Corrections and the Criminal Justice System

David C. May is an Associate Professor and Criminology Program Coordinator in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Mississippi State University. He has published numerous articles in the area of responses to school violence, perceptions of the severity of correctional punishments, adolescent fear of crime and weapon possession, two books examining the antecedents of gun ownership and possession among male delinquents, and one book examining perceptions of prison and its alternatives. He is currently completing a book on school safety and coauthoring a book on fear of crime. Kevin I. Minor is Professor and Chair in the Department of Correctional and Juvenile Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. His specializations include institutional and community corrections and juvenile justice, as well as evalution and applied research. Dr. Minor has published various books, anthology chapters, and articles in these areas with articles appearing in such journals as Crime & Deliquency, Federal Probation, Journal or Criminal Justice, and Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice. He has also performed consultant services for the United States Department of Justice (including the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National Institute of Corrections, and the National Institute of Justice) as well as for numerous state level and private agencies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Minor worked as a practitioner in both juvenile and adult correctional institutions. Rick Ruddell is the Graduate Program Director in the Department of Correctional and Juvenile Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. Dr. Ruddell has experience as a supervisor and manager within the Department of Corrections and Public Safety in Saskatchewan, Canada, and served as Associate Professor of Political Science at the California State University, Chico. His research has been published in over 30 scholarly articles and focuses on corrections and criminal justice policy. Rick Ruddell is co-author of Making Sense of Criminal Justice, author of America Behind Bars: Trends in Imprisonment, 1950 to 2000, and co-editor of Issues in Correctional Health. Betsy A. Matthews has worked as a youth worker, an adult probation officer, and a research associate for the American Probation and Parole Association. She earned her PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 2004. She has published articles on various topics including intensive supervision, restorative justice, performance-based measures in probation and parole, faith-based programming, and working effectively with girls in the juvenile justice system. Dr. Matthews is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Correctional and Juvenile Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University.