Search

Maintaining a stable residence is a primary requirement of probation compliance. Prior research has spoken to the increase in requirements for people on probation and how they are often tied to financial capability. Using data from in-depth interviews with people on probation and probation staff, our analysis extends extant research by highlighting the unique challenges of finding housing during a historic rise in housing and rental prices in the context of COVID-19. This work furthers research on the role that economic means play in the probation revocation process. Results from the research suggest that housing is a barrier to success on probation, which is further hampered by the lack of employment opportunities available to individuals with felony criminal records. Participants relayed that the lack of affordable housing led to heavy reliance on family members for assistance. Information from staff triangulated their concerns about how compliance was tied to poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has offered an important starting point for understanding the legal socialization process, known as one’s ever changing orientation about the legal system. However, little is known about the extent to which family members influence adolescents’ legal socialization. Using the year 15 (wave 6) survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study dataset (N = 2,749), the current paper explores the association between parental and sibling police contact and legal cynicism as one dimension in the legal socialization process. This study examines how the family experience of a police stop may be an overlooked mechanism in the transmission of perceptions about the law. Results suggest that teens’ own experiences are important, and sibling police contact strengthens this effect, warranting further exploration of family in legal socialization research. We highlight the potential role of police contact as a symbiotic harm – one that flows between familial relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has yet to address how criminal legal system actors take parenthood into account when imposing and enforcing LFOs. Drawing on evidence from 205 semi-structured interviews conducted across four states, this study explores the relationship between monetary punishment and parenthood from the perspectives of court and community corrections professionals. Engaging Kathleen Daly's framework of familial paternalism (1987a, 1987b, 1989a, 1989b), we find that system actors obtain and interpret information about defendant circumstances to (1) consider family complexity , (2) construct deservingness and (3) curb spill-over punishment. Ultimately, we find that system actors consider parental status in relation to LFOs and defendants' ability to pay, though their decisions also hinge on gender and the nature of parental involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Environmental Control System (ECS) is the main consumer of non-propulsive power onboard aircraft. The use of an electrically-driven Vapor Compression Cycle (VCC) system, in place of the conventional air cycle machine, can lead to a substantial increase of the coefficient of performance. This work documents the development of an integrated design optimization method for VCC-based aircraft ECS, where the sizing of the system is performed along with the conceptual design of the compact heat exchangers and the high-speed centrifugal compressor. A data-driven model of the compressor has been developed to reduce the complexity of the VCC system model and the computational cost of the associated optimization problem. The model is based on artificial neural networks and has been trained on a synthetic dataset of 165k centrifugal compressor designs, generated with an in-house tool. The case study selected to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed methodology is the multi-objective design optimization of an electrically-driven VCC system for the ECS of a single-aisle, short-haul aircraft, flying at cruise conditions. The results show that the number of function evaluations needed to identify the Pareto front reduces by a factor of three when using the data-driven model, in place of a meanline method. At the same time, the robustness of the numerical solver is improved, leading to the identification of optimal solutions covering a wider design space. Finally, the proposed methodology enables the analysis of the trends established between the system performance metrics and the design of the individual components. • The development of a data-driven model for centrifugal compressors is presented. • A novel integrated design optimization framework for aircraft ECS is developed. • The multi-objective optimization of an electrically-driven VCC system is documented. • The computational cost reduces by a factor of three when using the data-driven model. • The robustness of the numerical method is improved when using the data-driven model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System-impacted individuals often rely on others to provide financial support, which aids in the payment of legal-financial obligations (LFOs). LFOs comprise the fines, fees, restitution, surcharges, and assessments imposed on individuals who come into contact with the criminal legal system. Limited evidence suggests that this support can prompt stress and negative emotions for system-impacted individuals and their families. This study examines the process by which a matched sample of 125 men convicted of sexual offenses and nonsexual offenses in Missouri obtain financial support from others and how that process impacts their relationships. Secondary qualitative analysis of interviews with these men reveals that financial support may be governed by resource-sharing norms and LFOs can burden those who cannot pay by indebting them to others and adding "relational work" to their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental control system (ECS) is the largest auxiliary power consumer, i.e., around 75% of non-propulsive power, among the aircraft subsystems. The adoption of a novel ECS architecture, based on an electrically-driven vapor compression cycle system, can enable a twofold increase of coefficient of performance at cruise conditions, as compared to the conventional air cycle machine. The core of this technology is a high-speed, miniature centrifugal compressor, consisting of two impellers mounted in back-to-back configuration, and running on gas bearings, operating with refrigerant. The fluid dynamic design optimization of the twin-stage compressor, to be installed in the vapor compression cycle test rig under realization at Delft University of Technology, is documented in this paper. First, the scaling analysis for centrifugal compressor is extended to provide guidelines for the design of twin-stage machines. Then, a multi-objective conceptual design optimization is performed by resorting to an in-house reduced-order model (ROM), coupled to a genetic algorithm. The fluid dynamic performance and the structural integrity of the optimal design are assessed by means of a hybrid framework, encompassing computational fluid dynamics and ROMs, and by finite element analysis. The results show that it is possible to design a twin-stage compressor for the target application, featuring an average efficiency higher than 70%, a maximum compression ratio exceeding 9, and an operating range of 0.27 at the design rotational speed, despite the detrimental effects of motor cooling and miniature size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in‐depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of participants convicted of sexual offenses to illustrate the unique way that monetary sanctions are levied on groups of people who are considered more morally culpable and worthy of carceral control. We find that monetary sanctions are regularly assessed and challenging for most participants. The stigma of a sexual offense conviction and economic precarity, particularly among Black members of the sample, further the costs of punishment. We contend that costs associated with a sexual offense are unique because they can continue in perpetuity, govern normative behavior, and are centered on an assumption of continued guilt. We argue that the monetary sanctions levied against convicted persons, especially individuals with sexual offenses, demonstrate the often hidden and expansive nature of carceral control for other marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of non-ideal compressible flows on the fluid-dynamic design of axial turbine stages is examined. First, the classical similarity equation (CSE) is revised and extended to account for the effect of flow non-ideality. Then, the influence of the most relevant design parameters is investigated through the application of a dimensionless turbine stage model embedding a first-principles loss model. The results show that compressibility effects induced by the fluid molecular complexity and the stage volumetric flow ratio produce an offset in the efficiency trends and in the optimal stage layout. Furthermore, flow non-ideality can lead to either an increase or a decrease of stage efficiency up to 3-4% relative to turbines designed to operate in dilute gas state. This effect can be predicted at preliminary design phase through the evaluation of the isentropic pressure-volume exponent. Three-dimensional (3D) RANS simulations of selected test cases corroborate the trends predicted with the reduced-order turbine stage model. URANS computations provide equivalent trends, except for case study niMM1, featuring a non-monotonic variation of the generalized isentropic exponent. For such turbine stage, the efficiency is predicted to be higher than the one computed with any steady-state model based on the control volume approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary Policy Implications: The average length of jail stays is increasing despite national efforts to reduce these populations. The current study examines variations in lengths of stay, differentiating between short and long pretrial stays. Using data from two large jails in metropolitan jurisdictions, we take an intersectional perspective and model potential differences among race, gender, and residing in a high‐poverty area. In both locations, we find that Black men are the most likely to have long lengths of stay, but that length of stay varies depending on the intersection of gender, race, and neighborhood poverty.The human costs of pretrial detention are paid unequally by different groups of people. Given the downstream costs of pretrial detention, this work suggests that focusing policy efforts on the barriers to release among people of color, particularly Black men, would be fruitful. There is evidence that bail reform can reduce some barriers to release without increases in crime. Further, attending to obstacles to case processing could lead to pretrial system reform. This work also highlights another area of the criminal legal system where Black males, compared to their White counterparts, are disparately affected and denotes the continuing need for intersectional perspectives on reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMonetary sanctions are a ubiquitous part of punishment in the criminal legal system. In recent years, highly publicized events have drawn attention to monetary sanctions at the intersection of poverty, race, and legal system contact. The current study uses Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average models to assess monetary sanction reform legislation in St. Louis, Missouri – where the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2015 Ferguson Report implicated monetary sanctions practices as a contributing to tension between the community and the criminal legal system. We find that white defendants experienced an increase in the average amount of fines received (the punishment portion of the sentence), further, the implementation of the reform (modeled as a step function) was associated with increased fee assessments for those receiving monetary sanctions. Further, racial gaps in total assessments across Black and white residents remained, even as fees for Black defendants declined. Our findings highlight how policies can improve some parts of the criminal legal system yet remain insufficient to fully address their stated goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]