Original Research

I have never done my own original research. Original research is different from library research since original research is based on information that you have collected from surveys, interviews and such. Library research can guide you in the direction of what kinds of questions to ask people in your research population, it can also show you what has already been researched so you know what might not have been researched before, thus starting a new topic for original research. Cons of library research: information might be outdated, might be biased based on sources. Pros of library research: hard work of finding the facts has already been done for you. Critical thinking skills required for both: reflection, reasoning, analysis, interpretation. The most important skill for library research is interpretation because you can gather information but you must be able to understand what you have gathered. While the most important for original research is analysis because you must analyze your findings in order to present actual and factual information based on your findings.

Statistical Information

I was able to find 2 sources that gave statistical information about the ex-incarcerated and they both gave sources of where their information came from but I didn't find much information about how it was actually collected and/or analyzed. I was assuming that the governemtn document would explain this since they are trying to convince us of issues being faced.

Finn, P. (1998, March). Successfull job placement for for ex-offenders. Retrieved from  https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/168102.pdf

Western, B. The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. Retrieved from  http://scholar.harvard.edu/brucewestern/files/western_asr.pdf

Checking In

As I am preparing for my semester research project, I think the presentation part is going to be the hard part. I haven't ever created my own slides so that might be a slight challenge for me. As far as getting information, I still have the last couple of sources to get information from but I am well on my way to the end of the road.

As far as other classes and everyday research, I have used some of the tools that we learned and have come up with some pretty good information.

Intellectual Property

Hmmm, a definition for intellectual property... well I have never heard of this so let me take the words and try to figure something out. I would have to say it has something to do with the workings of the mind and it those workings belonging to the person who "owns" the brain.

According to wikipedia: Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized under the corresponding fields of law.  Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. (1)

So it sounds to me that in every day life when I say something that isn't recognized by the English language, this might be intellectual property. Also, I think this blog that you are reading is my intellectual property.

The concept of intellectual property would be no longer "owned" if things were to be manipulated or shared. This would say that the creator of the IP would never get credit and anyone could change what was created and make it something else completely.  (I'm not too sure I understand that last question that I am supposed to be answering here)



(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

Urvashi Vaid Presentation

    Prior to attending this event I thought that it was going to give me a lot of information on the struggles being faced with the fight for same-sex marriage. Although I don't know much about this topic, I do know that it i a fight that has been going on for a while.
    The information was presented in a way that focused more on what people should already know about this topic. Although I did hear some facts that I hadn't known before, I felt like I was a bit out of place having not much background information.
    One thing that I had never heard before was the comparison of poverty in homosexual versus heterosexual families. Urvashi said that there is more poverty in homosexual families but I don't think that this is a fair comparison. She didn't mention the number of families that were compared. This is important to take into account especially when the divorce rate is so high. I don't understand how she can compare these 2 relationships when most heterosexual families are single parent raised families.
   Urvashi Vaid is an authority on this topic as she is has spent most of her life researching and working with the homosexual community and issues that they face.
   I have to be honest and say that I didn't take much away from this presentation. Although Urvashi is a great presenter, I feel her forceful approach was hard to follow and she had made a lot of assumptions about her audience. She is very knowledgeable about the topic but that doesn't mean that her audience is on the same level. Like I said earlier, I felt a bit out of place.
    There was a question asked by one of our classmates but I was unable to clearly hear the question but it had something to do with Urvashi's concern with heterosexuals. Since I couldn't hear the question, I can't say whether she responded well or not. But she did give it a shot and the student seemed to be satisfied with the answer.

Google 101

When I think of google, I think of the "all-knowing". Wel,l little did I know I haven't even been using google to its full potential. I have learned that there are language tools to help you translate things, you can search news by country, you can input an image to find out what it might be called, using the "~" will return related terms to what you are searching for. I also had no idea that you could search for things based on the suffix of a web address (ie: .gov, .edu, etc). Using the "~" will definitely help me search for information on my research topic since there are many different terms for "prisoners". In my everyday life, I'm excited to use the picture tool. I ocasionally come across things that I am not familiar with and would loveto know what they may be called. Although, a smartphone will need to come first for that.

So before google 101, I loved google and use it daily. Now, I can use it to its full potential and hopefully get even more information on everything.

Google: MY all-knowing!

13: Review research assignment question

Based on the research that I have done so far on the challenges faced by prisoners being released into society, I have found that most of the questions for the presentation can be answered. Although, I have yet to find an organization that educates people about my human population. I have found out what challenges there are but I can't seem to find many programs that help those being released or even help their families prepare for their return. I especially haven't found anything educating the public about the return of prisoners to society. In the article that I have found, there were some interesting viewpoints from people that have worked with the newly released and I can understand what challenges they are facing. I do find it quite interesting that there are so many people in prison that will one day be set free and there aren't programs for them to help them prepare for their release. The prisons seems to provide "programs" but who is to say that they are worth anything, especially when CA is letting thousands of prisons free because of overcrowding.

Something to still find out... now that I know their challenges, how can these people be helped back into society so they can stay a part of society rather than a statistic.

As Professor Wexelbaum mentioned in an earlier post of mine, maybe I'll get more answer from a government search but I don't know how true things will be. Not sure I totally trust what the government has to say, guess I'm one of "those" people who thinks the government may be a bit corrupt. But that's a whole other topic.

12: Blogs: a legitimate form of scholarship or news?

As I suspected, I was unable to find a blog about released prisoners and their challenges with reentering society. Why did I assume this would be the case... because once prisoners have been released it seems as though not many people care about what happens to them next. I did however find an interesting blog by Michael Santos.  http://michaelsantos.net/january-2012-values-and-goals/  He has been chronicling his prison sentence and is now down to his last year. He has set goals for himself and explains them in great detail, he is preparing for his releasing back into society. One benefit that he has over many other excarcerated is that he has a wife waiting for him at home.
 
Even if I were able to find a blog about the challenges of released prisoners, I would take it with a grain of salt. I wonder if I would be told the truth about everything, or if things might be embellished to make the prison system sound like it had prepared individuals for their release.

I was able to find a blog about the release of prisoners: http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/05/partial-ok-for-prisoner-release/  This blog talks about the release of many prisoners because of overcrowding which tells me that they aren't trying to prepare prisoners for their release challenges but are just getting them out of the way for new inmates. I do think that this blog is legitimate because of the source "Supreme Court of the United States" and the fact that it is ruling to be passed in California.

Denniston, L. (2011, May 23). Retrieved from http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/05/partial-ok-for-prisoner-release/.

(I'm not sure if this is the correct way to cite a blog since I found 3 different ways and RefWorks showed something that didn't make sense.)

Needless to say, I don't typically read blogs because I thought they all had a lot of opinion in them but I see that there are others that are valid.

Research Reflection

I will not be limiting myself to one LGBT population but all of them. I will be researching the correlation between sexual orientation and emotion. I assume that LGBT people may be more emotional than heterosexual people. I see this mostly with gay men that I have come in contact with in my life, most seem "feminine" when it comes to emotions and crying.  I wonder if this is related to the discrimination that they have faced or if it is something more related to a mental disorder. 

I think that hardest part of this research is going to be finding facts about emotions and LGBT. I know there are plenty of opinions out there but has there been actual scientific research done.

9: Subject Specific Database

My search string is "prison AND reentry AND society  AND  challenge". I chose to use Google Scholar as my database which gave me 14,200 results as compared to ASP that returned 5 results. Although both searches gave relevant results, I would say that obviously google gave more since there were thousands more options even though I was quite specific.

When comparing the 2 searches, google results can be narrowed by keywords, author, publication, date, types of collection, legal opinions/journals. ASP can be narrowed by search terms, full text, scholarly, references, publish date, publish type, language, cover story, image quick view, PDF full text, # of pages, doc type and, publication.

Of the number of results mentioned above, I would say 3 of the 5 from ASP are relevant and countless are relevant from google scholar. There were way too many results for me to go through them all and see how many were relevant but on the first page alone, 6 out of 10 were relevant. Google had the 6 readily available whereas ASP had 2 available in full text and 1 available with Find-It.

Since working with databases, my research question hasn't changed but has been somewhat answered, although not completely. My question hasn't changed because it is a specific question which is narrow enough to find results when searching for information.

The hardest part about composing my research question was focusing it on the right source. Instead of focusing on the prison system, I am now focused on the actual prisoners and their challenges when reentering society.

Popular Magazine vs Scholarly Journal Article

The articles that I have found are:
Scholarly:
Authors  Garland, B.; Wodahl, E.; Mayfield, J.
Title  Prisoners reentry in a small metropolitan community: obstacles and policy recommendations
Source  Criminal Justice Policy Review, 2011, 22, 1, 90

Popular:
Author  Lattimore, P.
Title  The challenges of reentry
Source  Corrections Today, 2007

These article are similar in that they are both written well. They are easy to read and stick to facts.
The are different in the fact that the scholarly article sites references and has no advertisements, which are present in the popular article. Another big difference is that the popular article is very low level and doesn't go into too much detail whereas the scholarly article is very specific.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

Although I have never used this search before, I found it really easy to use. I found the best results when adding more than just 2 keywords, I used 4 to be exact. And, I also narrowed down my results by selecting PDF full text. I think this is a great search to use for research. I have used google scholar in the past which was helpful but this seems to be more of a thorough search.

I don't have any fears when it comes to using this database to do research.

Your Population

Since reading a bit about my population, I have found out a bit of information that I never would have expected. I found out that when prisoners are released into society, they are not trusting and fear the unknown. They have difficulty getting jobs because of their offenses, which makes me want to find out more about how they deal with these circumstances. Do they keep trying to find jobs even if employers won't hire them or do they give up?

I have really only found general information but do still need to look further into the book that I have found for my project.

Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

After doing some searching, I have found that an encyclopedia is going to be more useful for my research project than a Wikipedia search. The pros to using an encyclopedia are that there is a lot information in one area and you can easily find out if the author is a credible source. There are however cons to them as well, they may be out of date or very restricted when searching for a topic. I was searching for prisoner release or anything of that nature and was only able to find 1 out of 4 books that actually had some information for me. Even though I couldn't find information for my project on Wikipedia, I still feel like there may be pros as well as cons to using the site. A pro is that it is easily accessible wherever you may be and most information seems to be pretty up-to-date. However, a huge con about Wikipedia is you never know if a source is very credible and/or trusted.

As I mentioned above, I found 4 encyclopedias about my topic but only 1 was relevant. I located these books by going to the library website and searching in the advanced search section for "prisoner AND encyclopedia", then went to the reference section of the actual library to locate the individual books.

I tried to search for an E-encyclopedia by going to the library website and in the advanced search I typed in "prisoner" and then below in the "collection" area I chose "reference-online" but there were no results.

So needless to say, I'll be sticking with the encyclopedia route for this research project since Wikipedia has nothing to offer and the encyclopedia actually had some interesting facts for me. Plus it was published by a credible company, even better!

OPAC Search Experience

The topic that I have chosen for my research is: the challenges faced by prisoners who are reentering society after a long sentence. I will be looking for mostly general background information but do also hope to find some specifics about Minnesota prisoners. The search string that I used was "Prisoners AND Release", specifying books only and was able to find a book on the first try. I also did the same search while specifying only Ebooks and that did give results as well. However, I chose not to use an Ebook because I find it quite annoying, to the eyes, to read on the computer. Although, if I had a mobile device I'm sure it would be quite convenient. I did try this same search at the Great River Regional Library System OPAC and found only 1 result. I searched in the advanced search screen for "Prisoner AND Release" and had the search include adult, juvenile, and young adult nonfiction. I don't think that I will be using this library for much research since the SCSU library provided me with 87 results when using the same criteria.

Updated Topic

Since my topic was a bit broad and wasn't quite focused on the right area, I have chosen a more refined topic.  My research question is... What are the challenges of prisoners being reintroduced to society after a long sentence?
This may seem a bit broad still but I am wondering if I will be able to find enough information if I narrow my topic to be about murderers only.

What Do You Assume to Be True About ___________?

So I have been trying to figure out what I assume to be true about a particular population. This hasn't been easy as I'm sure it hasn't been for most. But I have to say, I try not to assume too much about people.

I do, however, assume that prisoners are all getting a free ride while in jail/prison. They may be "paying the time", but who really is paying for things (ie: food, medical bills, clothing, a roof over their heads, etc).  There are so many people in prison and I want to know how everything is being paid for. If these people have committed crimes, why should we have to pay for their nourishment and safe keeping?!

Of course prisoners need to be held in a secure manor but I feel like some conditions are pretty good when compared to what a homeless person may have. A bed, blanket and warm food sounds much more pleasant than a cardboard box on the street corner.

I have seen each of these populations (prisoners and homeless) on t.v. and it always seems that the prisoners get warm food, a roof over their heads and a place to lay their head at night. Just doesn't seem to make sense to me, homeless suffer while prisoners relax.

I'm assuming that there will be quite a bit of information for me to research since prisons have been around for a very long time. But, I am thinking that the hardest part may be finding specific information on how things are actually paid. I feel like there may be guarded information about the prison systems. Anything that has to do with "the law" seems to have a sense of corruption, in my mind.

What is Critical Thinking?

My definition of critical thinking is: a type of thinking that you do to be objective on any given topic. I have heard this term used before in school and even in conversations with my husband, but I'm not quite sure if I am using the correct ways of "critical thinking".

According to dictionary.com, critical thinking is:

disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+thinking

The "expert" here hasn't identified a specific process in order to engage in critical thinking, although it seems that it should not include opinion. 

I think that critical thinking and IM204 are connected in the sense that we are going to be addressing topics that we might have an opinion about. But are here to research these topics with an open-mind and are to find facts, not just provide our opinions.

Welcome to my new blog

Hi Everyone, I'm Amanda!  Thanks for stopping by and reading this,  hopefully we can learn a lot from each other throughout this semester. Oh yea and the only thing I know about blogs  is what I've seen on Julie and Julia.  So, here's to my first blog.