An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley Essay -- Papers

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley In Priestley's play An Inspector Calls, the two main characters, Arthur Birling and the Inspector, both show certain features of real people but, in particular the Inspector seems to be representative of political and social issues that were relevant in 1912. What seems like a simple detective thriller, with an inspector asking questions and the other characters answering them in order to find the person responsible for the suicide of Eva Smith (alias Daisy Renton), gradually develops into a complex investigation of political stances, of capitalism and socialism. To answer this question fully, we have to consider many different aspects of Mr Birling and the Inspector's characters. We need to look at the views they express, but we also need to look at their interaction with other characters before we can fully decide whether they have a rounded personality and can thus be considered to be real people or whether they merely represent social and political concepts. We also need to consider the time the play was set in, the events, the setting and the ritual associated with it. In An Inspector Calls many different issues are brought up about social attitudes and political views, but the most important has to be responsibility. In this particular context, Birling and the Inspector clearly have to be seen as representatives of two opposing definitions of responsibility. While Birling sees it as "a man has to make his own way, has to look after himself and his family", thus excluding responsibility for anybody else, the Inspector represents the idea of social responsibility in a society where t... ...a Smith to commit suicide. The Inspector never forgives nor punishes but just tries to warn the Birlings of their doings so that they can say the right things to the real Inspector, and to know what they have all done. I believe that Priestley has meant to not go into detail on the Inspectors feelings and beliefs, as this almost adds a sought of mystery around the Inspectors character, it mainly gets you thinking towards the end, is the Inspector real or are the Birlings just hallucinating, or could the Inspector be a ghost or a Goole which his last name could represent (Inspector Goole). But the question was can the Inspector represent a real person, to a certain extent yes, but not as fully as Mr Birlings character can, so in my opinion he is not a very good representative of real people in the era of the play.

Rustlers of Panther Gap :: Essays Papers

Rustlers of Panther Gap The Rustlers of Panther Gap by Gilbert Morris is a Story of a boy who is determined to help his Indian Friends. The kids at school treat Hawk and Robin Leatherwood rotten, just because they’re â€Å"Indians.† When the Buck brothers stand up for their friends, they Become a target, too. What’s even worse, someone is Cutting down Mr. Leatherwood’s valuable black walnut Trees and making off with wood! The sheriff and his deputies say they’re doing all They can, but they keep coming up empty-handed. Finally, the Bucks have had enough! Somebody’s got to Catch the no-good, rotten, sneaky thief, and they figure It might as well be them! So Jake hatches a scheme. All Barney has to do is use Joe’s newest invention-the Amazing flying Solarcycle-to play detective from the Air! About a week after they had a plan and decided on what they were going to do, more trouble comes along. A couple of no good boys (the Dursley’s) start to interrupt their plans by ruining their Solarcycle and starting fights with Barney and Jake. But that won’t stop them, they decide to take off anyway. One evening after Barney had taken off with the Solarcycle and had cruised around above the trees for about an hour or so, Barney spotted something, he couldn’t really get a good view so he decided to move in for a closer look. That was all he needed! He spotted the criminals, it was the S******, Barney was shocked! Right when he was about to turn around a bullet ripped through the Solarcycles wing. It was too late; the Solarcycle was spinning dangerously towards the ground. He hit the ground and was knocked out. The next

Real Estate Agent Essay -- miscellaneous

Real Estate Agent Buying or selling a house or an apartment is one of the biggest decisions of a person’s life. And when selling or establishing a price for real estate, people seek out real estate agents to do the dirty work. A real estate agent has to convince a prospective homeowner that he or she is trustworthy and knowledgeable. In many ways, the agent acts as a counselor to individuals and families about to embark on a huge commitment. Real estate agents have a thorough knowledge or real estate market in their community. They know which neighborhoods will best fit their client’s needs and budgets. Real estate agents are generally independent sales employees who provide their services to licensed brokers on a contract basis. In return, the broker pays the agent a portion of the commission earned from property sold through the firm, by the agents. They are familiar with local zoning and tax laws, and know where to obtain financing. A good real estate agent is informed about things like schools, tax rates, public transportation systems, and should be aware of going mortgage rates. To be eligible to become a real estate agent, he or she must first be a high school graduate, be at least 18 years of age, and pass a written test. In every state real estate agents must obtain a state license to sell and rent properties. Over 1,000 universities, colleges, and junior colleges offer courses in real estate. Many local real estate associations sponsor courses covering...

Procter & Gamble Company Essay

In November 1981, Mr. Chris Wright, Associate Advertising Manager of the Packaged Soap & Detergent Division (PS&D) of the Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) was evaluating how the division could increase volume of its light-duty liquid detergents (LDLs). 1 The excellent growth of Dawn dishwashing liquid since its national introduction in 1976 meant that P&G now manufactured and sold three leading LDL brands, holding a 42% share (by weight) of the industry’s $850 million in factory sales. Based on input from the three LDL brand managers who reported to him, as well as his own knowledge of the LDL category, Wright believed there were three major opportunities for volume growth: (1) the introduction of a new brand, (2) a product improvement on an existing brand, and/or (3) increased marketing expenditures on existing brands. In preparation for an upcoming meeting with Bruce Demill,, PS&D advertising manager, Wright began evaluating the volume and profit potential of the three options. Company Organization The company comprised eight major operating divisions organized by type of product: Packaged Soap & Detergents, Bar Soap & Household Cleaning Products, Toilet Goods, Paper Products, Food Products, Coffee, Food Service & Lodging Products, and Special Products. Each division had its own brand management, sales, finance, manufacturing and product development line management groups. One of the most important responsibilities of the brand group was the development of the annual marketing plan, which established volume objectives, marketing support levels, strategies and tactics for the coming year. The brand manager promoted the interests of his brand while the associate advertising manager assumed responsibility for building the business of all P&G brands in his or her category. The brand groups worked closely with the following four line departments in both the development and the implementation of their marketing plans: Sales: The brand groups and sales force frequently interacted. While the brand groups managed categories and brands, the sales force managed markets and accounts. As such, the sales force provided important perspective and counsel on trade and consumer promotion acceptance, stock requirements to support promotions, competitive pricing and promotion activity, and newproduct activity. Each brand group worked closely with the sales force to develop the optimal sales promotion plan for its brand together with appropriate merchandising aids. LDLS are defined as all mild liquid soaps and detergents designed primarily for washing dishes. Product development department (PDD). Since superior product performance was key to the success of P&G products, each brand group worked closely with PDD to ensure continued improvement of its brand’s quality. Fifteen professionals worked exclusively on research and development for LDLs. The PDD continually strove to upgrade product quality or explore new product formulations. If a potential new product was developed, it was extensively tested in consumer and laboratory tests before any test marketing began. Manufacturing department. The brand group provided the manufacturing department with detailed brand volume estimates (by month, size, and form/flavor) to facilitate efficient production, as well as five-year volume base forecasts for capacity planning. In addition, the brand group discussed promotions requiring label or packaging changes with manufacturing to determine the most efficient production methods. Manufacturing informed brand groups about ongoing manufacturing costs and provided potential cost-savings ideas. Interaction between the advertising and manufacturing departments was particularly frequent during any new-product development process, and included discussions on manufacturing requirements, custom-packing options for test markets, and critical paths for production. Finance department Based on volume and marketing expenditure forecasts provided by the brand groups, financial/cost analysts developed and fed back brand profit and pricing analyses as well as profit and rate-of-return forecasts on new products and promotions. This information was key in helping the brand groups to recommend action which would maximize volume and profit growth. Advertising services department. Within the department, there were nine staff groups which serviced the advertising department. These were market research, art and package design, TV commercial production, media, copy services, field advertising, marketing systems and computer services, promotion and marketing services, and advertising personnel. PS&D market research included the following: 1. Market analysis, including bimonthly  syndicated market data that P&G purchased from A.C. Nielsen Co., as well as selected data purchased from Nielsen, Selling Areas Marketing, Inc. (SAMI) and other suppliers for test markets. 2. Consumer research, including studies to: a. monitor how consumers used products and track consumer usage of, attitude towards, and image of P&G and competitive brands; b. test the performance of current products and possible product modifications under in-home usage conditions; and c. evaluate the advertising, packaging, promotion and pricing of P&G brands; also, to evaluate the potential of new-product ideas, using such techniques as concept research and simulated test markets. LDLs could be conceptually divided on the basis of product benefit into three major segments: (1) the performance segment (35% of category volume) provided primarily a cleaning benefit; (2) the mildness segment (37% of category volume) provided primarily the benefit of being gentle to hands; and the price segment (28% of category volume) whose primary benefit was low cost. Volume is measured in P&G statistical cases, each containing 310 ounces. Household growth was a better indicator of LDL volume than population growth (research indicated LDL household consumption varied only slightly with the number of people in the household). 4 ADW households still used LDL for pots and pans and small cleanups. Price brands were sold to retailers for an average of $7.50 per statistical case versus $17.00 per statistical case for the premium-priced mildness and performance brands. the greatest growth in the past 10 years. Some LDL brand managers expected the performance segment to continue to grow at the expense of the mildness segment, since market research indicated that more consumers rated performance attributes (such as grease cutting and longlasting suds) as the most important (see Exhibit 2). The price segment had been in decline, but was expected to stabilize at its current share level due to increasing consumer price sensitivity resulting from the depressed state of the economy. LDL brand managers did not expect this segment to grow because most price brands were not a good value, requiring two or three times as much volume to create the same amount of suds as a premium brand. P&G’s Ivory Liquid, the market leader, used this comparison in its advertising to persuade consumers that Ivory was a better value. The LDL market was relatively stable, with one new premium brand introduced every two and a-half years and an average of two price brands introduced and discontinued per year. As Exhibit 3 shows, 3 companies sold almost 75% of LDLs, with P&G holding a 42% share 6 of the market, Colgate-Palmolive Company a 24% share, and Lever Brothers, the U.S. subsidiary of Unilever, a 7% share. 7 The remaining 27% of the market consisted mainly of generic and private-label brands. As shown in Exhibit 4, marketing expenditures including advertising and promotion typically represented 20% of the sales of an established LDL brand.

The Need for Information Security Management to Medium Size

The Need for Information Security Management for Small to Medium Size Enterprises ICT 357 Information Security Management Leong Yuan Zhang 31741147 Trimester 1 Murdoch University Contents Abstract2 Introduction2 Justifying The Need for Sound Information Security in Any Organisation2 Linking Business Objectives with Security3 Incident Response Management and Disaster Recovery4 Mobile Device Security Managment5 Biometric Security Devices and Their Use6 Ethical Issues in Information Security Management7 Security Training and Education7Defending Against Internet-Based Attacks8 Industrial Espionage and Business Intelligence Gathering9 Personnel Issues in Information Security9 Physical Security Issues in Information Security10 Cyber Forensic Incident Response10 Conclusion11 References11 Abstract Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) contribute greatly to the economy in many countries despite the many challenges that they face. Lesser budgeting, resource planning and time management are j ust some of the limitations that they might encounter.Comparing this to a larger enterprise or government body, SMEs seems to have different approaches with regards to information security, sometimes understating the importance due to the constraint mentioned. This paper aims to study the issues relating to introduction and implementation of info security regimes in SMEs compared to larger organisations. Introduction Small and medium enterprise are defined by the number of personnel working for the company, around the upper limit of 250 to the lower of 50. They usually lack resources, competencies and management to implement strategies externally and internally for their operations.This paper will focus on the implementation of information security regimes of SMEs and provide a comparison to large enterprises. The paper explores the multiple categories of information security, attempt to list the disadvantages faced by SMEs and how sometime large enterprises are unable to match a SM E in the capability to respond to security threats Justifying The Need for Sound Information Security in Any Organisation The internet age brought upon new challenges to the business world, both SMEs and large organisation are continuously investing substantial resources to secure their presence on the internet.With increasingly virtualized business networks and expanding corporate ecosystem, more information have been created or converted into digital format. Digitalized information can be saved in different storage devices and transmitted over a plethora of interconnected network both internally and externally (Radding, 2012). Understandably, crime and security threats to information are becoming more commonplace as the reliance on Internet in business activities increase .Threats such as hackers, business competitors or even foreign governments can employ a host of different methods to obtain information from any organisation (Symantec). Yet no effective business would totally is olate themselves from using digitalized info to prevent such incidents; competitiveness or success of these organisations is linked to right information delivered on time. At its worst erroneous info may result in serious loss of potential earnings and damage to the organisation's â€Å"brand†(Juhani Anttila, 2005).A significant element of information security are the cost and personnel expertise required with the designing, development and implementation of an effective security system. There is a need for major investment to be invested to build and maintain reliable, trustworthy and responsive security system (Anderson, 2001). Since most SMEs tend to have to operate under tight budgeting, extreme limited manpower and many different needs competing for limited supply of resources, thus placing information security down the priorities list (Tawileh, Hilton, ; Stephen, 2007).Additionally, the lack of awareness to the negative consequences of info security issues and threats a nd the perception of less strict regulatory compliance requirements, information and communications infrastructure within these SMEs remain highly unsecured. Despite that, most organisations do at least have some form of basic security in the form of anti-virus softwares. Other types of security software like firewall or authentication software/hardware are considerably less popular; perhaps due to the additional complexity of having to install and configure them for the organisation usage (ABS, 2003).Linking Business Objectives with Security Security can impact a company's profitability in both positive or negative ways. It fully depends on how it is being controlled, too little will not be enough while too much may cause bottlenecks within the company internal processes. One example would be background checks on possible new employees. At times, the duration of the check may take longer than the period of employment, especially when hiring temp staff to cover short term. In their book, Christian Byrnes and Paul E.Proctor argues that to eliminate the last 20% of risk that might occur would inversely required 80% more money to implement which can be seen in Figure 1. Figure 1 It is common practice in large organisations to organise computer security around technologies, with a dedicated department running the show alongside the IT department. However computer security should be more business oriented as it is easier to achieve the security targets if good business practices are being followed. For SMEs, it is also far easier to utilise xisting employees who specialize in specific business roles to take up security positions. In the same book, Christian Byrnes and Paul E. Proctor also provided a table which list down the common security roles and the ideal personnel to handle it: Table 1 Linking security with business visions is also important as it would allow for better persuasion to the top managements to approve or push through with security purchases, mast er plans or policy changes. To achieve this, the motion put forth must undergo a 5 step structured framework – assess, analyse, strategize, align and communicate.Assess the company's current and future security role so as to achieve a good understanding of the current security model. Details on the security capabilities within the employees, processes and current technologies should be documented properly for the next step to be carried out with more accuracy. After collecting the raw data, using analytical tools and method to conduct a security gap analysis will show the differences between the current security model and the preempted requirements. With a clear overview of what needs to be do, next phase planning can be done to piece together to form a viable and strong strategy.Executives and managers at all levels must understand the new steps that are to be undertaken for the new strategy. Such communications may be more effective in SMEs than larger organisations as the members of the security planning may be key personnel that are required to participate rather than a separate IT security team (PricewaterhouseCooper). Incident Response Management and Disaster Recovery Incident response management is the process of managing and responding to security incidents. As organisations may encounter plenty of incidents throughout the day, it is important that incident responses are carefully anaged to reduce wastage of manpower and resources. The most appropriate level of response should be assigned to on any security incident to maximize efficiency; there is no merit in involving senior management in a response to an incident that has minimal impact on business (BH Consulting, 2006) Disaster recovery is the process used to recover access to an organisation's software, data and hardware that are required to resume the performance of normal, critical business functions. Typically this will happen after either a natural disaster or manmade disaster. (Disaste r Recovery)Incident response management used to be separated into different entities, natural disasters , security breaches and privacy breaches were handled by risk management, information security department and legal department. This increased the cost of incident management and reduce utilization of existing resources and capabilities. By merging the 3 into one overarching incident management methodology specified with an incident response team and a charter, reduced cost and efficient usage of resource can be achieved (Miora, 2010) In larger organizations, incident response team may contain both employees and third party observers from vendors.External vendors may provide the expertise to manage an incident that could be overwhelming to the current employees. This however may not be feasible for SMEs due the financial constraints. Most likely, the incident response management team would be formed using current employees and a senior management personnel would lead the team. The response team would be the ones who do the planning scenario for each different types of incident and the type of responses required, ensure that clear processes and procedures are in place so that responses to incident are coherent.Communications between members are typically standardized be it for large organisations or SMEs; method of contact such as emails and non-email like phone calls or messages are used to inform team members (BH Consulting, 2006). Disaster recovery extremely important as well, more so for SMEs. A survey from US Department of Labor provided an estimation that around 40% of business never reopen after a disaster and of the remaining around 25% will close down within 2 years (Zahorsky). Unfortunately, not many SMEs have a disaster recovery plan in place to protect themselves.This is due to the idea that disaster recovery is costly and requires alot of resources and expertise to put in place one. This is true to a certain extend as large organisations normally spend amounts to put in place backup servers and remote hot recovery sites. However with increasing cloud-based technologies and availability of server virtualization, disaster recovery can become affordable even for SMEs. Up and coming cloud solution and renting space in secure data center via colocation are some of the solutions that SMEs can consider.Even without any or little IT staff, by paying the colocation provider they can assist to manage the setup and maintenance services (Blackwell, 2010). Mobile Device Security Managment The increasing sophisticated mobile devices together with high bandwidth network is creating a tremendous security management challenge for CIOs and other IT professionals. Proprietary and confidential data can now be moved outside of the secure perimeter of the enterprise and onto mobile devices that can be brought anywhere in the world by employees.These devices have a variety of data communication and storage technologies, such as email/PIM synchron ization software, infrared data transmission, Bluetooth ® and removable data storage. As a result, it is easy for mobile devices to become strongholds of enterprise information (Good Technology, 2009). Of course with that brings additional threats to an organisation as mobile devices are susceptible to attacks as well. In both SMEs and large organisations, there is a definite need to regulate the use of mobile devices to prevent information leakage.As they can used in a variety of locations outside the organization’s control, such as employees’ homes, coffee shops, hotels, and conferences, this makes them much more likely to be lost or stolen than other devices, so their data is at increased risk of compromise (Souppaya & Scarfone, 2012). The most extreme application of mobile device management can be see within government bodies, specifically in the defense sector where secondary functions of such devices such as cameras are to be disable. However, this method would not be easily applied to SMEs as employees may find it to be too restrictive.Rather, having a clear policy on the usage of mobile devices and prohibiting employees from attaching their devices to the workstations would be a better option to enforce. Biometric Security Devices and Their Use Biometric devices identifies an individual through physical or behavioral characteristics such as fingerprints, palm geometry or retina. It is extremely secure as it cannot be borrowed, stolen or forgotten (Liu & Silverman, 2001). The table below shows the various type of biometric devices and their advantages/disadvantages:The table, as seen in the report from Dell explains clearly some of the limitations of biometric devices. Size for example must be taken into consideration as well, hand geometry scanning devices are bulky and therefore not suited for say unlocking your workstation as compared to using it to unlock a door. However, not many organisations are adopting biometric as part of their security plan. Those that do use biometric are mostly geared towards physical security of secure areas where access are to be restricted.Conventional authentication methods are still much preferred with regards to virtual access like emails, workstations and applications. The higher cost of using biometric devices as a security solution is also another concern for SMEs that wishes to utilise them. They would need to evaluate their nature of business, how and where biometric would fit in to maximize value for money. Ultimately, aligning the need for biometric security devices as a security solution to business objectives is a must, else cheaper alternatives would have to be examine and evaluated instead.Ethical Issues in Information Security Management Some professions such as law and medicine have in place a codified set of ethics that its practitioners are required to honor to protect the privacy of their clients. Violations are dealt with in the harshest possible terms, and even minor lapses can result in significant penalties. For IT however, there are no such codification. Technology professionals generally abide by personal codes of conduct and are essentially self-policing. Additionally, technology raises complexities that go beyond typical questions of what’s right or what’s fair.Areas such as data access and capture, processing speed, tracking and monitoring, and job redesign are just a few examples of IT capabilities with ethical considerations. (Relkin, 2006) Both SMEs and large organisations have to be able to cope with ethical issues such as privacy of personal information, intellectual property and cyber crime. In an effort to safeguard company secrets, many employees can be exposed to electronic or other forms of surveillance. Email screenings and monitoring internet usages are just some of the methods that can be employed.There is a need to clearly define policies that involve such practices and the boundary must be draw and commu nicated to all employees so as to safeguard the organisation from breaching privacy laws and from being sued by employees. (Tiwary, 2011) Security Training and Education Security training and education is becoming increasing important for employees due to emergence of end-user computing as an critical component of information security. A typical end-user has access to most vital information that an organisation has in its possession.They have knowledge of how protection systems put in place to secure information work and a small amount of more ingenious users may even know how to circumvent those systems. Most users however lack the knowledge that is required to help protect the organisation information and it is in this area that they should be educated in order to make better decisions when facing with threats and vulnerabilities that can be discovered during the course of work. (Hight, 2005) Security Education, Training and Awareness program otherwise known as SETA is designed to set the security tone to the employees of an organisation.Making it part of a new employee's orientation will ensure that all employees know and understand the reasons of the security policies that are in place at any organisation. Implementation of such a program can be done at any organisation, requiring only properly written security policies and outlining guidelines that have to be followed. A good security program ensures that end user mistakes can be reduced and that employees understand the consequences of their actions when using their work stations or insert unauthorised USB devices into them. Defending Against Internet-Based AttacksWith an increasing reliant upon the internet, internet based attacks have been slowly increasing. Organsations that has a presence over the internet or utilizes web based technologies are more prone to such as attacks. Internet worms, viruses, malware and distributed denial of service are just some of the types of threats that could occur. Orga nisations should look to prevent such incidents from occurring by securing applications that are made available over the internet and securing organisation infrastructures exposed over the internet (Klein, 1999).To carry out an attack, the attacker must first obtain sufficient control over a target system. They would most likely do some reconnaissance on the target, performing a number of scans to looked for weaknesses. Areas like remote accessible network services in default OS configurations, sendmail, sshd, RPC and Windows file sharing are some of the services exploited. Ports that are unsecured, memory handling, targeting applications like web browsers and plug ins are also some of the methods that attackers can use.The web browsers in particular are seeing a rising trend of being targeted as browsers are extremely prone to having exploitable vulnerabilities. The internet distribution model also allows attackers to attack a user's web browser without even directly connecting to the cilent; planting malicious coding at specific websites where the user normally visits will achieve the aim as well (Moshchuk, 2000). Prevention of such attacks are extremely important, firewall and anti viruses are just the tip of an iceberg when it comes to methods that can protect an organisation's information.Many firewalls being sold today are considered application aware and can understand protocols and commands that are being used. This allows them to determine whether or not incoming traffic to any applications or network services are malicious or not. Properly configured application aware firewall would be able to prevent common attacks thru telnet, SSH, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, SIP and applications which can be vulnerable. Additionally Intrusion Detection systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention systems (IPS) can also be used against application or network based attacks.When paired together with an application aware firewall, some intrusion detection systems have the ability to t hwart off attackers by talking directly to the firewall to block the source IP address. There are no right or wrong solutions to defending an organisation's network, it all boils down to which products would be suited to the organisation's needs. SMEs typically would use more of off the shelf type of applications and intrusion detection prevention system (IDP) would be a better fit for such applications.Off the shelves applications uses alot of common protocols such as FTP, HTTP etc that should adhere to RFC standards and IDP is configured to block malicious or traffic that does not comply with RFC standards automatically. For larger organisations, they tend to have third party or home grown applications which developers may or may not have complied with RFC standards, IDP solutions may not have much of an effect for them. Industrial Espionage and Business Intelligence GatheringEvery organisation in the world will have collected some form of information regarding their competitors, through market scanning, industrial profiling or even direct hire of employees from their competitors. Such intelligence gathering are definitely part and parcel activities used for market research and benchmarking. However, there are uncertain boundaries separating competitive intelligence gathering and industrial espionage. The laws in place at times are unable to set such limits and it would seem reasonable to define industrial espionage as intelligence practices of questionable ethics instead (Crane, 2005).Be that as it may, industrial espionage is a very critical threat against SMEs. A succesfully SME breaking in saturated markets would have attained some form of breakthrough in order to stand out. Regardless of whether it is a formulae or business process, competitors would wish to obtain such knowledge in order to raise their own profiles. To safeguard their secrets, SMEs would have to ensure that their security system in place are adequate and their employees educated on the topic. SMEs have to identify that information that would critically harm the company and the value of such information to the company and its competitors.Access to such â€Å"crown jewels† must be controlled and employees must be educated on security awareness programs. Despite that, employees are still the strongest and weakest link. Humans tend to react better to carrots than sticks and most of the time competitors would aim for that. Hiring professionals to perform social engineering, blackmailing, lure of monetary gains are hard to prevent. (Podszywalow, 2011) Personnel Issues in Information Security Human related security issues are extremely problematic and complex in organizations.They involve all the individuals who make up the organization, from top-level managers to clerical staff. It is crucial that the top management recognize that for security management to ultimately succeed, not only the technical dimension must be taken into account, the human aspect of secur ity must not be ignored as well. People issues within an organisation can have an impact on it's ability to effectively manage security. Uncommitted and uninvolved senior managers; unqualified, untrained and careless employees; former disgruntled employees and organizational members’ resistance to change are just some of the potential issues ertaining to human resource that might occur. Hence, to achieve security effectiveness, these issues must be addressed as a whole (Goh, 2003) For SMEs, when hiring an new employee, the employment contract should expressly emphasize the employee's duty to keep certain types of information confidential both during and after the employee's tenure. The language and structure of the contract should be made clear so as to prevent any potential misunderstanding or any loopholes that can be exploited. The employee must sign the agreement before he or she begins to work.The contract can also be included with an employee's personal file to keep tra ck. Even when exiting, care must be taken to ensure that documents, records and other information concerning the company proprietary assets in the possession of the leaver must be surrendered and returned to the company. Conducting a exit interview will help to refresh the terms of employment agreement and trade secret law with the leaver. The employee should be acknowledge in writing that he or she is aware of the obligations and will not disclose any trade secrets of the former employer.Physical Security Issues in Information Security Physical security breaches can sometimes be more devastating than technical breaches like worm attacks. The loss of data, loss of availability either from systems being shut down or by bomb or arson must be considered when dealing with physical security. With the invention of easily concealable USB drives or bombs, coupled with unauthorized access is makes physical security becoming more important. Data transfer speeds have increased as when, allowin g for transferring of a large amount of data in a relativity short period of time.As with any other security planning, physical security must be included to ensure that the risk of above mentioned are reduced. Access to areas such as server rooms or routers or where documents are kept and archived must be control, just locking the doors doesn't seems to be enough now. Access control cards, biometrics system can ensure that only authorised personnel be allowed in. Securing the personal computer of employees, especially if they are using laptop is equally important. Laptop locks and OS hardening to prevent unauthorized usage of USB devices are not allow (Giannoulis & Northcutt, 2007).Cyber Forensic Incident Response Computer forensics is the science of acquiring, retrieving, preserving, and presenting data that has been processed electronically and stored on computer media. When paired with incident response, their job becomes more challenging. They would have to find where a breach o ccurred, plug the hole, then proceed to get the affected server or servers back into service, and then if possible, gather evidence on the intruder for further action and analysis (Daniel & Daniel, 2009)SMEs unfortunately with their limited resources may have to compromise. instead of having a dedicated team to deal with incident response, they might consider getting current employees involved within IT such as server, networking or on site support engineers to carry out such a role. If they have extra budget however, it would work to their benefit if they send their resposne team for courses pertainning to cyber forensic. The additional knowledge will allow the response team to perform more effectively should a threat occur ConclusionSmall and medium enterprises typically faces the same the type of threats that will happen to larger organisations, however their approach and response to the same threat may differ greatly due to the limited resources; human, technical, physical avail able to them. SMEs will have to sometimes think out of the box and be very careful in planning resources for security within the company. The type of hardware, software used for security may be similar to larger organisations however, the setup and configuration may be miles apart as well. SMEs, will have be extra vigilant against information security threats.References (n. d. ). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from Symantec: http://securityresponse. symantec. com/avcenter/security/Content/security. articles/corp. security. policy. html ABS. (2003). Business Use of Information Technology (2001 – 02). Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Anderson, R. J. (2001). Why Information Security is Hard – An Economic Perspective. in Proceedings of the Seventeenth Computer Security Applications Conference (pp. 358-365). IEEE Computer Society Press. BH Consulting. (2006). Incident Response White Paper. Dublin: BH Consulting. Blackwell, G. 2010, May 25). Disaster Recovery For Small Business. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Small Business Computing: http://www. smallbusinesscomputing. com/biztools/article. php/10730_3884076_2/Disaster-Recovery-For-Small-Business. htm Crane, A. (2005). In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage. Nottingham: International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility. Crist, J. (2007). Web Based Attacks. SANS Institute. Daniel, L. E. , & Daniel, L. (2009, September 30). How Is Computer Forensics Different from Incident Response?Retrieved March 13, 2012, from ExForensic: http://webcache. googleusercontent. com/search? q=cache:http://exforensis. blogspot. com/2009/09/how-is-computer-forensics-different. html Disaster Recovery. (n. d. ). Disaster Recovery. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Disaster Recovery: http://www. disasterrecovery. org/ Giannoulis, P. , & Northcutt, S. (2007). Physical Security. Washington: Security Laboratory: IT Managers – Safety Series. Goh, R. (2003). Info rmation Security: The Importance of the Human Element. Singapore: Preston University. Good Technology. (2009). Mobile Device Security. Good Technology.Hight, S. D. (2005). The importance of a security, education, training and awareness program. Householder, A. , Houle, K. , & Dougherty, C. (2002). Computer attack trends challenge Internet security. IEEE Computer , 35 (4), 5-7. Juhani Anttila. (2005, March). Retrieved March 13, 2013, from QualityIntegration: http://www. qualityintegration. biz/InformationSecurityManagement. html Kelly, L. (2011, November). The top five SME security challenges. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from ComputerWeekly. com: http://www. computerweekly. com/feature/The-top-five-SME-security-challenges Klein, D. V. (1999).Defending against the wily surfer – Web based attacks and defense. California: The USENIX Association. Liu, S. , & Silverman, M. (2001). A Practical Guide to Biometric. IT Pro. Miora, M. (2010). Business Continuity. Los Angeles, California, USA. Moshchuk, A. N. (2000). Understanding and Defending Against Web-borne Security Threats. Washington: University of Washington. Podszywalow, M. (2011, November 29). How to Detect and Stop Corporate Cyber Espionage. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from The Data Chain: http://www. thedatachain. com/articles/2011/11/how_to_detect_and_stop_corporate_cyber_espionagePricewaterhouseCooper. How to align security with your strategic business objectives. PricewaterhouseCooper. Proctor, P. E. , & Byrnes, F. C. (2002). The Secured Enterprise: Protecting Your Information Assets. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Radding, A. (2012, January 04). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from Brainloop: http://www. brainloop. com/fileadmin/assets/PDFs/White_Papers/brainloop_white_paper_info_sec_options. pdf Relkin, J. (2006). 10 ethical issues raised by IT capabilities. CNET Networks Inc. Souppaya, M. , & Scarfone, K. (2012). Guidelines for Managing and Securing Mobile Devices in the Enterprise.National Institute of Standar ds and Technology. Tawileh, A. , Hilton, J. , & Stephen, M. (2007). Managing Information Security in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: A Holistic Approach. Information Security Solutions Europe Conference, (p. 11). Warsaw. Tiwary, K. D. (2011). Security and ethical issues in it: An organisation perspective. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business . Zahorsky, D. (n. d. ). About. com. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Disaster Recovery Decision Making for Small Business: http://sbinformation. about. com/od/disastermanagement/a/disasterrecover. htm

Beginning The Audit Report Essay

Thank you for choosing Team D Auditing for your audit needs. This letter is to inform you on how we plan to begin the audit process for your company. We will be performing an audit on the financial statements for Apollo Shoes for the year ended December 31, 2007 in order to provide reasonable assurance that the statements are presented fairly and are presented in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (Arens, Elder, & Beasley, 2012). We will begin the audit by reviewing the statements as well as your organizational charts and the prior five years of federal income tax returns. After careful review of all documentation, we will review risks so that we can identify any potential risks and can draft the audit plan (Arens et al., 2012). We will then ask to meet with management to determine the scope of the audit and answer any questions that management may have. After the meeting, we will finalize the audit plan and begin our fieldwork. Our field time will be spent speaking with staff members and management, reviewing documentation such as policy and procedure manuals, learning about the business, and performing tests. We will be testing internal controls, ensuring the business is in compliance with applicable financial regulations, and testing the materiality of the financial statements (Arens et al., 2012). We will be holding scheduled meetings with staff and management and hope that we will have full cooperation. We will try to interrupt the business as little as possible. Our fee schedule will be based upon the total time spent on each stage of the audit and we will be submitting invoices along the way. Our preliminary estimation of cost is $200,000 and we will notify you immediately of any changes that could exceed that estimation. Our formal engagement letter,  preliminary engagement checklist, and preliminary time frame estimate with audit milestones are included in the appendices for your review. References American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (2014). General Audit Engagement Checklist. Retrieved from http://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/peerreview/resources/peerreviewprogrammanual/2013/downloadabledocuments/20400-gen-audit-check-interimguidance.pdf Arens, A. A., Elder, R. J., & Beasley, M. S. (2012). Auditing and assurance services: An integrated approach (14th ed.). New York, NY: Perason/Prentice Hall. Becker Professional Education/CPA Review (2014) Audit Reports; Devry/Becker Educational Development Corp. Boynton, W. C. (2006). Modern Auditing (8th ed.). Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Louwers, T. R. (2007). Apollo Shoes, InC. Auditing and Assurance Services. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. (2014). Auditing Standard No. 16. Retrieved from http://pcaobus.org/Standards/Auditing/Pages/Auditing_Standard_16_Appendix_C.aspx Raspante, J. F. & Vono, S. (2014). Engagement letters for the individual tax practitioner. Journal of Accountan cy, retrieved from: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2014/Jan/20137591.htm This letter is to confirm the agreement and to discuss the objectives for the  audit of Apollo Shoes, Inc. financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2007. We will be auditing the balance sheet, income statement, statement of retained earnings and cash flow. The financial statements and the effectiveness of the internal control is responsibility of management (Becker CPA Review, 2014). I want to clarify that we have to have an understanding of the company and the internal control in order to provide an opinion. Although an audit should provide reasonable assurance about that the financial statement are free of material misstatement we cannot provide absolutely assurance due to inherent limitation in the internal control (Becker CPA Review, 2014). We request that the company can provide us with adequate evidence necessary to perform the audit. It is critical that we have access to information and files including the minutes, besides to be able to inquire personnel and the observation of procedures as necessary. We have the responsibility that if a material weakness and or a significant deficiency are discovered in the performance of the audit, it should be communicated to the audit committee in writing (PCAOB, 2014). The management is also responsible to adjust the financial statements to correct material misstatements found during the audit; if the correction are not done because they are immaterial, it should be stated as part of the representation letter were management is confirming their responsibilities during the audit (PCAOB, 2014). Our out of pocket expenses and fees are estimating in $200,000, which covers the hours spent during the audit. If anything may affect this estimate we will let you know. Our fees are due when we complete the audit (Raspante & Vono, 2014). We are very enthusiastic to be your new auditors and we hope to fulfill your expectations. If you agree with this agreement, please sign in the space provided; keep a copy for your records and return us the original signed. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. October 29, 2007: Received accounting procedures manual from Karina Ramirez for fieldwork (Louwers, 2007, p. 32). January 7, 2007: Prepare working papers for Board Minutes of important events and transactions during the past year. Make notes in the audit working papers of matters relevant for the auditor for the 2007 financial statements. Use the reference ‘GA-3’ with the following headings and information in a table format: Information Relevant to 2007 and Audit Auction Recommended (Louwers, 2007, p. 36). January 3, 2008: selection by audit committee of Anderson, Olds, & Watershed as auditors ratified (Louwers, 2007, p. 39). January 3, 2008: $750,000 fee was approved for the 2007 audit (p. 36); January 8, 2008: Received Apollo’s 2007 year-end trial balance, along with 2006 audited trial balance (p. 40). January 8, 2008: Create 3 spreadsheets for a 2 year comparative balance sheet, income statements, and statement of cash flows (p. 40). January 9, 2008: Perform pr eliminary analytical procedures on the financial statements. This includes calculating common-size financial  statements and dollar amount, and percent changes—use recent spreadsheet created for comparative statements; calculate financial ratios with common stock at $24 million in current and prior periods; Compare Apollo’s numbers with closest competitors, such as Nike and Rebook at EDGAR for industry averages; write a brief memo highlighting potential problem areas with calculations (p. 43). January 9, 2008: Write a brief memo (GA-4) highlighting what you believe are potential problem areas. Include calculations to support (GA-4-1, GA-4-2, etc. (p. 43). January 9, 2008: Prepair a memo (GA-5) addressing materiality for Apollo Shoes. The workpaper documents must be following GAAP. Address the following: 1. Briefly describe indepdendent auditors concept of materiality; 2. Describe some commone relationships and other considerations used by auditors when assessing the dollar amount considered matieral. What are some common measures of materiality with respect to income, sales, and toal assets? 3. Based on professional judgement, determine an amount you consider to be a minimum material misstatement for Apollo Shoes and justify your recommendation in your memo (p. 45). January 10, 2008: Write a memo (GA-6) addressing the potential for fraud for Apollo shoes. This should include SAS 99 fraud guidance addressing the following: 1. Have you noticed any ‘red flags’ in either the minutes or analytical procedures so far? 2. Address fraud risk in general terms: types of risk (improper revenue recognition), significance of risk, likelihood of risk, pervasiveness or risk centralized to one function of or individual or is it throughout the organization? 3. How might fraud be perpetrated or concealed in the entity; 4. Suggest ways we might alter our audit approach to address the potential for fraud, such as assignment of personnel, predictability of auditing procedures, and examination of journal entries and other adjustments; Continued for memo—what we’ll need to get together with the entire audit team for brainstorming session next week. January 10, 2008: AOW was informed of the Apollo’s mid-year computer installation. How will the computer processing, for the last two quarters’ transaction affect our audit this year? How will we use our new laptops for the Apollo engagement? For example, correspondence, memos, auditing working papers, prepared and maintained on the new laptops (p. 46).

Aging in Prison

BE THE EVIDENCE PROJECT WHITE PAPER AGING PRISONERS A Crisis In Need of Intervention BE THE EVIDENCE PROJECT Be the Evidence You Want to See in the World†¦ What is Our Mission: The mission of the Be the Evidence Project is to create awareness of human rights and social justice issues through research, advocacy, and education. Be The Evidence Project activities foster dialogue and action on how human rights and social justice can be realized in everyday and professional practice. Who We Are: The Be the Evidence Project is a collective of globally conscious researchers, practitioners, educators, policy- ­? makers and advocates, and concerned itizens whose non- ­? profit independent scholarly and creative ventures are designed to disseminate knowledge, values, and skills that will help improve the individual and community response to critical social issues and improve well- ­? being using ‘any media means necessary’. What We Do: Be the Evidence Project activities that involve research, education, and advocacy provide a vehicle to disseminate information to raise critical consciousness and the recognition of psychological sociopolitical contexts in which injustices can occur. Transforming society first entails transforming ourselves to become â€Å"be the evidence we want to see in he world†. Through participation in self or project- ­? sponsored activities, we can help promote the achievement of a socially just world in which human rights, social justice, and well- ­? being are realized for all. On a daily basis, the lived reality of â€Å"being the evidence† challenges individuals everywhere to look inside themselves to identify and eradicate oppressive attitudes, thoughts, and practices towards self and others. Founder and Executive Director: Tina Maschi, PhD, LCSW, ACSW Coordinator of Projects: Samantha L. Sutfin, MSW Current Active Projects: †¢ Aging and Criminal Justice Project (ACJP) †¢ Arts for Change Proj ect (ACP) Qualitative and Mixed Methods Collective (QMMC) †¢ Moving Stories Project (MSP) For more information or to get involved in any projects visit our Be The Evidence Website CONTACT INFORMATION Be the Evidence Project 113 West 60th Street, 7th Floor New York, New York 10023 Email: [email  protected] edu Phone: (914) 367- ­? 3105/201- ­? 218- ­? 5064 2 About the White Paper On Saturday, October 8, 2011, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, Be the Evidence Project hosted a forum to ‘put a face and a name’ to this rapidly growing human rights and social justice issue: the aging prisoner crisis. For example, prisoners, aged 50 and older, omprise approximately ten percent of the overall prison population and had increased tenfold since 1990. Similar situations are noted internationally, including Canada and England. The national and international correctional care system, which was not designed to function as long- ­? term health care fa cility, is ill prepared to address older prisoners’ complex physical and mental health needs, while in prison and post prison re- ­? entry and community reintegration. This situation clearly needs a concerted and collaborative effort among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community members to craft and implement an effective esponse. International experts came to join us in speaking out about the crisis of aging prisoners for this historic event at Fordham University! The purpose of this follow- ­? up White Paper was to bring together a group of scholars and practitioners (who gave generously of their time) to contribute their work so that keystakeholders and the general public can become more aware of the crisis that is occurring in prisons around the world. Edited by Maschi, Morrissey, Immarigeon, and Sutfin, the White Paper includes nationally and internationally known experts presented research and best practices on topics related to older adults involved n the criminal justice system (especially prison), age specific correctional programming, elder and family justice, and criminal justice policy reform. This white paper was purposely made available as a free and public document so that any professional, organization, or concerned citizen can use this information to help advance public awareness of the crisis related to aging prisoners. It also provides recommendation on what we all can do about it, which includes to improve policy and practice with older adults in the criminal justice system. Please feel free to contact the Be the Evidence Project if you would like to become more involved n this project at [email  protected] edu or [email  protected] edu. We also invite your feedback about the White Paper and our ongoing projects. Edited by: Tina Maschi, PhD, LCSW Mary Beth Morrissey, PhD, MPH, JD Russ Immarigeon, MSW Samantha L. Sutfin, MSW Published February 8, 2012 Suggested APA citation: Maschi, T. , Morrissey, M. B. , Imma rigeon, R. , & Sutfin, S. (2012). Aging Prisoners: A Crisis in Need of Intervention. New York: Fordham University Be the Evidence Project. Retrieved from: https://sites. google. com/site/betheevidenceproject/white- ­? paper- ­? aging- ­? prisoner- ­? forum 3 BE THE EVIDENCE PROJECT AGING PRISONERS: A Crisis InNeed of Intervention TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Chapter # 1 2 Chapter Titles and Authors Introduction†¦Tina Maschi, Mary Beth Morrissey Russ Immarigeon, & Samantha Sutfin Visualizing the Aging Prisoner Crisis: A Conceptual Model for Policy and Practice Decision Making and Action†¦Tina Maschi & Mary Beth Morrissey Executive Summary and Recommendations†¦Russ Immarigeon Page # 5 13 3 21 29 30 PART II: PUBLIC HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH, PALLIATIVE AND END- ­? OF- ­? LIFE CARE ISSUES 4 Developing Ethical and Palliative Responses to Suffering Among Seriously Ill Aging Prisoners: Content Analysis Implications and Action Steps†¦MaryBe th Morrissey, Tina Maschi, and Junghee Han Forget Me Not: Dementia in Prisons†¦ Tina Maschi, Jung Kwak, Eujung Ko & Mary Beth Morrissey Trauma and Stress among Older Adults in the Criminal Justice System: A Review of the Literature with Implications for Social Work†¦Tina Maschi Age, Cumulative Trauma, Stressful Life Events, and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms among Older Adults in Prison†¦ Tina Maschi and Deborah Courtney Substance Use and Older Adults in the Criminal Justice System†¦Keith Morgen True Grit: A Structured Living Program for Older Adults in Prison†¦Mary T. Harrison, 4 5 6 38 39 7 8 9 44 49 57 Karen Kopera-Frye and William O.Harrison PART III: CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICIES AND PRACTICES 10 11 Criminal Sentencing Policy Reform and Aging Prison Populations†¦Kathleen Auerhahn Doing Hard Time: Issues and Challenges Facing Older Women in Prison†¦Azrini Wahidin Another Forgotten Population: Community Reintegration for Older Adults Leaving Prisonà ¢â‚¬ ¦Margaret E. Leigey Disproportionate Minority Contact in the American Juvenile Justice System: Implications for Older Adults in Prisons? †¦Susan McCarter Advocacy, Elderly Prisoners, and Mass Imprisonment†¦Russ Immarigeon It’s Still About Time: Aging Prisoners, Increasing Costs, & Geriatric Release†¦Tina Chiu 0 71 83 12 100 13 113 14 15 117 123 125 126 129 PART IV: INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS 16 17 Social Work and Older Inmates: NASW Position Paper†¦Melvin Wilson Personal & Professional Contact Patterns among Older Adults in Prison: Interdisciplinary Practice Implications†¦Mary Beth Morrissey, Samantha Sutfin, and Tina Maschi Interdisciplinary Collaboration Practices with Older Adults in the Community: Implications for Prison and Community Corrections†¦Tina Maschi, Mary Beth Morrissey, Samantha Sutfin, and Manoj Pardasani The Viewing Room: Films about Older Adults in Prison†¦Rebecca Ackerman 8 134 Appendix 143 ABOUT THE BE THE EVIDENCE PROJECT: Be the Evidence Project is a non-profit independent scholarly and creative venture designed to disseminate knowledge, values, and skills that will help improve the individual and community response to critical social issues and improve well-being using ‘any media means necessary’. For more information or to get involved in any projects, please contact [email  protected] com or [email  protected] edu or visit: https://sites. google. om/site/betheevidenceproject/ Be the Evidence You Want to See in the World†¦ 5 6 PART I Introduction and Overview 7 CHAPTER 1 Aging Prisoners: A Crisis in Need of Intervention INTRODUCTION By Tina Maschi, Mary Beth Morrissey, Russ Immarigeon, and Samantha L. Sutfin Introduction: The Aging Prisoners Forum On October 8, 2011, Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service’s Be the Evidence Project hosted an academic-activist-practitioner forum entitled Aging Prisoners: A Cri sis in Need of Intervention.As a host for this forum, the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service is distinguished by its mission to promote human rights and social justice globally through the advancement of economic, political, social, physical, mental, spiritual, and educational well-being. The Be the Evidence Project, which fosters public awareness through educational programs and campaigns, is designed to help achieve this mission.Consistent with the mission of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, the purpose of the forum was to: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Promote human rights and social justice and well-being for aging prisoners; Increase public awareness of the aging prisoner crisis; Help foster an international and interdisciplinary response to aging prisoners; Unveil an interdisciplinary model for describing and responding to public health-social problems such as aging prisoners for use in interdisciplinary prevention and intervention (Maschi & Morrissey, 2011). The event, organized by Drs.Tina Maschi and Mary Beth Morrissey of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, gave internationally-known scholars and practitioners time to present their work to an audience of over 150 national, local, community, 8 and university members. Program co-sponsors and community partners were the Collaborative for Palliative Care for Westchester and NYS Southern Region, the Public Health Association of New York City, and the National Organization of Forensic Social Workers. Special thanks are extended to our expert presenters and discussants, which included Drs.Azrini Wahidin and Ronald Aday. Fordham University students, including Maryann Hom, Samantha Sutfin, Tanneh Wreh, Rebecca Ackerman, as well as many other Fordham students and community volunteers, particularly from the Public Health Association of New York City, volunteered in the planning and implementation of this event which was staged seamlessly. The Whi te Paper- Aging Prisoners: A Crisis in Need of Intervention This follow-up White Paper, Aging Prisoners: A Crisis in Need of Intervention is a tribute to and outcome of the October 8th forum.Its publication is well-timed in light of the recently released Human Rights Watch (2012) report, Old Behind Bars. We chose to self-publish this White Paper in order to make it readily available to key stakeholders and the general public. As the White Paper editors, we hope that these contributions of top scholars and practitioners across the globe will provide readers with many of the necessary tools and information that can be used to begin to address this growing crisis in both local and international arenas.Its purpose is to increase public awareness and provide information that can be used to foster the development and improvement of services for older adult offenders at each stage of the criminal justice process, including in prison and upon community reentry. Background to the Problem Ame rica’s prison system is rapidly graying. Behind the walls are prisoners with long sentences who will reach old age in prison. The population of older prisoners aged 50 and above is now five times as large as it was in 1990 and represents about 12% of the 2. 3 million prisoners 9 (Sabol & Couture, 2008).This increase in older adult prisoners is not due to a crime surge among older adult offenders, but rather is the result of the passage of stricter sentencing laws, such as â€Å"Three Strikes, You’re Out† and â€Å"Truth-In-Sentencing† laws (Aday, 2003). Thus, the adult correctional system is attempting to grapple with this rapidly growing older adult prison population in need of specialized long-term care. Most older adults in prison are men (93%) of whom half (50%) are Caucasian. However, a disproportionate number of these aging prisoners are minorities, such as African Americans (32%) and Hispanics (14%) (Sabol & Couture, 2008).As stated throughout the chapters in this volume, older adults in prison have documented physical and mental health problems, including dementia, and histories of trauma and chronic stress. Over 3,000 of these men and women will die each year in prison (James & Glaze, 2006; Maruschak, 2008; Maschi, Kwak, Ko, & Morrissey, 2012). The correctional system, which was not designed as a healthcare facility, is ill-prepared to address the complex bio-psychosocial and long-term health care needs of older adults. Neither is it able to bear the costs, which are three times higher for older than for younger prisoners (Chiu, 2010; Kinsella, 2004).Many older adults released to the community are disadvantaged by stigma and lack of access to community resources such as Social Security Income (SSI), housing, and medical care (Maschi & Morrissey, 2012). They also vary in their patterns of persistence and desistance from crime and their pathways to prison (Sampson & Laub, 2003). Older adults involved in the criminal justice s ystem are a highly vulnerable and neglected population. Currently, there are few professions and communities that can solely and adequately address the needs of this population.Despite the fact that these older adults have committed crimes, some of them heinous, an essential ethical human rights and social justice principle is to 10 â€Å"respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person† (UN, 1948), while at the same time attending to societal concerns about public safety and accountability. In the following section, older adults in prison describe the common themes of their differing pathways to prison, the stress related to conditions of confinement, and their concerns over prison reentry/community reintegration.These narratives were gathered from a variety of sources, including over 200 open-ended survey responses and letters from a regional research study of older adults in prison. Pathways to Prison Many older adults identified one or more factors that influence thei r pathways to prison. These pathways include the influence of interpersonal trauma and/or family violence, neighborhood effects, structural level oppression (especially as it relates to racial discrimination), a history of mental illness and homelessness, and tragic later life incidents †¢ History of Interpersonal Trauma: A 57-year old risoner wrote that he perceived that his history of interpersonal trauma influenced why he was in prison. He said, â€Å"I was sexually assaulted when I was thirteen, I never really trusted anyone after that, tried to ‘get even’ when I was a Marine, but it was pyrrhic victory at a devastating cost to me†. †¢ Family Violence: A 50-year old prisoner described his history of family violence: â€Å"I was crippled when I was younger, my family member beat and molested me. I was tied to the basement poles beaten always told over and over again you’re a jail bird just like your father. This was so tightly put into my hea d it blurred everything I saw†. Neighborhood Effects: A 50-year old prisoner described his neighborhood environment during childhood: He said, â€Å"From the sixth grade to the tenth grade I was forced to survive in the madness of the concrete jungle†. 11 †¢ Structural Level Oppression: A 63-year old prisoner wrote about his experience with structural level oppression that placed him at-risk and at odds with the system: â€Å"The education I received in the black community was different in content and context than that of whites. What I learned after 12 years of public education was that I was a problem, inferior, uneducatable, and a victim.We (black men) are on the endangered species list. † †¢ Mental Health and Homelessness: A 52-year old prisoner described his mental health and homelessness as related to his criminal justice involvement. He stated, â€Å"I believe my situation is unique for I committed a crime with the intention of getting caught be cause I was homeless (I suffer from Schizoid Affective Disorder due to a nervous breakdown, loss of job, apartment, car everything†¦I didn’t want to seek shelter at a homeless shelter or church. I was too ashamed and embarrassed to ask for help from my sister and the three friends I have left in the world.In prison, now I am somewhat stable (off meds and mental health roster) and healthy and strong again, and getting better. † †¢ Later Life Tragic Incident: A 62-year old prisoner shared his story of a later life tragic incident that led to his incarceration: He disclosed, â€Å"I was a very successful father of 3 kids with a wife to this day I absolutely adore. She is still waiting for me when I get out. I was a Chief Compliance Officer for a brokerage making over $300,000 a year. One night after a night at the racetrack, I got into an accident going the wrong way on the highway. I hit a van head on with four passengers.I was hurt bad all the passengers and t he driver lived but one was pregnant and she lost the baby†¦so I was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to prison. † 12 Stress and Conditions of Confinement In the sample of over 200 letters, many older prisoners described stress related to the adverse conditions of confinement. Two direct quotes state: †¢ â€Å"It’s very tough surviving prison. The provoking, the unnecessary treatment, verbal abuse, and violence only add to the original sentence term to be served. Little things begin to add by therefore causing inmates to react in ways with custody staff or fellow prisoners.Overcrowded conditions, poor medical service, lack of interaction with Administrative Staff is stammering. † †¢ â€Å"It was my first week of incarceration in 1979. I was standing in line in the mess hall along with about 150 other prisoners†¦when all of a sudden a man gets stabbed from behind with a sword†¦a 7? foot sword. The man must have been standing becaus e he was slumped over as if he was touching his toes†¦with the blade through him and the point of the sword stuck in the floor leaving the handle sticking out his back. â€Å"The kicker was what the officer said†¦ I thought the esponse would be†¦ Everyone on the floor†¦Everyone up against the wall. Instead he yelled for a bed sheet and draped it over the slumped body with the impression of the handle topping the sheet to a point. Bewilderment was all over my face as I looked at the dead body 3 feet away from me. I couldn’t remember if I thought or blurted out the words†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"What kind of world is this? † The officer looked me right in the eye and said †¦ â€Å"Keep the line moving! † Again†¦my rationality kicked in†¦maybe I’m in a different time†¦I’m definitely in different world. I just wish I wasn’t. 13 Community Reintegration (Prison Reentry) The promise of community reintegration was often d escribed as a double-edged sword. Many older adults poised to exit prison and return to the community are not well prepared. One prisoner responded: †¢ â€Å"You don’t need a survey to know you have a lot of men over 50 getting ready to go home, with no money. No place to stay. And no one trying to understand this part of the problem. I earn $15 a month. I go home in 9 months. I have no family to turn to. I don’t want to come back to prison, after doing 7 years.I am trying to stay positive. I pray. I go to see the psych. For one on one and I try to look on the bright side. But the reality is, when I hit the street I am on my own. Tell me what good your survey will do me or people like me? † White Paper Overview In order to address the issues we have noted, this White Paper contains over 15 research briefs and full-length articles that are contributions from interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners from across the globe that define the problems and offer recommendations and problem-solving strategies.The major topics addressed about aging prisoners are related to health, trauma/mental health, criminal justice, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The briefs and articles included also help to provide a richer description of the lived experiences of aging prisoners in their social ecological contexts. This collection offers readers the opportunity to access a broad-based understanding of how psychosocial and structural issues have influenced the creation of and growth of the aging prisoner population.It also provides practical recommendations for policy and legal reform, program and policy development and improvement, and interdisciplinary practice. 14 Final Note As the editors of this White Paper, we welcome your comments. These comments can be provided via email at [email  protected] edu or by joining our Linked-In, Aging Prisoner and Action Forum at: http://www. linkedin. com/groups? gid=3892778&home Editors: Tina Maschi, PhD, L CSW, ACSW Mary Beth Morrissey, PhD, MPH, JD Russ Immarigeon, MSW Samantha L. Sutfin, MSW References Aday, R. H. (2003). Aging prisoners: Crisis in American corrections.Westport, CT: Praeger. Chiu, T. , (2010). It’s about time: Aging prisoners, increasing costs, and geriatric release. New York: Vera Institute of Justice. James, D. J. , & Glaze, L. E. (2006). Mental health problems of prison and jail inmates. (NCJ Publication No. 213600). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Justice. Human Rights Watch (2012). Old behind bars. Retrieved January 30, 2012 from http://www. hrw. org/reports/2012/01/27/old-behind-bars Kinsella, C. (2004). Correctional health care costs. Lexington, KY: Council of State Governments. Maruschak, L. M. (2008).Medical problems of prisoners (NCJ Publication No. 221740). Rockville, MD: US Department of Justice. London, England: Author. Maschi, T. , Kwak, J. , Ko, E. J. , & Morrissey, M. (2012). Forget me not: Dementia in prisons. The Gerontologist. doi: 10. 1 093/geront/gnr131 Maschi, T. & Morrissey (2011). A social ecology of health and well-being for incarcerated older adults: An international process and practice model for recovery and reintegration (unpublished manuscript). Sabol, W. J. , & Couture, H. (2008). Prison inmates at midyear 2007. (NCJ Publication No. 221944, pp. 1–24. ) Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Justice. United Nations. (1948). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from September 1, 2011 from http://www. un. org/en/documents/udhr/ 15 CHAPTER 2 Visualizing the Aging Prisoner Crisis: A Conceptual Model for Policy and Practice Decision Making and Action By Tina Maschi and Mary Beth Morrissey Introduction Aging prisoner narratives, as well as the existing literature in criminology, gerontology, and social work, reveal that older adults involved with the criminal justice system have complex biological, psychological, emotional, social, and legal concerns.In the absence of holistic approaches that address these multidimensional needs, the health and well-being of older prisoners may be compromised and their risk of recidivism may be heightened (Human Rights Watch, 2012; James & Glaze, 2006; Kinsella, 2004; Maruschak, 2008; Nunez-Neto, 2008). In this context, individual, social, and structural factors that affect aging prisoners and their life course agency must be targeted in order to provide effective life course prevention and intervention efforts.Currently, there is a theoretical gap in understanding the complexity of the multi-level factors that contribute to this aging prisoner crisis. Interdisciplinary professionals lack a holistic and integrated model that will permit them to deepen their understanding about the psychological, social, and structural issues that inform appropriate interdisciplinary responses to this vulnerable population. In order to address this gap, we have developed a new intervention model Social Ecology of Health and Well-Being (SEHW): A Process Mo del for Human Agency and Development (Maschi & Morrissey, 2011).Model Overview As shown in Figure 1, this model conceptualizes life course human agency (in the direct center of the model). Life course human agency is a key human rights and social justice 16 construct that spans individual self-determination and social structure. Structural approaches to social problems such as the aging prisoner crisis should be designed in a functional way to help foster health and well-being across the life course. We will describe and apply this model that is well-suited for designing multidimensional assessment, prevention, and ntervention efforts, including those occurring within the context of the current aging prisoner crisis. Figure 1: Social Ecology of Health and Well-Being: A Process Model For Human Agency and Development Social Structures and Human Agency In our model, social structures are conceptualized as influencing human agency, including life course criminal justice involvement and overall health and well-being. When social structures, including relevant social policies, have the goals of fair and just societal conditions and the full recognition of human rights, individuals can exercise their freedoms in an 17 nimpeded environment. When social policies, such as punitive criminal justice policies, result in unfair consequences such as warehousing prisoners until they reach old age or die in prison, they impede individual prisoners’ right to self-determination. Fostering personal empowerment and development over the life course may enhance capacities for self-actualization and fulfillment, even in the presence of disadvantaging social structures.Older adults in prison, who suffer the loss of personal autonomy as well as multiple other losses and traumas over the life course, may find new pathways to personal growth and resilience, especially as they re-enter society and are integrated as members of their communities (Morrissey, 2011b; Maschi & Morrissey, 2011). Historical Time Additional factors that can impede the realization of individuals’ full potential across the life course include historical time at the individual and collective level.A person’s historical time, for example, may include being a victim of trauma (Maschi et al. , 2011; Stojkovic, 2007). Collective historical time may include being part of a generation in which many individuals became victims of detrimental policies such as the 1980s when stricter sentencing policies mandated longer prison sentences and resulted in many individuals suffering, growing old, and possibly dying in prison. On the more productive side, collective historical time may also facilitate human agency and development.An example includes the wide-scale adoption of public health and treatment approaches, such as the growing mental health recovery movement (Maschi & Morrissey, 2011). The implication of using a proactive approach with aging prisoners is that it can lead to the imp rovement of the overall health and well-being of older adult offenders in prison and in the community. 18 Practice and Stakeholder Contexts Practice and stakeholder contexts also influence individuals’ life course human agency. These contexts may be found when individuals encounter barriers to needed services, such as mental health or housing.These barriers might place an individual, such as an older adult reentering prison from the community, at risk of ongoing homelessness, decompensation, and/or recidivism (Snyder et al. , 2009; Nunez-Neto, 2008). Power Dynamics Power dynamics are perhaps the most critical component of our model. Power dynamics manifest themselves at individual and societal levels in the form of intentional or unintentional oppression, lack of awareness, and/or human rights violations, such as in the domains of equal access to employment, social security, housing, and/ or fair treatment in the criminal justice system.Additionally, structural barriers based on personal characteristics, such as age and race , may subjugate some groups more than others. This status disadvantage may have a cumulative effect over the life course. In the case of aging prisoners, evidence suggests that the disproportionate confinement of minorities may increase with age (Maschi & Morrissey. 2011). These structural barriers result in disadvantaging subordinate groups when it comes to fairness in the criminal justice system.These subordinate groups may be most at risk of receiving longer sentences that necessitates they grow old in prison. Disadvantaged groups, such as individuals living in poverty or racial minorities who are at a higher risk of long-term incarceration, may be impeded from achieving their full potential and well-being. They also would be more at risk of health-related decline associated with the long-term poor conditions of confinement (Human Rights Watch, 2012; Maschi, Kwak, Ko, & Morrissey, 2012). 19Interdisciplinary Perspectives Our SEHW model describes co-constructed interdisciplinary perspectives (e. g. , medical, social work, criminal justice, and public health) that help conceptualize and translate into practice more holistic, global responses, including to the international aging prisoner crisis. Multiple perspectives that can inform an effective response to complex social problems, such as aging prisoners, are guided by the following perspectives: human rights, social justice and critical conflict theories as well as life course, social ecology, and public health perspectives.Human rights, social justice and critical conflict theories are used to help inform issues of human rights and social justice (Mullaly, 2010; Wronka, 2008), especially as they relate to human rights violations and social injustices that have resulted in social problems, such as the neglect and mistreatment of aging prisoners (Maschi et al. , 2011; Snyder et al. , 2007; Stojkovic, 2007; UN, 1948). The social ecology perspective enables a m ore holistic view of social problems and recognition of interlocking service systems.In the case of aging prisoners, this perspective allows for the assessment of sequential and/or concurrent service use patterns of individuals throughout the life course. In the case of sequential service use patterns of older adults in prison, the lack of access to mental health or housing services may have put them at risk for criminal justice involvement. Additionally, an assessment of access to current service use may identify gaps in needed services, such as substance abuse treatment while in prison.The life course perspective is another key component of the model because it can be used to illuminate the complexities of human agency and how social and structural factors can facilitate or hinder development over the life course, (Elder, 2003). The life course perspective can be integrated with social science theories from criminology, sociology, and psychology and used to 20 explain psychologica l, social, and criminogenic factors that influence an individual’s life course health and well-being and criminal justice involvement (e. . , Sampson & Laub, 2003). The public health perspective complements and builds upon the aforementioned perspectives by adding a population-based approach for prevention and intervention that focuses on older adults’ health and well-being and criminal justice involvement (Maschi & Morrissey, 2011). Evidence-Based Practices and Policies Evidence-based practice and policies provide a framework that houses these multiple perspectives, and methods to evaluate the effectiveness of practice and policies.Evidence-based practice and policy strategies allow professionals to plan and monitor process and outcomes of interventions, including older adults’ health and well-being and risk of and/or involvement in the criminal justice system. Values and Ethics Personal and professional values and ethics inform all aspects of the model. Values and ethics are essential to any discussion of social problems because appropriate assessment and treatment responses to problems are not value-free.Instead, a process of valuing that is multidimensional involving cognitive, emotional, social, cultural and other dimensions is embedded in both personal and professional practices and policies, and in the decision processes of the vulnerable older adults whom we serve (Morrissey, 2011a). Making discussion of values and ethics explicit helps to ensure humane treatment for all persons, in this case aging prisoners, while also balancing societal concerns including public health and safety and offender accountability. Applying the Model In applying the SEHW model to an aging prisoner population, it is important to recognize that 21 risons and communities constitute social environments that have their own unique social ecology that can foster or inhibit the health and well-being of its inhabitants. For example, poor conditions of confinemen t may inhibit health and well-being of aging prisoners. Adopting evidence-based treatments as an approach or intervention may help to foster change in the ecological environment and promote well-being (Maschi et al. , 2011). As seen in the case of aging prisoners, both the prison and community environments are often lacking in initiatives that promote health and well-being or older ex-offenders are denied access to them.Moreover, for community reintegration or prison reentry programs that serve older ex-offenders must take into account all of these social structural factors in order to be successful. Designing and assessing existing interventions that target the personal, cultural and structural levels factors that contribute to social problems, such as the aging prisoner population should be key components of program design (Maschi & Morrissey 2011; Mullaly, 2010; Nunez-Neto, 2008). This model may be used to understand the larger conceptual picture undergirding the aging of prisone rs. References Elder, G. 2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds. ), Handbook of the life course (pp. 3-21). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Human Rights Watch (2012). Old behind bars. Retrieved January 30, 2012 from http://www. hrw. org/reports/2012/01/27/old-behind-bars James, D. J. , & Glaze, L. E. (2006). Mental health problems of prison and jail inmates. (NCJ Publication No. 213600). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Justice. Kinsella, C. (2004). Correctional health care costs. Lexington, KY: Council of State Governments. Maruschak, L.M. (2008). Medical problems of prisoners (NCJ Publication No. 221740). Rockville, MD: US Department of Justice. London, England: Author. 22 Maschi, T. , Dennis, K. , Gibson, S. , MacMillan, T. , Sternberg, S. , & Hom, M. (2011). Trauma and stress among older adults in the criminal justice system: A review of the literature with implications for social work. Journal of Geront ological Social Work, 54, 347-360. Maschi, T. , Kwak, J. , Ko, E. J. , & Morrissey, M. (2012). Forget me not: Dementia in prisons. The Gerontologist. doi: 10. 1093/geront/gnr131 Maschi, T. & Morrissey (2011).A social ecology of health and well-being for incarcerated older adults: An international process and practice model for recovery and reintegration (unpublished manuscript). Morrissey, M. B. (2011a). Phenomenology of pain and suffering at the end of life: A humanistic perspective in gerontological health and social work. Journal of Social Work in End-ofLife and Palliative Care, 7(1), 14-38. Morrissey, M. B. (2011b). Suffering and decision making among seriously ill elderly women. Doctoral dissertation, Fordham University, New York, NY. Retrieved December 7, 2011 from http://avoserv. ibrary. fordham. edu/login? url=http://search. proquest. com. avoserv. library. f ordham. edu/docview/875564465? accountid=10932 Mullaly, B. (2010). Challenging oppression and confronting privilege ( 2nd ed. ). New York: Oxford University Press. Nunez-Neto, B. (2008). Offender reentry: Correctional statistics, reintegration into the community, and recidivism: A CRS report for congress. Retrieved fromhttp://lieberman. senate. gov/assets/pdf/crs/offenderreentry. pdf Sampson, R. J. , & Laub, J. H. (2003). Life-course desisters? Trajectories of crime among delinquent boys followed to age 70.Criminology, 41, 555-592. Snyder, C. , van Wormer, K. , Chada, J. , & Jaggers, J. (2009). Older adult inmates: The challenges for social work. Social Work, 54, 117–124. Stojkovic, S. (2007) ‘Elderly prisoners: A growing and forgotten group within correctional systems vulnerable to elder abuse’, Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 19(3): 97-117. United Nations. (1948). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from September 1, 2011 from http://www. un. org/en/documents/udhr/ Wronka, J. (2008). Human rights and social justice: Social action and service for the helpin g and health professions.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 23 CHAPTER 3 White Paper Overview and Recommendations By Russ Immarigeon, MSW* Part I: Introduction and Overview The articles and briefs in this White Paper on aging prisoners focus on different aspects of older offenders’ involvement with the corrections process, jail and prison confinement in particular, as well as their overall health and well-being. This White Paper builds on prior works on aging prisoners by using an interdisciplinary perspective in addressing public health, human rights and social justice issues associated with aging prisoners.Selected topics are covered in the White Paper that address gaps in the literature or build knowledge and delve more deeply into relatively uncharted areas such as trauma, mental health, palliative care, and interdisciplinary practice with older adults in prison. This white paper compliments the existing literature that focuses solely on the criminal justice aspects of aging prisoners. As has been noted in the introduction, most of these articles and briefs were originally delivered at a Fordham University Aging Prisoner Forum on October 8, 2011.Many of them were presented to an invited roundtable of leading academics, researchers, and practitioners. A number of these academics and practitioners agreed to have their work published in this free and available white paper. In releasing these papers to a broader constituency, we hope that they will be able to use the information provided in this volume to foster constructive dialogue about aging prisoners among scholars and practitioners as well as to develop or improve research, practice, and policy with older adults in prison. In our introduction to this collection, Tina Maschi, Mary Beth Morrissey, Russ Immarigeon, and Samantha L.Sutfin highlight the growing crisis of aging prisoners in the 24 United States. Reviewing more than 200 letters from elderly offenders, we describe their pathways to pris on, stressful prison conditions, and community reentry experiences. In addition, we note, â€Å"This collection will provide readers with a broad-based understanding of how psychosocial and structural issues have influenced the creation of and growth of the aging prisoner population. It also provides practical recommendations for policy and legal reform, program and policy development and improvement, and interdisciplinary practice strategies. Conceptual Model In the opening article, social work faculty member and researcher and president-elect of the National Organization of Forensic Social Workers (NOFSW) Tina Maschi, and public health law and social work researcher Mary Beth Morrissey of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service offer Social Ecology of Health and Well-Being (SEHW) as a process model for â€Å"deepening our understanding of the psychological, social, and structural issues that inform appropriate interdisciplinary responses† to aging offender s.Part II: Public Health, Mental Health, and Palliative and End-of-Life Care Issues Seven articles and briefs in this section address the physical and mental health care and end-oflife needs of aging prisoners. Mary Beth Morrissey, Tina Maschi and Junghee Han describe ethical and palliative responses to seriously ill elderly prisoners, stressing the importance of defining the conditions of these prisoners as a public health crisis. Moreover, â€Å"action steps† are necessary that establish an â€Å"infusion of palliative care philosophies, therapeutic models of care, training, and practices in settings across the care continuum for aging prisoners. Tina Maschi, Jung Kwak, Eujung Ko, and Mary Beth Morrissey follow with an apt discussion of dementia among older prisoners based on their article published in The Gerontologist. 25 The white paper also addresses the often overlooked issue of trauma among older adults in prison. In a series of short synopses, Tina Maschi and collea gues report on their review 19 journal articles for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, and findings from their study for The Gerontologist on the relationship between age, trauma, and stressful life events.In the latter, the authors discovered a history of distress- and trauma-related events in the lives of prisoners, many of whom were likely to be released from prison in due time. It is clear based on these papers that older adults have a high frequency of being victims and/or witnesses to violence. In addition, they have unique stressors related to aging including stress over declining health and being victimized or dying while in prison. Additionally, research results provide preliminary evidence of connections between a history of earlier life trauma and later life mental health symptoms among older adults in prison.In another article, New Jersey psychologist Keith Morgen, currently the Secretary for the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counselors, ar gues for more research related to substance abuse disorders in older prisoners. According to Morgen, the lack of such research impedes â€Å"effective treatment and support services† for older offenders in prison, on parole, or in reentry. Importantly, Mary T. Harrison, Karen Kopera-Frye, and William O.Harrison offer a lengthy description of True Grit, a Nevada prison-based structured living program that has been in operation successfully for nearly a decade. As the authors note, â€Å"An important indicator of success is that there has been a zero-percent recidivism rate among the parolees from the True Grit program this far. The sense of community and of working together toward a common goal, coupled with the rehabilitative and bio-psychological aspects of the program have enabled these men to reenter the free world. The collaboration between this Senior 26Structured Living Program, its volunteers, and outside agencies has increased the possibility of difficult placements. † Part III: Criminal Justice Policies and Practices This next section of the white paper addresses head on criminal justice policies and practices from sentencing to prisoner reentry. The six articles and briefs in this section cover the costs of incarceration, the impact of disproportionate sanctioning, the challenges older prisoners confront in prison as well as during community reintegration, and the context of advocating for aging prisoners.Azrini Wahidin of Queen’s University in Belfast highlights challenges confronting the management of aging women prisoners’ health and social care needs, including the need for elder-oriented gender-specific practice guidelines and for increased training of criminal justice personnel. She also recommends the collection of relevant age-specific data, the expansion of programs for older prisoners, and study of the cost of incarcerating older offenders. Kathleen Auerhahn of Temple University assesses the impact of sentencing practices, including mandatory â€Å"three strikes† legislation, on the production of elder prison populations.She notes, â€Å"Devoting an increasing proportion of scarce carceral resources to housing an ever-growing population of lowrisk individuals undermines the ability to provide protection from those offenders who do threaten public safety. † Margaret E. Leigey of The College of New Jersey examines the biological, psychological, and social factors associated with older prisoners reintegrating into communitybased settings. In particular, she reviews the literature on post-release adjustment,, reunification with community networks, access to medical care, securing housing, obtaining employment, recidivism, and programs for older offenders. 7 Tina Chiu of the Vera Institute of Justice reports four factors related to the intent and impact of geriatric release laws: political considerations and public opinion; narrow eligibility criteria; procedures that discourage pr isoners from applying for release; and complicated, lengthy referral and review processes. Susan McCarter describes the rippled implications of disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system for older prisoners. Russ Immarigeon, an editor of Offender Programs Report, provides a historical overview of advocacy efforts affecting older prisoners.He notes, â€Å"The critical point, in terms of advocating on behalf of elderly offenders or prisoners, including diversion and deinstitutionalization efforts, is more a matter of clear focus than of creating â€Å"new† options. Opportunities exist within current criminal justice and corrections structures to divert and deinstitutionalize elderly offenders. We need to focus our attention on this objective. † Part IV: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Community Partnerships The final section addresses the often overlooked issue of interdisciplinary collaboration and community partnerships when it comes to addres sing the issue of aging prisoners.Three articles and briefs in the final section of this collection address social work and older prisoners, interdisciplinary and collaborative practices, and practice implications that emerge from personal and professional contact patterns within prisons. Melvin Wilson of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) describes service coordination and other challenges facing those who work with older offenders in American jails and prisons. Filling a gap in the literature on personal and professional contacts of aging prisoners, Mary Beth Morrissey, Samantha L.Sutfin, and Tina Maschi review data collected from elderly New Jersey prisoners, finding that medical services, not psychological or social services, were most frequently used, although not always with satisfaction. These authors report, â€Å"Perhaps the 28 most troubling of findings is that older adults had minimal contact with family members from the community. Given that evidence that family social support is an important aspect of successful coping for older adults in prison, those older adults that do not have the opportunity to have visits or phone contact may place their well-being at risk. Lastly, Tina Maschi, Mary Beth Morrissey, Samantha L. Sutfin, and Manoj Pardasani explore the implications of interdisciplinary collaboration for practice with community-based older offenders. Analyzing secondary data from NASW’s 2004 National Study of Licensed Social Workers, these authors report that offenders frequently had multiple presenting problems, including chronic disease, grief and bereavement issues, end-of-life and palliative concerns, dementia issues, and caregiver concerns. Interdisciplinary work was common, especially between social workers and health care professionals.Issues and Recommendations In the course of their work, the multiple authors of these articles and briefs make a host of policy, practice, and research recommendations. Key items amo ng them are the following: †¢ Past and current trauma and stress are highly prevalent among aging prisoner populations. Older adults in prison with past and current trauma are at risk for adverse mental health problems which may be exacerbated by the prison environment. A variety of age-related mental health problems, such as dementia, are higher among older prisoner populations compared to their community counterparts.There clearly is a need for a more gero-sensitive, trauma-informed mental health treatment that addresses trauma and stress, and age-related mental health issues, such as dementia. †¢ Older male and female prisoners should be dealt with differently. More gender sensitive approaches for male and female incarcerated older adults are warranted. 29 †¢ The aging prison population has resulted in mass incarceration. Legal reforms should be considered that abate the production of elderly prisoner populations; †¢With the increase of aging prisoners, there is a reality that a sizable number will die in prison. Integration of palliative care approaches into prisons and community reentry programs including advance care planning and pain care and management can improve elderly prisoners’ quality of life and help to prevent and relieve suffering among seriously ill prisoners. Additionally, the introduction and promotion of shared informed decision making models can improve communication and holistic, coordinated care services in corrections; Older adults in prison often have minimal contact with their family members. Family involvement can improve the well-being of often isolated older prisoners. Therefore, more family programming is needed in corrections for older adults in prison; †¢ Older adult prisoner have different developmental needs than younger prisoners. More age-specific programming is needed across the United States, such as geriatric care units, including palliative and hospice services; †¢ Housing older adul ts in prison is costly.Monitoring, reporting, and evaluation strategies can enhance the safety and sensibility of geriatric release practices; and †¢ Many elderly male and female prisoners can be diverted or released from prison without undue risk to public safety. Policies such as compassionate release should be adopted and used. Social workers, the authors of many of these articles and briefs agree, have the skills and values necessary for linking the diverse service needs of aging prisoners. 30As a collective, these authors offer a forum to further the dialogue concerning aging prisoners’ health, mental health, and criminal justice issues. A major objective of this volume was to put a name to the face of aging prisoners and underscore the human rights and social justice issues evident in the aging prisoner crisis. The chapters written by well-respected academics and practitioners included in this volume clearly demonstrate that this objective was achieved. *Russ Immar igeon is Editor of Offender Programs Report. 31 PART II PUBLIC HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH AND PALLIATIVE AND END-OF-LIFE CARE ISSUES 2 CHAPTER 4 Developing Ethical and Palliative Responses to Suffering Among Seriously Ill Aging Prisoners: Content Analysis Implications and Action Steps Mary Beth Morrissey, Tina Maschi, and Junghee Han Defining Public Health Problem and its Magnitude: Prison heightens the pain and suffering of prisoners aging into their later years absent the social and relational supports of community-dwelling older adults. Overcrowding and marginalized access to appropriate diagnosis, treatment, preventive care, and mental health services, severely limit the health and well-being of aging prisoners.The magnitude and severity of these unacceptable conditions are amply evident in the nation's prison systems and oftentimes rise to the level of constitutional violations of prisoners' rights, as demonstrated by the recent holding of the US Supreme Court in Brown v Plata (2011 ) affirming a lower court decision ordering California to release over 40,000 prisoners because of findings of dangerous overcrowding and â€Å"grossly inadequate provision of medical and mental health care† (p. ) that caused â€Å"needless suffering and death† (p. 3) in the state's prisons. Older adults in prison are at high risk for co-occurring (substance abuse and mental health) disorders and dementia (Maschi, Kwak, Ko & Morrissey, 2012). About 52% will die of a chronic illness, such as HIV/AIDS, heart and lung disease, and dementia (Maschi, Kwak, Ko, & Morrissey, 2012; Carson & Noonan, 2011). The seriousness of such public health problems among aging prisoners is reaching crisis proportions.The population of adults aged 50 and older is a rapidly growing subgroup of the prison population with complex medical needs, chronic illnesses, and disabilities. This public health crisis calls for comprehensive population–based strategies that focus on prevention, care , 33 education, and research (Institute of Medicine, 2011; Morrissey, Brown-Borg, de Cabo & Silverstein, 2011). The urgency of the care needs of older adults in prison requires interdisciplinary collaborative action to bring relief to their experiences of pain and suffering.The prison system all too often creates social and health care injustices for vulnerable human beings at the end-oflife, imposing an ethical and moral obligation upon interdisciplinary professionals, scholars, and advocates in the criminal justice system and larger community to cooperate and collaborate in building a movement that will deliver more humane and empathic care to suffering older prisoners.The foundation for such a movement draws on the values and practice of community reintegration, restorative justice and human rights, including affirming the dignity of and respect for every human person, promoting the well-being of all members of the community based upon shared responsibility and accountability, an d working toward peace (Maschi & Morrissey, 2011). Content Analysis This content analysis of the theoretical and empirical literature evaluates available research evidence on public health and health care prevention strategies and interventions that address the aging prisoner crisis.In the past decade, the number of hospice programs in the United States has grown to about 75, such as those at state prisons in Iowa and Louisiana (Maschi et al. , 2012). What is unique about these programs is that in some cases they have introduced and adopted interdisciplinary collaboration and peer support practices in the delivery of health services (Harrison & Benedetti, 2009). Despite these promising practices to date, there has been little research done in this area to