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Journal Article #1: Blasko, B. L., Friedmann, P. D., Phodes, A. G., & Taxman, F. S. (2015). The parolee-parole officer relationships as a mediator of criminal justice outcomes. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(7), 722-740. doi:10.1177/0093854814562642

Abstract: Although psychotherapy literature identifies the client–therapist relationship as a key factor contributing to client outcomes, few studies have examined whether relationship quality among corrections populations and supervising officers influences outcomes. This is surprising given that many criminal justice intervention models include quality of the client–practitioner relationship. Parolees enrolled in a six-site randomized clinical trial, where they were assigned to a parole officer–therapist–client collaborative intervention designed to improve relationship quality (n = 253) or supervision as usual (n = 227), were asked to rate relationship quality with their supervising officer. Results showed parolees assigned to the intervention endorsed significantly higher relationship ratings and demonstrated a lower violation rate than those assigned to the control group. Ratings of the parolee–parole officer relationship mediated the relationship between study condition and outcomes; better perceived relationship quality was associated with fewer drug use days and violations during the follow-up period, regardless of the study condition. Findings are discussed as they pertain to supervision relationships.

Journal Article #2: Gascon, L. D., & Roussell, A. (2016). An exercise in failure: Punishing “at-risk” youth and families in a South Lose Angeles bootcamp. Race and Justice. doi:10.1177/2153368716678289

Abstract: Juvenile correctional bootcamps seek to transform youth labeled “at-risk” into productive members of society. While these military-style programs have been in decline since the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Police Department, one of the largest agencies in the country, continues to embrace them as a key disciplinary practice and vestige of the “get tough” era in U.S. juvenile justice reform. Contemporary transformative programs have been linked to Progressive Era juvenile social control, and scholars are beginning to show that, historically, racial exclusion has been a central function. The goals of this research are to interrogate the treatment of boot camp participants by police and demonstrate how racial exclusion remains central to juvenile social control. Drawing on collaborative ethnographic fieldwork, this study shows how police stigmatize Black and Latino parents, adopt the role of disciplinary authority in the family, and infuse formal control processes into domestic life. Youth face stigmatizing encounters through degradation and punitive physical training as part of the camp’s disciplinary regime. This research suggests that youth intervention programs built on liberal ideals are the most recent in a long line of racialized social control systems in the United States that seek to stigmatize and confine youth of color.