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Donna L. Van Raaphorst provides a detailed statistical analysis of a large sample of Alcatraz Prison inmates using the Social Science Statistical Package. The data, drawn directly from the inmate files, is compared whenever possible with similar data provided by the Bureau of Prisons in order to determine if Alcatraz, often regarded as America's Devil's Island, really incarcerated the so-called “Worst of the Worst” in its time. The results would seem to indicate that Alcatraz inmates were, in fact, not remarkably different from those in any other Federal prison in the system.

Old Pubilius was our kind of guy. He understood the essence of pricing and got it down to 11 words. Unfortunately, the academics and consultants moved in during the ensuing centuries and made pricing a little more complex.

Student perceptions of service quality in higher education, particularly of the elements not directly involved with content and delivery of course units, are researched using a performance‐only adaptation of the SERVQUAL research instrument. A principal components factor analysis performed on data collected from a sample of 333 undergraduate business and management students suggests that students’ perceived service quality has three dimensions: “requisite elements”, which are essential to enable students to fulfil their study obligations; “acceptable elements”, which are desirable but not essential to students; and “functional elements”, which are of a practical or utilitarian nature. A comparison of perceptions of service quality between first and final year students suggests that perceptions of service quality elements change over a period of study, with “acceptable elements” having increasing importance. Implications for course management teams are discussed, and suggestions for further research are made.

Many individuals experience a sense of déjà vu when smelling a particular scent in the air or on hearing a name or words from the past. At times even the faintest scent or sound may evoke old memories and stir the senses. This is particularly true when the names of long‐ago television and radio programs are heard. Depending on one's age and the part of the country in which one lived, people born before the “baby boom” years (1946–1964) often feel a profound sense of nostalgia about such radio programs as Mr. District Attorney and Fibber McGee and Molly or the television shows Howdy Doody and Toast of the Town/Ed Sullivan Show. These early programs are considered part of the “golden age” of radio and television broadcasting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals’ sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers’ practice, and the need to build their teachers’ trust, collegiality, and commitment.

This study draws on a series of surveys and interviews with 12 first-year principals that took over some of the lowest-performing public schools in one large urban district.

Some principals begin their first year seeing their work to build accountability and commitment as complementary, while others see these two areas as in tension. Principals remain relatively consistent in these approaches over their first year on the job, although some principals change their views, generally coming to see these two areas as increasingly separate over time.

Future work should examine principals’ work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts.

Principal preparation may benefit from training principals on the particular challenges they may face as they work with teachers in low-performing schools. Accountability systems may also seek to alter the demands placed on novice principals.

Despite the centrality of principals to school improvement, the prevalence of high-stakes school accountability, and findings on the importance of commitment to school success, little empirical research has examined how principals make sense of the potentially conflicting demands of accountability and commitment in highly pressured circumstances.

Tackling high reoffending rates in England and Wales is of significant political interest, with education and training being viewed as an important mechanism to achieve change. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a small empirical study examining a life skills programme delivered in a Category C prison in the West Midlands.

The study used a multi-method approach incorporating observations of two modules, four focus groups with prisoners enrolled on the programme, questionnaires with programme completers, and semi-structured interviews with staff.

The findings indicate that life skills are an important component in rehabilitation. More specifically, developing the necessary tools to assist prisoners in everyday life, such as recognition, interpretation, reflection, response, and planning is fundamental to rehabilitation.

A limitation of this study was that only prisoners currently at this Category C prison were included. This could be complemented by the inclusion of more participants who had completed the programme; however, access and data protection considerations limited the study to one location.

The key message of this study is that without addressing basic life skills, education and vocational rehabilitation is severely limited.

To reduce reoffending rates, it is important to conceive rehabilitation in broader terms, not simply in relation to education and vocational training.

This paper offers insight into an unreported area of good practice in prison rehabilitation provision.

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.