Jason Williams – författare

On any given day, nearly half a million children are served by foster care services in the U.S. at an annual cost of over $25 billion. Growing demand and shrinking funds have so greatly stressed the child welfare system that calls for orphanages have re-entered the public debate for the first time in nearly half a century. New ideas are desperately needed to transform a system in crisis, guarantee better outcomes for children in foster care, and reduce the need for out-of-home care in the first place.Yet little is known about what works in foster care. Very few studies have examined how alumni have fared as adults or tracked long-term health effects, and even fewer have directly compared different foster care services. In one of the most comprehensive studies of adults formerly in foster care ever conducted, the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study found that quality foster care services for children pay big dividends when they grow into adults. Key investments in highly trained staff, low caseloads, and robust supplementary services can dramatically reduce the rates of mental disorders and substance abuse later in life and increase the likelihood of completing education beyond high school and remaining employed. The results of this unparalleled study document not only the more favorable outcomes for youth who receive better services but the overall return when an investment is made in high quality foster care: every dollar invested in a child generates $1.50 in benefits to society. These findings form the core of this book's blueprint for reform.By keeping more children with their families and investing additional funds in enhanced foster care services, child welfare agencies have the opportunity to greatly improve the health, well being, and economic prospects for foster care alumni. What Works in Foster Care? presents a model foster care program that promises to revolutionize the way policymakers, administrators, case workers, and researchers think about protecting our most vulnerable youth.

Abolish Criminology presents critical scholarship on criminology and criminal justice ideologies and practices, alongside emerging freedom-driven visions and practices for new world formations.The book introduces readers to a detailed history and analysis of crime as a concept and its colonizing trajectories into existence and enforcement. These significant contexts buried within peculiar academic histories and classroom practices are often overlooked or unknown outside academic spaces. This causes the impact of criminology's racializing-gendering-sexualizing histories to extend and grow through criminology’s creation of crime as a very limiting way of thinking about violence and what can be done about it. These limitations allow the concept of crime to be weaponized and enforced through the criminal legal system. Abolish Criminology offers an accessible, critical study of criminology in written, visual, and poetic forms, and through the perspectives of university students, professors, imprisoned and formerly imprisoned scholars, poets, and visual artists. This allows readers to engage in multi-sensory, inter-disciplinary, and multi-perspective teachings on criminology’s often discussed but seldom interrogated mythologies on violence and danger, while bringing to light the wide-reaching enforcements of violence through criminology's research, theories, agencies, and dominant cultures.Abolish Criminology serves the needs of undergraduate and graduate students and educators in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, policy makers, activists, community organizers, social movement builders, and various reading groups in the general public who are grappling with increased critical public discourse on policing and criminal legal reform or abolition.

Abolish Criminology presents critical scholarship on criminology and criminal justice ideologies and practices, alongside emerging freedom-driven visions and practices for new world formations.The book introduces readers to a detailed history and analysis of crime as a concept and its colonizing trajectories into existence and enforcement. These significant contexts buried within peculiar academic histories and classroom practices are often overlooked or unknown outside academic spaces. This causes the impact of criminology's racializing-gendering-sexualizing histories to extend and grow through criminology’s creation of crime as a very limiting way of thinking about violence and what can be done about it. These limitations allow the concept of crime to be weaponized and enforced through the criminal legal system. Abolish Criminology offers an accessible, critical study of criminology in written, visual, and poetic forms, and through the perspectives of university students, professors, imprisoned and formerly imprisoned scholars, poets, and visual artists. This allows readers to engage in multi-sensory, inter-disciplinary, and multi-perspective teachings on criminology’s often discussed but seldom interrogated mythologies on violence and danger, while bringing to light the wide-reaching enforcements of violence through criminology's research, theories, agencies, and dominant cultures.Abolish Criminology serves the needs of undergraduate and graduate students and educators in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, policy makers, activists, community organizers, social movement builders, and various reading groups in the general public who are grappling with increased critical public discourse on policing and criminal legal reform or abolition.

From the stresses of repeated deployments to the difficulties of re-entry into civilian life, we are just beginning to understand how protracted conflicts, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, are affecting service members. Issues such as risky health behaviors and chemical dependence raise productivity concerns as they do with all organizations, but they also have a profound impact on the safety and readiness of troops--and by extension, the military as a whole--in life-or-death situations. Understanding Military Workforce Productivity cuts through the myths and misconceptions about the health and resilience of today's active-duty armed forces.This first-of-its-kind volume presents up-to-date findings across service branches in core health areas including illness and injury, alcohol and drug abuse, tobacco use, obesity, and mental health. The short- and long-term implications discussed relate to the quality of the lives of service members and their families, the quality and preparedness of the military as a workforce, and prevention and intervention efforts. The book: Presents data from ten large-scale health behavior surveys sponsored by the Department of Defense.Offers background context for understanding health and behavioral health and productivity among service members.Introduces a health and behavioral health model of productivity loss in the armed forces.Compares key indicators of substance abuse, health, and mental health in military and civilian populations.Reviews approaches for improving military productivity.Identifies areas for further study. Understanding Military Workforce Productivity offers a rare close-up of health issues in the services, making it an invaluable source of information for practitioners and researchers in mental health, substance abuse, health behaviors, and military behavioral health.

Hollywood, the 1970s. Jason Williams, a former college athlete from very conservative Orange County, hopes to become a film actor in a town where everyone's looking for a break. He jumps at the chance for the lead in a science fiction parody, an X-rated (later R) spoof of Flash Gordon. Sure, he has to get naked on camera--but so do lots of cute girls. He has no idea the production will be the start of an odyssey that will take him through the highs and lows of Tinseltown, and make him the most known unknown in movies--Flesh Gordon!.

From the stresses of repeated deployments to the difficulties of re-entry into civilian life, we are just beginning to understand how protracted conflicts, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, are affecting service members. Issues such as risky health behaviors and chemical dependence raise productivity concerns as they do with all organizations, but they also have a profound impact on the safety and readiness of troops--and by extension, the military as a whole--in life-or-death situations. Understanding Military Workforce Productivity cuts through the myths and misconceptions about the health and resilience of today's active-duty armed forces.This first-of-its-kind volume presents up-to-date findings across service branches in core health areas including illness and injury, alcohol and drug abuse, tobacco use, obesity, and mental health. The short- and long-term implications discussed relate to the quality of the lives of service members and their families, the quality and preparedness of the military as a workforce, and prevention and intervention efforts. The book: Presents data from ten large-scale health behavior surveys sponsored by the Department of Defense.Offers background context for understanding health and behavioral health and productivity among service members.Introduces a health and behavioral health model of productivity loss in the armed forces.Compares key indicators of substance abuse, health, and mental health in military and civilian populations.Reviews approaches for improving military productivity.Identifies areas for further study. Understanding Military Workforce Productivity offers a rare close-up of health issues in the services, making it an invaluable source of information for practitioners and researchers in mental health, substance abuse, health behaviors, and military behavioral health.

Contemporary Ethical Issues in the Criminal Justice System steps away from the conventional theoretical frameworks and sociohistorical foundations of criminal justice ethics to focus on the practical problems and controversies that regularly occur within the criminal justice system. Designed to be concise yet comprehensive, the book helps students understand and interpret practical realities within ethical contexts.Students will learn about topical issues such as racial disparities within the system and community-oriented justice. They will explore practices in policing and training, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs. They will become familiar with the intersection of criminal justice and sociological issues through chapters on gender and family issues and mental health. All chapters begin with an overview that breaks the topic down to make it fully accessible to readers. End-of-chapter conclusions and discussion questions are designed to support retention and encourage critical thinking. Featuring high-interest, real-world examples Contemporary Ethical Issues in the Criminal Justice System provides much needed information and insight for students interested in careers as criminal justice professionals. The book is well-suited to courses in criminal justice issues and ethics.

This book demonstrates how nonlinear/non-Gaussian Bayesian time series estimation methods were used to produce a probability distribution of potential MH370 flight paths.