Mediated Communication #4

I was searching for an article for my 4th Mediated Communication post.  I read several articles but didn’t find anything that peeked my interest.  Then I came across an article on immigration on the Al Jazeera website; “For some migrants, a familiar journey from the desert to detention.”  Immigration is a very complicated topic.  On the one hand you have the law and those who are breaking it.  You have fears over what else is coming across the border; ie drugs, disease, violence, etc.  On the other hand you have people just trying to find a better life, children, compassion and humanity.  I think everyone agrees with one thing, something must be done, but that something is the debate.  I was surprised to learn that illegal immigration is at a 40-year low, partially due to a controversial zero-tolerance Border Patrol policy known as Operation Streamline.  This policy involved mass hearings and legal consequences from jail time to a criminal record that can prevent legal residency or entry for 10 years or more.  This policy has dropped recidivism rates to all time lows.  I found this article to be well researched and well written.  It contained many points of view along with statistics from many sources.  It is a fascinating look into the illegal immigration problem and measures that are being taken in response to this problem.  

Mediated Communication #3 - “Seattle to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus holiday”.

I heard part of a story on a news station the other day about Seattle, Washington changing Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.  The story intrigued me and I wanted to know more so I went in search of the story.  I found an article on Al Jazeera entitled “Seattle to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus holiday”.  I read the article several times.  It is a very interesting idea to celebrate this holiday and dedicate it to the indigenous people who were here long before Christopher Columbus ever learned how to sail a boat.  I think it is only fitting that we celebrate the people who survived and thrived here long before anyone ‘discovered’ this land.  Apparently, this is also being done elsewhere such as; Bellingham, Washington that celebrates Coast Salish Day, Minneapolis celebrates Indigenous Peoples’  Day, and South Dakota which celebrates Native American Day.  I found myself in agreement with this idea and irritated by the Italian-American’s who feel disrespected by this action.  The Italian-American’s feel that “America wouldn’t be America without Christopher Columbus”.  I don’t know about that but I do know that there were already many groups of people living on this continent when Mr. Columbus discovered it and I think they deserve recognition.  I thought the article was well written and it explored ideas and asked questions I hadn’t thought of, which always makes for interesting reading.

Opposition Constructive - Incarceration is not the answer to drug addiction.

Opposition Constructive - Incarceration is not the answer to drug addiction.

A perception has endured over time that “nothing works” in prison rehabilitation. Yet, research by psychologists and others shows that treating prisoners’ substance abuse problems during and after incarceration can lead to major reductions in recidivism.

The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population and we consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs and incarcerate almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners, more than 8 of 10 of whom have some substance involvement.  Incarceration alone is not the answer to drug addiction.  We need to address the treatment needs of offenders while holding them accountable for their crimes.   Research published in the 1990’s by psychologist Dr. Harry K. Wexler, a leader in prison reform, found that prison-based substance abuse is effective – if combined with aftercare – and leads to major reductions in recidivism. For example, his 1999 study involving 478 prisoners at a state prison near San Diego, California found that after three years, only 27 percent of the prisoners involved the prison's drug treatment program with aftercare returned to prison, compared to a recidivism rate of 75 percent for those not involved in the treatment program.  Research has repeatedly shown that investment in treatment is valuable and, furthermore, produces better outcomes with more cost-effectiveness than incarceration alone. The Justice Policy Institute reported that if an individual receives treatment while incarcerated, there is, on average, an estimated benefit of $1.91 to $2.69 for every $1 invested in prison programs.

For over twenty years, the Federal Bureau of Prisons substance abuse treatment strategy has made a significant difference in the lives of inmates, their families, and their communities.  The Bureau's drug abuse treatment strategy has grown and changed as advances have occurred in substance treatment programs.  There are several levels of drug treatment available according to the needs of the offenders.  The Nonresidential Drug Abuse Treatment includes a 12-week, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatment program is conducted primarily in a group setting.  Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) is the Bureau’s most intensive treatment program. CBT is used in a modified therapeutic community model where offenders experience living in a pro-social community. Offenders live in a unit separate from general population; they participate in half-day programming and half-day work, school, or vocational activities. RDAP is typically nine months in duration.  Community Treatment Services (CTS)provides continuity of care for offenders placed in Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) and on Home Confinement. Research has found this period to be the most vulnerable time for an offender to relapse into substance use and/or criminal behavior. Research also demonstrates continued treatment and supervision is an essential element to the offender's treatment and success.  CTS provides a comprehensive network of contracted community-based treatment providers in all 50 states, three U.S. Territories and the District of Columbia. The network of professionals consists of licensed individuals (e.g. certified addictions counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, professional counselors, medical doctors, certified sex offender therapists, etc.) and specialized agencies resulting in a variety of services available in the community.  

A study by research scientist Steven S. Martin involving inmates in the Delaware Correctional System also highlights the value of treating prisoners for substance abuse problems during and after incarceration. The Delaware program featured a continuum of care in which some inmates transitioned back into the community through a work-release program involving therapeutic communities (TC) - drug-free residential settings which feature continuous monitoring by counselors, group therapy and family sessions. Dr. Martin found that after one year, a significantly higher percentage of inmates who had participated in any aspect of the program were drug free and arrest free than those assigned to the usual work release program. And after three years, those who had continued with the TC aftercare had significantly less drug use and re-arrests than those who dropped out of the program.

Experimental psychologist D. Dwayne Simpson, Ph.D., of the Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University analyzed the results of research by Drs. Wexler, Martin and others for special issues of the Prison Journal in 1999 and found drastic effects of such treatment programs. In a combined sample of 1,461 inmates from California, Texas and Delaware, about a quarter of those who took part in intensive drug treatment programs and aftercare ended up back in prison compared with about three-quarters of those who received no treatment in prison or those that received treatment in prison but no treatment after being released.

Rigorous analysis of these programs by the Bureau of Prisons and the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows these programs make a significant positive difference in the lives of inmates following their release from prison, as they are substantially less likely to use drugs or to be rearrested, compared to other inmates who did not participate in the treatment programs.

“We do not as a nation refuse to provide treatment for other chronic ailments like heart disease or diabetes. We should do so for addictive disorders, especially when the added benefits of treatment for offenders include significant reductions in crime and its costs to society.”  Incarceration alone is not the answer to drug addiction.  We need to address the treatment needs of offenders while holding them accountable for their crimes.

Mediated Communication #2 - Germans join 'War on Christmas' - per-Christmas commercialism, that is.

Germans-join-War-on-Christmas-pre-Christmas-commercialism-that-is

I was wandering through the Christian Science Monitor website and came across an article titled, “Germans join 'War on Christmas' – pre-Christmas commercialism, that is”.  Since Christmas is my favorite holiday, this article caught my eye.  I have been involved in the local Christmas festival, the Jubilee of Trees, for about 10 years which has made me sensitive to public opinion on the subject of Christmas.  I felt this article was pertinent as we approach another Christmas season.

I have listened for years to other people complain about how early Christmas items start showing up in stores.  I was amazed that they are having the same problem in Germany.  The German people, for the most part, feel that the Christmas season should start with Advent, which is the four week prior to Christmas.  Half of those surveyed say the early display of Christmas commercialism erodes the meaning of Christmas. A majority of the people want the government to step in and say no selling of Christmas items before this time.  The German constitution projects Sunday’s as a day of rest.  This law is also being challenged by commercialism.  But when the German capital moved to allow stores to open on all four Advent Sundays a few years ago, churches, backed by labor unions, fought back, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court. They won. The highest court, ruling that Sundays had to remain days of rest and "spiritual elevation," overturned the Berlin law in 2009.  I was amazed by the resolve of the German people in protecting their Christmas traditions.  

The article was short, but informative.  I felt like the author did a good job with her research and reasoning.  She used several sources for her information including a recent survey of German citizens, historical facts about the traditional celebration of Christmas in Germany, personal childhood experiences, and historical decisions, in regards to Sunday Christmas shopping, made by the German Supreme Court.

Mediated Communication - Wildlife Decline

" Wildlife numbers halved over past four decades: WWF" I have been a wildlife lover all my life. I enjoy the creatures that swim, fly, and roam the earth. My children and I have enjoyed countless programs on TV about animals, their habitats, life cycles, feeding habits, etc. I am always interested about the efforts to save animal habitat and prevent extinction of certain species. My laptop automatically loads MSN.com when I bring up the internet. I found this article recently posted on MSN titled, " Wildlife numbers halved over past four decades: WWF" Naturally, I clicked into the article and began to read. The statistics were alarming. I continued to read to the end and then read the comments by other readers. A few comments were in support of population control and curbing the human consumption machine. Most comments were crying foul due to personal experiences with an increase in wildlife populations in the readers local areas. These posts caused me to read the article again with a more critical eye. While I think we can all agree that we need to be smart about the environment and not waste our natural resources and we can all see waste around us, the article was very slanted and incomplete in its research. The study sited only looked at a representative sample of land and sea and was incomplete in its assumptions that human consumption is the only problem. Example: the article assumed that the overconsumption by wealthy countries is to blame for the lack of enough food and clean water in the poor countries. I believe a claim like this is short sighted and doesn’t address other contributing factors such as weather related issues like droughts, corrupt governments who use the resources of their countries to increase their power and wealth rather than helping their own people, and conflicts that disrupt and destroy agricultural efforts and interfere with international efforts to help. Many of the African countries are a good example of these issues. The continent, as a whole, has a vast amount of natural resources but they largely go undeveloped due to internal strife. It seems that continent is stuck in the dark ages. Foreign aid has been pouring into that continent as long as I can remember yet it seems to have made little difference for the people. All the aid we can dump there doesn’t seem to matter. I believe the solution starts with personal responsibility to be smart about our consumption and our efforts to conserve, help our neighbors, and then expand our reach. It’s the old saying, “give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime”.

The First Constructive – Improving Our Schools

Rachel Terry

Comm 1270

The First Constructive (Prima Facie)

Introduction – The school system in the United States needs improvement in many areas. The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, collects test results from 65 countries for its rankings, which come out every three years. The most recent results, from 2012, show that U.S. students ranked below average in math among the world's most-developed countries. They were close to average in science and reading.  Isn’t it silly to suppose that the way students dress would have an effect on their education? Suppose you were in Court for something important, and the judge decided that a jogging suit would be more comfy than judicial robes. Would that be disturbing for any other reason than it being non-traditional? Costume is a way of reinforcing mindset. A judge in robes is reminded of his judicial responsibility. Students in uniform are similarly reminded of their roles as students.

Thesis Proposition - Public schools should implement a school uniform policy to positively improve the environment of the school because before and after studies show significant improvements in performance and behavior after the implementation of school uniforms.

Define key terms: Performance: student academic achievement.

Behavior: discipline issues such as truancy and suspension.

Issue A:  Before-and-after studies show significant improvements in performance and a decrease in discipline issues after the implementation of a school uniform policy.

Claim 1: Student performance improves.

Warrant 1:  There are many factors that go into overall academic performance, so certainly school uniforms are not the only thing that counts. Nonetheless, the countries that score best on international tests (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan) are those that have the tradition of school uniforms. We may therefore reasonably conclude that it makes a positive contribution to having a serious attitude towards education.

One study involving two Florida County School Districts where data was collected prior to the mandatory school uniform policy implementation, and then data was collected for several years after the implementation of the mandatory school uniform policy.  Data showed a significant improvement in student academic achievement especially in the area of reading. Promotions to the next grade level had the highest gains in the Polk County School District.

The city of Baltimore provides another major experiment with positive results:

“Eddie Scott, principal at Meade Middle on Fort Meade, tells the Baltimore Sun’s writer, Anica Butler, “There’s research that shows a correlation between appropriate dress and academic performance.” Students will not be distracted with who is wearing what brand of jeans, shoes or shirts. Students can focus on learning which is why they are there.”

Claim 2:  Discipline issues decrease.

Warrant 2: The largest and most prominent example of a school uniform policy experiment in the United States is that of the Long Beach Unified School District, the third largest school district in California having 97,000 students in 90 public school programs, with 46 different languages spoken by local students:

“The quantitative outcomes of the policy have been remarkable. Crime report summaries are now available for the five-year post-uniform policy period and reflect that school crime overall has dropped approximately 86%, even though K-8 student enrollment increased 14%.

The data was gathered before and after the implementation of the mandatory school uniform policy to show accurate improvements. The authors made one valid point. They suggest that the parental involvement that precipitated a policy of requiring uniforms in Long Beach may have precipitated other improvements. I suggest that parents and educators showing that they cared about educational performance had a positive effect upon performance. That’s a good result and a good reason for parents and educators showing they care by adopting a uniforms policy else where.

South Shore Middle School in Seattle, Washington provides a second example of the improvement in behavior possible with the help of school uniforms.   The school has 900 students with a mandatory uniform policy.

The principal of South Shore, Dr. John Oennan, reports that "this year the demeanor in the school has improved 98 percent, truancy an.J tardies are down, and we have not had one reported incident of theft." Dr. Oennan explains that he began the uniform program because his students were ..draggin', saggin' and laggin'. I needed tc keep them on an academic focus. My kids were really into what others were wearinag" Only five students have elected to attend another public school.

Conclusion:  Adopting school uniforms will not solve all the problems of education but it can contribute to significant improvements in performance and behavior.  Before and after studies have proven the benefit of a uniform policy.  Virtually all of the top school systems in the US and abroad have uniform policies as part of an overall program that focuses students on education.