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Institutional misconduct, especially violent misconduct, poses a problem for all prisons. To address the misconduct concern, this study tested whether an evidence-based, cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) program would reduce misconduct, including incidents of violent misconduct, and post-release arrests compared to non or less intensive CBT programming. The Delaware Department of Correction (DOC) implemented CBT-based programs in their institutions, which included the Cognitive Behavioral Interventions - Core Curriculum (CBI-CC) developed at the University of Cincinnati. The three programs addressed in this study include Thinking Things Through (TTT), Road to Recovery (R2R), and Reflections. TTT consisted of the instruments and materials of the CBI-CC, whereas R2R and Reflections focused on CBT skills and techniques. The Center for Drug and Health Studies (CDHS) in collaboration with DOC evaluated the impact of the program using administrative records and surveys with program participants.

Results indicated that all treatment groups performed better than the control group in terms of rearrest and incarceration. The group who received the intensive CBT treatment performed significantly better than all other groups. Intensive CBT treatment was thus effective in reducing recidivism. In terms of CBI-CC programming, participants had the highest rates of misconduct but saw a significant decrease after completing programming. In addition, both R2R and TTT have the lowest rates of rearrest after completing treatment programming compared to all other groups. This can be credited to the length and intensity of programming, as well CBT implemented within the programs.

This study evaluated CeaseFire, a program of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. The evaluation had both outcome and process components.

The outcome evaluation assessed the program's impact on shootings and killings in selected CeaseFire sites. Two types of crime data were compiled by the research team: Time Series Data (Dataset 1) and Shooting Incident Data (Dataset 2). Dataset 1 is comprised of aggregate month/year data on all shooting, gun murder, and persons shot incidents reported to Chicago police for CeaseFire's target beats and matched sets of comparison beats between January 1991 and December 2006, resulting in 1,332 observations. Dataset 2 consists of data on 4,828 shootings that were reported in CeaseFire's targeted police beats and in a matched set of comparison beats for two-year periods before and after the implementation of the program (February 1998 to April 2006).

The process evaluation involved assessing the program's operations and effectiveness. Researchers surveyed three groups of CeaseFire program stakeholders: employees, representatives of collaborating organizations, and clients.

The three sets of employee survey data examine such topics as their level of involvement with clients and CeaseFire activities, their assessments of their clients' problems, and their satisfaction with training and management practices. A total of 154 employees were surveyed: 23 outreach supervisors (Dataset 3), 78 outreach workers (Dataset 4), and 53 violence interrupters (Dataset 5).

The six sets of collaborating organization representatives data examine such topics as their level of familiarity and contact with the CeaseFire program, their opinions of CeaseFire clients, and their assessments of the costs and benefits of being involved with CeaseFire. A total of 230 representatives were surveyed: 20 business representatives (Dataset 6), 45 clergy representatives (Dataset 7), 26 community representatives (Dataset 8), 35 police representatives (Dataset 9), 36 school representatives (Dataset 10), and 68 service organization representatives (Dataset 11).

The Client Survey Data (Dataset 12) examine such topics as clients' involvement in the CeaseFire program, their satisfaction with aspects of life, and their opinions regarding the role of guns in neighborhood life. A total of 297 clients were interviewed.

Bullying, fighting, and other forms of interpersonal violence occur frequently in elementary schools, and are associated with student distress, poor school functioning, and increases in aggression, delinquency, and other behavior problems. Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a holistic, multi-tiered, evidence-based approach for preventing and reducing aggression and other problem behavior in school. However, the majority of PBIS schools struggle with more intensive interventions, which many students who present aggressive and disruptive behaviors need. School mental health (SMH) offers promise for addressing these limitations in PBIS. However, SMH lacks an implementation structure and as a result a student must effectively be at a crisis level to be referred for services. Because PBIS and SMH have operated separately, the impacts of both initiatives have been limited.

To address these limitations, the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) has been developed by leaders from national centers for both initiatives, providing specific guidance on PBIS-SMH interconnection through effective teams, data-based decision making, implementation support for evidence-based practices, and ongoing quality improvement to assure responsiveness to school and student needs. Involving partnerships with school districts and community mental health agencies in two school districts located in South Carolina and Florida, 24 schools implementing PBIS with fidelity were randomly assigned to the three conditions: the ISF, PBIS and SMH, or PBIS alone (8 schools per condition). Data were collected from school records, teacher and student reports, and school implementation teams. The impacts of ISF were compared to the other two conditions on school climate and safety, student exposure to violence, problem behavior and discipline problems, and access to and quality of services.

Parents And Children Coping Together (PACT) was designed to longitudinally assess mothers in Los Angeles county living with HIV (MLHs) and their young, well children age 5 to 11 years old. The PACT sample was followed every 6 months for 30 months. The study utilizes longitudinal data from children/adolescent and mother dyads to investigate the effects of maternal HIV and family variables on adolescent sexual behavior. Specific aims were to:

1. Evaluate longitudinally youth adjustment (i.e., mental health, behavioral adjustment, social outcomes) including measures for young children. Measures included developmentally appropriate youth and maternal mental health measures (e.g., Children's Depression Inventory for youths age under 18; Beck Depression Inventory for youths age equal to or greater than 18), assessment of maternal physical health, assessment of child behaviors, and family functioning.
2. Evaluate youth characteristics from across developmental periods that may moderate or mediate the impact of MLHs' chronic illness on patterns of youth adjustment over time, including: (a) background factors of age, gender, ethnicity; and (b) moderating and mediating factors, such as self-concept, family cohesion, the parent-child relationship, HIV/AIDS knowledge, perceived stigma, autonomy, and parent-adolescent separation.
3. Evaluate maternal characteristics that may moderate or mediate the impact of MLHs' chronic illness on the youth (e.g., illness severity, mental health status, social support, parenting skills).