The ‘What Works’ literature has established that prison-based rehabilitation programs can reduce post-release re-offending rates amongst some offenders. Validated tools for measuring prison social climate have reliably identified regime factors that tend to make the prison experience less negative for prisoners. Experience in other human service areas would suggest that programs delivered in a positive prison social climate should be more effective than those delivered in a negative climate. However, the two lines of research exist in parallel without directly intersecting. This article examines research evidence that is laterally or tangentially relevant. The conclusion is that it would be perverse to structure penal administration policies around the view that a positive prison social climate cannot make any difference to re-offending rates. The evidence is that a good prison social climate would seem likely, other things being equal, to improve the outcomes achievable through proven ‘What Works’ rehabilitation programs. The research methodology to establish this correlation is complex. The article concludes by addressing these complexities and suggesting a viable methodology.

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Research Summary:Macroeconomic reforms have swept many modern Western corrections jurisdictions into a world of commercial realities, privatization, and competition. The following case study reviews how competition (i.e., a market test) between the public and the private sectors in tendering for the operation of the Woodford Corrections Centre contributed to a riot. A combined model of the threshold and state-centered theories of prison riots provides a template that clarifies the interactions of factors that contributed to the riot. Through document analysis and interviews, it is evident that despite producing a highly innovative bid judged superior to the private sector, the public sector was caught in a policy bind that led to a prison riot 3 weeks after the new center opened. Policy Implications:This research highlights important policy considerations for governments initiating policy-driven prison reform. First, the research highlights the need for custodial policy development and implementation to be strategic and part of an overall reform agenda that considers prison riot theory. Second, if the public sector is to be involved in open competition with the private sector, then policy should be consistent with the conditions of the competition. Prisons, whether public or private, cannot cope successfully with reformist policy that does not consider adequately the interactions of the individuals in the prison.

Background Despite universal environmental and policy-focused initiatives that resulted in declines in obesity among children in Cambridge, Massachusetts, disparities persist among racial/ethnic groups. In response, a community coalition formed the Healthy Eating and Living Project (HELP), to investigate and disseminate findings regarding disparities in excess weight among Cambridge Black youth (ages 6–14), with the aim of facilitating reciprocal learning and community mobilization to ultimately increase community engagement and inform prevention efforts. Objectives This paper details the theoretical framework, methods, and results of disseminating HELP findings to various sectors of the Cambridge Black/African American (Black) community. Methods First, using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, the HELP coalition analyzed existing data and conducted qualitative studies with Cambridge Black families to better understand the sociocultural and familial determinants of excess weight. We then developed presentation and print materials and used different dissemination approaches. We solicited feedback to inform the dissemination process and mobilization of obesity prevention efforts. Results We disseminated information through six community groups (parents, students, pastors, men’s health group, community leaders, and a health coalition), email lists, and websites. Reciprocal learning among and between HELP and community members yielded data presentation challenges, as well as prevention effort ideas and barriers. Conclusion Dissemination of local health data should be considered both as a strategy to increase community engagement and as an intervention to promote collective efficacy and community change. Careful attention should be dedicated to the language used when communicating racial disparities in excess weight to various community groups.

Research Summary In this historical review of prison privatization, we identify interconnected events in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom and their distinctiveness from other nations. The political and economic catalysts for the post‐1980 reemergence of privatization are also analyzed. Privatization exists on a continuum from ancillary service delivery to full custodial operations and management. As privatization seems to have lost some of its momentum, it is unclear whether its advent has produced the intended system‐wide improvements. Policy Implications Modern privatization spawned an enormous amount of research in which a comparison of the private and public sectors was attempted. Despite the plethora of research, the findings are mainly inconclusive. Policy makers should focus on privatization as a subset of mainstream prisons research, with investigation of system‐wide key issues like confinement quality, preparation for release, and accountability. These matters bear, in turn, on outcomes such as reduced recidivism and the ability to lead a useful life postrelease.

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Of all types of military and naval activity, combined operations have had a particular fascination for public and politicians in the English-speaking world. In England, from Drake's raid on Cadiz in 1587 through to actions initiated by Sir Roger Keyes' Combined Operations Head Quarters in 1940, this mode of warfare has offered the romantic and morale-boosting spectacle of a beleaguered nation striking back at a powerful and threatening adversary. To politicians and administrators such operations seemed to present tantalizingly rich results at little cost. From the early part of the sixteenth century, France and Spain were largely immune from decisiveEnglish military action on the continent, but seemed extremely vulnerable on their seaboards and, as their overseas empires grew, in their colonies. A naval squadron with a small seaborne army could inflict damage upon the economy and prestige of these powers out of all proportion to the forces employed. Even when France was able to continue the fight after major colonial defeats, as she did between 1761 and 1763 and after 1809, England was at least enriched by the profits from her seizures. The belief that the navy could be relied upon to defend Britainand carry the war to the enemy received significant support from the great school of naval historians that developed between 1870 and 1914.1 Their works, supplemented by popular histories, and enlisted unsuccessfully by the royal navy in its attempt to resist a reorientation of British strategy between 1905 and 1911, added great weight to the conviction that British strategy traditionally lay in the application of sea power, of which combinedoperations was a major element. Assisted by newsreel and film, the spectacular developments in the power and technology of combined operations since 1941 have ensured continued public interest in this mode of warfare.