Web Site News

Taming the Web

Joshua Stengel — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:18:00 GMT

The Internet can be a “noisy” place. Many web sites are full of advertisements, pop up windows, and misleading links. However, the Internet is also a large source of timely and relevant information. You need to stay on top of what’s happening in your field of corrections and what people are saying about your agency so you can make informed, timely, and responsive decisions.

The National Institute of Corrections will be delivering a FREE 2-hour interactive workshop to show you how to identify and select the sources of information on the Internet that you would like to monitor, and then show you how to setup and manage the tools you need to efficiently track these sources.

Participate in this 2-hour workshop to see how you can make accessing relevant information convenient, timely, and efficient. Registration is limited to the first 25 participants to sign up for this workshop…so sign up today!

Learn more.

Looking for "what's new" in corrections?

National Institute of Corrections — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:18:00 GMT

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is making it easy to stay on top of the latest corrections news, resources, training, and more on a single web page. On this new page, you can quickly scan the latest headlines, download new items in the library, and join discussions about correctional topics.

Bookmark and visit this page often as it is automatically updated so you can be assured that the information will always be fresh.

Come see "What's New" @ http://nicic.gov/New

Have some suggestions for this page? Leave a comment below!

Have a penny, leave a penny...Need a penny, take a penny

Joshua Stengel — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:08:00 GMT

Wouldn't it be great if there was some way for people with questions to get together with people who have answers? There are so many barriers between agencies, states, and departments that it can be hard to find opportunities to step outside your environment and seek out new ideas. What's needed is a community "penny tray" of information that lets corrections professionals share what they know and learn from what other people share.

The National Institute of Corrections has created a unique networking tool just for those working in corrections. Membership is free and everyone working in corrections is invited to join. It is a great place for new corrections professionals to network with others, but it's also a great way for experienced professionals to share their knowlege and experience and to help educate the future of corrections.

Learn more about the Corrections Community and how it is changing the way corrections networks and communicates. An evolution in corrections networking is coming and you don't want to be left behind. Thousands have joined already. Join now! It'll never be easier.

What do you think is the biggest communication barrier in corrections and how would you work to break it down?

A new information management service is now available for corrections professionals

Joshua Stengel — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:09:00 GMT

Tired of having to go to multiple web sites to stay up to date with the latest correction news? The National Institute of Corrections has just added a new service to the Corrections Community web site that lets you monitor your discussion forums, news, websites, and more from a single web page! It's called "My Stuff" and it is a free service for all members of the Corrections Community (which is also free).

This new page automatically checks for new information from your favorite forums, blogs and websites. You can simply scan through what's of interest to you quickly and easily without having to go to many different web sites.

How to get started:

Watch a video demonstration
Become a member of the Corrections Community
See the new "My Stuff" web page
(NOTE: if you are not a member yet or not signed in, you will get an "Access Denied" message)

2,000 corrections professionals can't be wrong!

Joshua Stengel — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:06:00 GMT

Over 2,000 of you have joined the National Institute of Corrections' online community for corrections professionals since it was started on July 1st. Members have enjoyed the great news and information provided by our corrections experts and discussed over 600 topics in our private and public forums. If you are one of these members, we thank you for your contributions and we look forward to your continued participation. Help us spread the word and invite someone you know to join.

Not a member yet?

Membership is fast and free. If you are a professional working in a corrections or criminal justice-related field, please take a few minutes to see what the Corrections Community has to offer. It's easy to catch up on what's been happening and you can start participating today.

How about some feedback?

We would like to hear from our existing members. We are trying to respond to your needs and continue to add new discussion forums and highlight news and information we think is relevant to the field. Do you like what you see so far?
Have an idea or suggestion for improving the Corrections Community? Tell us what you like and don't like in our feedback forum.

Are you a jail administrator?

Joshua Stengel — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:25:00 GMT

We are happy to announce a place exclusively for jail administrators where you can discuss important issues, seek out advice, and collaborate with your peers. This private forum is for jail administrators, of any size facility, across the country. You can ask questions of your collegues and receive their responses. It's an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and provide assistance to others.

Interested in joining this forum? Membership is fast and free and here's how to do it:
Are you a member of the Community?
Yes. Go to Step #2.
Not Yet. Create a community account.

Request access to the Jail Administrators forum.

The forum is moderated by Sandy Schilling, our in-house jails expert and author of the "Today's Jails" news column. In addition to moderating this forum, she can also provide you access to the 21,000+ materials in our library.

New Indian Country Jails Forum

Joshua Stengel — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:38:00 GMT

This private forum has been created so that jail administrators in Indian Country can discuss current jail-related issues amoung peers. If you have received an invitation to join this forum, please follow these steps to complete your membership:

You must first have an account the the general Corrections Community.
Have you already created an account?
- No. Create an account and then come back.
- Yes. Proceed to step 2.
Post an new message to this thread.
Wait for a response from the moderator.
Once approved, you will be able to post and read messages in the the Indian Country Jails forum.

New "Religious Topics" forum!

Peggy L. Ritchie — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 17:24:00 GMT

We're pleased to announce the new "Religious Topics" private forum for administrators and coordinators of religious programs in the criminal justice system. This is a private forum for religious administrators and coordinators of state, county and local correctional facilities.

This is a wonderful opportunity to:

Share discussions on legal issues, policies, programs and training.
Assist each other with today's challenges in the dynamic field of corrections.
Explore faith based research and community involvement.

Come join us today!

New "Women Offenders" Forum!

Joshua Stengel — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:29:00 GMT

We are proud to introduce a new Women Offenders forum. This public forum is moderated by the National Institute of Corrections's Maureen Buell.

Questions and discussion topics for this forum can cover a wide range of areas to include policy, practice, programs, treatment, operations as well as addressing inquiries from administrators, managers, line staff -- essentially anyone who has in interest in the issue of women detained and sentenced to the criminal justice system.

Come take a look!

Staying Current In the Community - Part 3: RSS Subscriptions

Joshua Stengel — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:30:00 GMT

In this series you will learn how to organize and keep track of new information as it becomes available in the Community. While you can always come to the web site and browse for new information, there are other ways to stay up to date.

In case you missed it, read:

Part 3: RSS Subscriptions

What is RSS?

RSS is an agreed upon "standard" for publishing information. This standardized format allows people with information (like us) to easily share that information with others. A news item in an RSS feed will always have a Title, a Link, a Description, an Author, and a Published date. This lets web site developers and software companies create programs that automatically pull in information from web sites in an aggregated way. It lets individuals pull in information from their favorite news sources without having to visit individual web sites.

If you go to a major web portal like Yahoo!, MSN, or AOL you will see that there are a variety of new headlines being displayed. You might see sports, market, or entertainment headlines that you can click on for more information. You can add additional headlines for other things that you might be interested in, such as Music or Food. The Corrections Community makes its information available to other web sites and to the general public in the same way that CNN might make its headlines available to AOL or MSN. For example, I was able to add headlines from the "Thinking About Corrections" news blog to my MSN start page. See my example.

How do I use RSS?

There are a wide variety of personal RSS programs that will go to all of the web sites you get news from, automatically grab all the new information, and display this information to you in one spot. This way you do not need to go to every single web site all the time. There are many free personal RSS aggregators available like Bloglines and NewsGator.

Adding an RSS feed to your personal aggregator will be different for each type of program, so read the instructions for the program you choose. Basically, with all of them, you will need to copy the address (URL) of the RSS feed into the program and the program will take care of the rest.

It takes a little work to get used to using RSS, but once you get it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. Look for the following icons and text on our web site and other web sites. They represent links to the addresses you will add to your program.

Text you might see: RSS, Atom, Subscribe, Feed, Syndication
Icons you might see (They are typically orange):

Look for RSS subscription options for the Corrections Community in the following areas of this site:

News Blogs (all or individually)
Discussion Forums (individually)
Tags (individually)
File Libraries (Individually)

The Future of RSS

Like many web technologies, RSS will likely change, but the concept of syndicating and subscribing to content will likely be around for very long time. The next version of Internet Explorer (soon to be released) will have a built-in RSS aggregator. Other popular browses like FireFox and Opera already have RSS built into them.

Corrections Community Grows to 1,000 Members

Joshua Stengel — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:22:00 GMT

Since its launch on July 1st, 2006, over 1,000 people have joined the Corrections Community. With direct support from corrections experts at the National Institute of Corrections, the Corrections Community is a great area for corrections professionals seeking to network with each other, share knowlege and information, and stay current with the latest correction news.

Membership is fast and free. If you are a professional working in a corrections or criminal justice-related field, please take a few minutes to see what the Corrections Community has to offer.

Already a member and like what you see? Invite someone you know to join.

What are "tags" and how do I use them?

Joshua Stengel — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:04:00 GMT

Throughout the blogs, forums, and file libraries, you will see sections called "Tags" or "Popular Tags" that are full of keywords of varying sizes. Also, when you are creating or replying to a post, you may see a section called "Tags" or "Edit Tags" where you can add your own "tags".

Ok...So, what's a "tag". A tag is a keyword or short phrase describing something. For example, if I were posting a file or topic about "The eating habits of wild buffalo in Montana", I may "tag" that information with "Eating; Buffalo; Montana".

Now that you know what a tag is your next question should be, "So what? What do tags do?"

Tags organize the information in the Community based on your descriptions. The more people that tag information with a certain tag, the more popular that tag is and the bigger it appears in the "Popular Tags". People interested in a "Popular Tag" need only click on that tag to see all the related information for that keyword. Pretty neat, huh?

What makes a good tag? Good tags are usually one word long (but sometime 2 or 3 words). You don't want to use silly or "cute" tags because they will never be used by anyone else and your information will not be easy to find. That said, please feel free to tag your information the way you feel it should be tagged but don't be surprised or offended if a moderator decides to edit your tags.

Have a question or suggestion for tagging? Leave me a comment.

Happy tagging!

New Forum for State DOC Training Directors

Joshua Stengel — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:34:00 GMT

This forum is a private area open only to directors of staff training in a state department of institutional corrections. If you are a member of our Training Directors Network (TDN) listserv or meet the requirements, you are encouraged to join this forum. Members can also access a private file library and news about our Training Directors Network.

Here is the easiest way to request access this forum:

If you are not a member of the Community, you will need to create an account. If you have already created an account, go to step 2.
Click here for instructions on how to join the State Training Directors Network forum.
Wait for to hear from the the administrator of this forum regarding the status of your request.
If approved, you will then be able to access the State Training Directors Network forum where you will find additional information and instructions.

If you need assistance, you can send me a private message or create a comment below. If you have trouble creating a new account, please use our technical support forum and someone will assist you there.

Cheers!

HOW TO: Change your sign in name and your display name.

Joshua Stengel — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:46:00 GMT

When you create a Community account, you are asked to create a "Sign in Name". This is your username in the Community and is what you will need, along with your password, should you ever be asked to "Sign In". While you can use your full name for your sign in name, most people choose a shorter name or an alias. If you do nothing else, you are identified in the Community by your sign in name.

If you want to be identified in the Community by something other than your sign in name, you have two options:

The Easy Way: Change your display name.

Click on your sign in name in the upper right corner of the screen to access your profile.
Click on the "About" tab and type your desired display name in the "Name" box.
Click on the "Site Options" tab and set the "Enable DisplayName" to "Yes".
IMPORTANT: Click on the "Save Changes" button.

The Not-As-Easy Way: Change your sign in name.

Send a Private message to "The Webmaster" requesting your sign in name be changed.
The next time you sign in, you need to remember to use your new name.

New Forum for Administrators of Large Jails

Joshua Stengel — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:36:00 GMT

This new forum is a private area open only to top administrators of large U.S. jails and jail systems (those with 1,000 or more beds). If you are a member of our Large Jail Network (LJN) listserv or meet the requirements, you are encouraged to join this forum. Members of this forum can also access a private file library and news about the Large Jail Network.

Here is the easiest way to request access this forum:

If you are not a member of the Community, you will need to create an account. If you already have an account, go to step 2.
Click here to post your request to join the LJN Forum.
Wait for to hear from the Moderator regarding the status of your request.
If approved, you will then be able to access the LJN Forum, where you will find additional information and instructions.

Cheers!