The purpose of this project was to provide a national snapshot of Departments of Corrections initiatives to address prison sexual violence, as well as to identify specific practices that seemed to be, in the absence of formal evaluations, particularly promising or innovative in nature.
For file ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb, researchers conducted a Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA) in November 2004, including both a written survey and a follow-up telephone interview. All 50 state Departments of Corrections (DOC) received the written survey that asked them to document ongoing programs and policies around sexual violence in prison. The survey aimed to provide a forum for states to share what they are doing and their views on which efforts were effective, noteworthy, or problematic. Surveys were sent to the head of the agency, but some states chose to have other or multiple people complete the questionnaire. States completed and returned the survey between December, 2004 and March, 2005.
Once a state's completed written survey was received, researchers asked DOC leaders to participate in a follow-up phone interview. During this follow-up interview, respondents were asked to clarify and expand on their survey responses and to nominate specific promising and innovative practices in their state. Phone interviews were completed between January and June 2005.
For the Survey of Promising Practices (SSP - file ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb), during the SSCA, state correctional leaders identified programs and practices as promising. In some cases, one aspect of a facility's response, like inmate education or victim services, was identified as promising. In other cases, states nominated multiple aspects of a particular facility's response or agency-wide initiatives, such as a staff training curriculum.
Between March and July 2005, researchers conducted the survey including phone interviews with facility directors, service providers, or state personnel affiliated with nominated approaches. Some officials spoke about more than one of the nominated initiatives during a single interview. Prior to placing a call, researchers asked the state leaders who had completed the interviews from the SSCA to call personnel associated with the program(s) they nominated to introduce the study and inform personnel that they may be contacted about their prison sexual violence (PSV) programming. In most cases, personnel associated with nominated programs chose to have more than one person complete the interview. Interviews typically lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. While the goal of the surveys administered under the SSCA was to capture a snapshot of all aspects of a state's response to PSV, interviews from the SSP focused on capturing the details of particular innovative approaches.
For the Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA - file ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb), the Department of Corrections in each state received the written survey that asked them to document ongoing programs and policies around sexual violence in prison.
For the Survey of Promising Practices (SSP - file ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb), during the interviews from the SSCA, state correctional leaders identified 67 programs and practices as promising.
Cross-sectional
Survey of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb): The Department of Corrections for each state in the United States between November, 2004 and June, 2005.
Survey of Promising Practices (ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb): Initiatives undertaken by state Departments of Corrections in the United States prior to March, 2005.
Survey of Promising Practices (SSP - file ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb): Department of Correction Programs,
Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA - file ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb): State Departments of Corrections
survey data
The Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA) data (ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb) included questions about inmate-against-inmate, staff-against-inmate, and inmate-against-staff sexual violence and covered the following topics: state policies, prevention approaches, investigation and response, staff training, documentation of incidents, and victim services.
The Survey of Promising Practices (SSP) data (ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb) collected general information regarding the facility, the specifics of the identified program, staff training, other facility initiatives, and barriers to implementation.
Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA - file ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb): A response rate of 90 percent was obtained as 45 out of 50 states responded.
Survey of Promising Practices (SSP - file ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb): During the Survey of State Correctional Administrators, state correctional leaders identified 67 programs and practices as promising. Two programs' staff did not respond to researchers' repeated attempts to conduct the survey for a response rate of 97 percent.
Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA - file ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb): Several Likert-type scales were used.
Survey of Promising Practices (SSP - file ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb): None