-performing California counties operating Proposition 36

Operative for nearly a decade, California's voter-initiated Proposition 36 program offers many offenders community-based substance abuse treatment in lieu of likely incarceration. Research has documented program successes and plans for replication have proliferated, yet very little is known about how the Proposition 36 program works or practices for achieving optimal program outcomes. In this article, we identify policies and practices that key stakeholders perceive to be most responsible for the successful delivery of court-supervised substance abuse treatment to offenders under Proposition 36. Data was collected via focus groups conducted with 59 county stakeholders in six high-performing counties during 2009. Discussion was informed by seven empirical indicators of program performance and outcomes and was focused on identifying and describing elements contributing to success. Program success was primarily attributed to four strategies, those that: (1) fostered program engagement, monitored participant progress, and sustained cooperation among participants; (2) cultivated buy-in among key stakeholders; (3) capitalized on the role of the court and the judge; and (4) created a setting which promoted a high-quality treatment system, utilization of existing resources, and broad financial and political support for the program. Goals and practices for implementing each strategy are discussed. Findings provide a "promising practices" resource for Proposition 36 program evaluation and improvement and inform the design and study of other similar types of collaborative justice treatment efforts.     

Guerrilla communication,visual consumption,and consumer public relations

Guerrilla communication has grown into an increasingly prominent strategy adopted by large corporations such as American Express, BP Amoco, Chrysler, Hershey Foods, and Pepsi. In its attention-grabbing instantiations, guerrilla communication points to the convergence of advertising, marketing, and public relations in consumer communication practices. This essay also considers guerrilla communication's place in the circuit of culture.     

Restoration of urban salt marshes: Lessons from southern California

Extensive restoration efforts in southern California coastal wetlands highlight several challenges for urban salt marsh restoration, including: habitat isolation and fragmentation, impacts from exotic species, the loss of transitional upland habitats, and other alterations to hydrologic and sediment dynamics. Habitat isolation impairs colonization by dispersal-limited plants, so planting becomes essential to achieve diverse salt marshes. Low species richness slows the development of salt marsh functions (e.g., biomass and nitrogen accumulation) in southern California. A variety of exotic species have invaded the upper reaches of salt marshes in southern California, most commonly in marshes with hydrological modifications. The replacement of gradual slopes between wetlands and uplands by sharp transitions abutting urban development limits our ability to restore rare plant and animal populations. Where hydrologic connections are impaired by roads and other structures, the natural migration of channels is constrained, and sediment dynamics often lead to lagoon mouth closure.A case study from Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (hereafter, Tijuana Estuary) further illustrates a specific lesson for urban salt marsh restoration concerning watershed issues and sediment dynamics. In the south arm of Tijuana Estuary, watershed urbanization, along with local climate, topography, and soils, has resulted in extreme rates of sediment accumulation. Sedimentation rates in a salt marsh in the south arm of the estuary ranged from 10 to 30 cm over a single winter (1994–95), substantially greater than historic sedimentation rates in the estuary or rates from other coastal wetlands with storm sedimentation. Sediment buried salt marsh vegetation in place and is converting intertidal salt marsh to uplands. These impacts illustrate the need to consider watershed issues and sediment control in managing and restoring urban salt marshes.     

Chemical and biological agent incident response and decision process for civilian and public sector facilities.

In the event of a terrorist attack or catastrophic release involving potential chemical and/or biological warfare agents, decisionmakers will need to make timely and informed choices about whether, or how, to respond. The objective of this article is to provide a decision framework to specify initial and follow-up actions, including possible decontamination, and to address long-term health and environmental issues. This decision framework consists of four phases, beginning with the identification of an incident and ending with verification that cleanup and remediation criteria have been met. The flowchart takes into account both differences and similarities among potential agents or toxins at key points in the decision-making process. Risk evaluation and communication of information to the public must be done throughout the process to ensure a successful effort.     

What does children's art work tell us about gender?

If art is an authentic expression of the self, a sociologist should be able to examine children's art work to see what effect various social agents have had on gender socialization. Inferences could be made from the art work about the socialization process. In this study, the authors examined children's art work to investigate the implicit sex role perceptions of children. The population included 110 students between the ages of nine and 12 in three elementary schools in Texas. 126 pieces of art were examined and 500 independent ratings were made. Results of the study indicated that the content and form of children's art work differ significantly by sex. A gender role perspective was used to explain the pattern.     

Measuring changes in interagency collaboration: an examination of the Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative

This paper describes the evaluation of interagency collaboration in a network of child-serving providers as part of the evaluation of the Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative (BSSI). In line with the system of care approach, the objectives of BSSI included reducing fragmentation of efforts and delivering integrated services to families of young children exposed to or at risk of exposure to family violence. Interagency collaboration was examined via social network and focus group data collected at three time points starting at baseline. Network analysis findings suggest that over time the network structure became consistent with BSSI's vision of an ideal collaborative network structure. Focus group findings, however, present a more complex picture of the status of collaboration. This paper sheds light on approaches and challenges to measuring interagency collaboration in a service delivery system and communicating social network analysis findings to stakeholders in a way that is accessible and useful.     

Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave

Marlene Dumas's exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, reveals a complicated economy of seeing as her paintings and drawings reject any easy recognition or simplification of aesthetic, cultural, or political meanings. The multiple series of faces rendered in eerie washes of watercolor and oil seem to suspend representation, projecting a discomforting knowledge of subjectivity as an always tense agitated terrain within which the viewer must stand complicit in relational contestation.     

Community Reactions to a Syphilis Prevention Campaign for Gay and Bisexual Men in Los Angeles County

“Stop the Sores” (STS), a humor-based syphilis prevention campaign, was implemented in response to increasing syphilis prevalence among gay and bisexual men in Los Angeles County. In 2004, 564 men completed surveys measuring exposure and reactions to the campaign and syphilis testing. Mean age was 39, and men of color comprised a significant proportion of the sample (46.8%). Most men reported being HIV-negative (79.3%). Overall, 7.8% of the sample reported ever having syphilis; HIV-positive men were six times more likely to report this. Over one half of the sample (58.5%) reported exposure to the campaign. Men reporting any recent unprotected anal sex were twice more likely (than those who did not) to see the campaign. Men of color were twice more likely than White men to report wanting to speak to their friends about it. Finally, 39.1% of men exposed to the campaign reported being tested for syphilis as a result. Factors related to higher likelihood to test for syphilis included HIV seropositive status, any recent unprotected anal insertive sex, recent use of methamphetamine, recent use of “poppers,” and recent use of erectile dysfunction drugs. Although STS was somewhat effective, outreach efforts to particular subgroups may need to increase.     

Promises and Pitfalls: Involving Service Users and Carers in Social Work Manager Education

Partnership working occupies an increasing amount of social work managers' time and budget, requiring skills and abilities not always developed previously within social work programmes. Much discussion around partnership working centres on building collaborative inter-agency and inter-professional relationships with less emphasis on the need to ensure good working relationships with service users and carers, despite their being the ultimate recipients of the process. This article explores efforts to develop a focus on service users and carers within a module for social work managers as part of post-qualifying (PQ) social work education. It documents a process where, initially, service users and carers provided personal testimonies of being recipients of services and then subsequently occupied more authoritative roles within teaching, to the current position when they are again less actively involved.

In describing these developments it explores possible reasons why involving service users and carers within this module has proved challenging. The article acknowledges that there is relatively limited literature about the involvement of service users and carers in PQ education. It suggests that lessons learned from involving service users and carers in qualifying social work training cannot directly be transposed to the post-qualifying context.     

Emotional responses of men and women when labeled nonintelligent and unattractive by various reference groups

The study explored the emotional responses of men and women when labeled nonintelligent and unattractive by various reference groups—child(ren), spouse, father, mother and generalized others. Questionnaires were administered to 151 men and women. The findings indicated that (1) women were more likely than men to experience the label of being unattractive, (2) the label was differentially applied by various reference groups, and (3) women responded to being labeled unattractive with hurt, embarrassment and sadness.