Objective: This study describes the development of an engagement scale for use with youth in residential treatment centers. Engagement includes attitude about treatment, bond with providers, and participation in treatment activities. Method: Interview data were collected at the midpoint in residence of 130 youth in two centers. Items were selected to capture practitioners' description of three related concepts in a logic model. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis and examined interitem reliability. Results: Results indicate a single underlying factor, which the authors label engagement, an acceptable level of reliability, and strong content validity. Conclusion: The scale integrates several concepts in the treatment process literature and might serve to assess youth engagement in residential settings. Additional study should examine construct and construct validity.

Substance abuse is increasingly common in prison inmates. This article presents findings on substance abuse and service needs of male and female inmate parents in Arizona, with a particular focus on gender and ethnic differences across inmates. A sample of 838 incarcerated fathers and 1,441 mothers completed anonymous questionnaires regarding traumatic and stressful events experienced as children and/or adults, including addiction. Exposure to childhood and adult traumatic events, especially child abuse, was related to self-reported alcohol and drug problems for both males and females. Mothers reported significantly more postrelease service needs than fathers. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

Anti-drug-abuse policy debates center on the relative emphasis to be given to prevention, enforcement, and treatment efforts. Even though there are insufficient treatment services to meet the demand, there has been little debate about the question of who should benefit first from the available services. The consequences of lack of such policy for urban probation departments are examined. Lack of an allocation policy appears to be related to unresolved conflicts among competing premises for allocating services. Four premises are identified, and how drug-abusing probationers might fare under each premise is discussed.

Training and manpower development in correction has become an increasingly important issue. Most such training on the cor rectional officer level is based upon an academic model of educa tion. This kind of training approach is likely to be ineffective because of a hypothesized officer subculture, the values of which are antagonistic to the policy and values implicit in the training. Three scales, measuring correctional policy, supervisory behavior, and social climate of institutions, were administered in the correction department of a northeastern state in order to test the hypothesis. It was found that officers differed considerably from managers on both policy and social climate. A major ex planatory factor appeared to be the way in which the officers perceived themselves to be managed. Suggestions are made for changing the officer subculture values based upon small group dynamics techniques that affect the way in which officers perceive themselves to be managed and alter the perceived rewards for behaving in ways compatible with managerial policy.

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