California Youth Authority :: essays research papers

The California Youth Authority or the CYA as it is more commonly known, is an institution which provides a range of education, treatment, and training services for youthful offenders committed by courts. This system has been plagued by multitudes of problems for many years that need to be fixed. â€Å"The California Youth Authority is responsible for the protection of society form the criminal and delinquent behavior of young people(Hill, Legislative Analyst).† This is reached mainly through custodial control of these juveniles and the implementation of vocational, education, health, and mental health treatment services. As of now, CYA uses large, remote, high-security facilities. They may be called "schools," but with about 400 kids in each one, they are more like warehouses, storing wards until they are ready for release. For decades, experts and officials have dismissed this model as incapable of meeting the juvenile justice system’s goal of rehabilitating youth. The CYA is clearly not working the way the way that it was designed to run. For instance, three out of four wards who end up in the California Youth Authority are arrested on new criminal charges within three years of their release, which proves the institution's failure to rehabilitate the state's most troubled juvenile offenders. Experts say the high number does not address how much California could gain from approaches used in other states (like Mississippi) such as housing wards in smaller facilities, providing intensive treatment programs, and offering more supervision and assistance after a ward is released. â€Å"In smaller, rehabilitation centers, youth would be under the supervision of trained social workers and mental health experts – not prison guards.(LAO Report, pg. 7).† This would allow the offenders to be in closer contact with their families, as well as a variety of services. The average age of a CYA institution is 43 years old. This means the there are many maintenance and repair needs and, at some point, many buildings will have to be replaced. Also, the population that many of the institutions were designed for 40 or 50 years ago is different than today’s youthful offender. â€Å"Finally, the ward population has decreased from a high of over 10,000 in 1996 to its current level of 4,300. This decline has resulted in overcapacity and presents an opportunity to consider closure(Lao Report, pg. 11).† Closing some institutions would save the state money, and enable the state to implement programs to lower recidivism rates.

Questionnaire

QUESTIONNAIRE It is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton. It refers to paper and pencil data gathering method by letting the subject or respondent complete the questionnaire before the researcher or his representative, or it can be mailed Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers may frustrate users. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting a survey by questionnaire may not be practical. Questionnaire is also the most commonly used tool to generate data. Sometimes, it is called the survey form. TYPES A distinction can be made between questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, and questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index. Questionnaires within the former category are commonly part of surveys, whereas questionnaires in the latter category are commonly part of tests. Questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables could for instance include questions on: * preferences (e. g. political party) * behaviors (e. g. food consumption) * facts (e. g. gender) Questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index include for instance questions that measure: * latent traits (e. g. personality traits such as extroversion) * attitudes (e. . towards immigration) * an index (e. g. Social Economic Status) Question types Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options. The response optio ns for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished: * Dichotomous * Nominal-polytomous * Ordinal-polytomous * (Bounded)Continuous A respondent's answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterwards. An example of an open-ended question is a question where the testee has to complete a sentence (sentence completion item). What Are the Criteria of a good Questionnaire? 1. The language must be clear. 2. The content of the question must be specific. . The question should show singleness of purpose. 4. The question must be free from assumptions. 5. The question must be free from suggestions. 6. The question should have linguistic completeness and grammatical consistency. Questionnaire administration modes Main modes of questionnaire administration are: * Face-to-face questionnaire administration * Paper-and-pencil questionnaire administration * Computerized questionnaire administration * Adaptive computerized questionnaire administration

The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1054 Words

In Nathaniel Hawthorne s, Scarlet Letter, the little girl Pearl, is the living and breathing symbol of adultrey which is proven by her mother and unknown father to admit their sins to all of the townspeople. Pearl herself, is the Scarlet Letter which sometimes leads to her being given the characteristics of a demon. Pearl s spirit, love for nature and many other characteristics that she carries, reveals her distinct and unusual personality. She also understands many things that a regular 7 year old wouldn t even think about, proving that she is a symbol. Pearl, is also the biggest connection between Hester, her mother, and the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, whom is her father. In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been†¦show more content†¦The comparison between these magical characters adds to her separation from all of the other towns children. When she is compared to this red bird, the color is emphasized due to the visual we are given through the book and the specification of the bird since she is full of wild energy. At first, Pearl symbolizes the shame of Hesters public punishment for her adultery. As she grows older, she becomes the symbol of how much of a wreck Hesters life and mental state by making a point of the letter A every single chance she can get. Pearl is the living symbol of the scarlet letter. Pearl basically is there to make Hester just accept her sin. Pearl makes sure that Hester never takes off the letter as well. Later in the book, she acts as though she does not recognize her mother when she takes off the letter. Pearl would much rather see her mother stand up to her sin instead of run away from it. So when Hester tries to throw away the letter, Pearl becomes rather upset. Hawthorne also shows that Pearl is not just a symbolic figure for the letter but also a literal figure. Hester even says that Pearl is the living scarlet letter and causes Hester much more stress than the letter itself. Pearl simply wants her mother to believe that she is bigger than the sun she committed. H ester believes that she is the worst sinner and her daughter can sense this. When the town leaders wanted to take Pearl away for Hester, one reason she