Revolving Door Phenomenon Research Articles

Deregulation and Board Composition: Evidence on the Value of the Revolving Door

According to the conventional wisdom, a revolving door operates between government and industry. High ranking government officials leave office and head for Washington law firms or major corporations where they use their connections and influence to further their new employers' political interests. Despite the pervasiveness of this story, remarkably little evidence exists on the motivations underlying the revolving door phenomenon. Indeed, a few competing theories attempt to explain the revolving door phenomenon, but almost no work has been done to empirically distinguish which of these theories is most relevant. In this study we examine the participation of political directors on the boards of natural gas companies over a period of deregulation. We focus on the 1986 deregulation of the natural gas extraction companies. This event provides a natural experiment to distinguish between competing theories, namely the traditional rent-seeking revolving door theory and the managerial human asset theory. Using data covering the period from 1978 to 1998, we test whether deregulation altered composition of the board as the firm's environment changed. In particular, did deregulation cause firms to reduce the number of political directors on their boards? We find evidence that board members serve a rent-seeking role. In general, the 1986 deregulation of natural gas extraction is associated with a decrease in the number of political directors on boards. In addition, using a fixed-effects model we find that deregulated firms reduce the number of political directors. Keywords: Corporate governance, deregulation, political directors

Predicting the revolving door phenomenon among patients with schizophrenic, affective disorders and non-organic psychoses.

The aim of the study was to identify the variables that predict the revolving door phenomenon in psychiatric hospital at the moment of a second admission. The sample consisted of 3,093 patients who have been followed during 5 to 24 years after their first hospital admission due to schizophrenia, and affective or psychotic disorders. Those who had had four or more admissions during the study period were considered as revolving door patients. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the impact of gender, age, marital status, urban conditions, diagnosis, mean period of stay on the first admission, interval between the first and second admissions on the patterns of hospitalization. The variables with the highest predictive power for readmission were the interval between first and second admissions, and the length of stay in the first admission. These data may help public health planners in providing optimal care to a small group of patients with more effective utilization of the available services.

HIV Infection in U.S. Correctional Systems: Its Effect on the Community

Increased rates of HIV infection and risk-taking behaviors among incarcerated men and women make the fight against HIV within the prison and jail systems an especially critical issue in community health. Overcrowded conditions impact on the rotation of inmates in and out of the correctional system. This revolving door phenomenon has implications for disease prevention and control within the community into which the inmates are released. As more people pass in and out of jails and prisons, more problems and diseases associated with incarceration pass into the community. The special needs of the prison population must be taken into consideration not only by nurses but also by all health care workers and correctional officialswhen planning and implementing control and prevention strategies.

Predicting the "revolving door" phenomenon among patients with schizophrenic, schizoaffective, and affective disorders

A subpopulation of chronically mentally ill patients, sometimes referred to as "revolving door" patients, are frequently readmitted to psychiatric units. This study examined the relationships among demographic features, diagnostic characteristics, and frequency of hospitalization of patients from four state hospitals. Two semistructured, standardized instruments, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and a life events history, were administered to 135 inpatients who met the Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia (N = 56), schizoaffective disorder (N = 33), unipolar major depressive disorder (N = 23), and bipolar disorder (N = 23). Criminal history was assessed by arrest records. The main outcome measure was the number of hospitalizations. Chi-square and trend test analyses indicated that substance abuse and noncompliance with medication regimens were significantly associated with higher frequencies of hospitalization. A multiple regression model, which included alcohol/drug problems, medication noncompliance, and six sociodemographic and diagnostic variables (age, gender, race, marital status, years of education, and diagnosis) accounted for a significant proportion of the ability to predict frequency of hospitalization. Half of this predictability was due to the relationship of substance abuse and medication noncompliance with number of hospitalizations. Alcohol/drug problems and noncompliance with medication were the most important factors related to frequency of hospitalization. Preventing these behaviors through patient education may reduce rehospitalization rates.

Mental health research in the criminal justice system: The need for common approaches and international perspectives

There is a need for researchers and policy makers in the area of mental health and law to collaborate and develop common methods of approach to research. Although we have learned a great deal about the prevalence and needs of mentally ill offenders in jails and prisons, there are a number of research questions that remain. If the "second generation" of research is to be fruitful--and useful to policy makers--we need to be sure that the methods we employ are valid and that the findings we obtain are reliable. By collaborating with colleagues in other jurisdictions, we can begin to learn whether some of the existing findings are of a general nature, or dependent upon the system in which they were found. Similarly, while the first-generation research has alerted us to the needs of mentally ill offenders in jails and prisons, second-generation research is needed to help identify factors that may help prevent the "revolving door phenomenon," which results in mentally ill people being volleyed among mental health, criminal justice, and community settings. One area that has received embarrassingly little attention has been the need for considering the relationship between substance abuse and mental disorders. In our own work, we have found an alarmingly high degree of substance abuse among offenders, including mentally ill offenders. We have come to realize the importance of considering the role that substance abuse coupled with other mental disorders may play in the criminal justice system. As a result of this concern, the Surrey Mental Health Project recently hired a full-time drug and alcohol counselor whose job it is to work with inmates with substance abuse disorders while in the jail, and to help arrange continuing treatment resources upon their release. As Wilson et al. (1995) discuss, intensive case management projects may be particularly useful at targeting the unique needs of mentally ill offenders with multiple problems. Much of the research conducted with mentally ill offenders to date has focused primarily upon psychological and psychiatric questions--questions that are, as Hodgins (1995) indicates, epidemiological in nature. More attention must be paid to that research by policy makers and others who work with mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system. As Hoyer et al. (1995) and Gould (1995) make clear, a number of unique policy questions arise when considering mentally ill offenders in the legal system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Home Care for Psych Problems

tionalize the mentally ill led to ... -^3 a revolving-door phenomenon that / : still persists. While the average .; : ;. . I. hospital stay is shorter, rehospitalization rates have risen. Outpatient psychiatric services were to ? _ be the answer to deinstitutionalization. But the services are often 4 overwhelmed by patient numbers 1 t and needs. For many homebound patients with psychiatric illness, '? j moreover, even those outpatient services available frequently prove . .a .. 1 to be inaccessible.

Housing change of chronic schizophrenic patients: a consequence of the revolving door.

A study of 119 chronic schizophrenics discharged to the community revealed that by 1 year post release, 50% have changed their living arrangement at least once. Housing changes, which typically involved movement from one non-institutional living situation to another, followed rehospitalization episodes and appear to be a consequence of the revolving door phenomenon. By virtue of its impact on rehospitalization, interpersonal stress in the patient's living environment has an indirect effect on housing change. The remarkable frequency with which housing changes occur among the mentally ill in both sheltered care and non-institutional living settings deserves consideration in the planning of mental health and social welfare service for this constituency.

Premorbid social competence and the revolving door phenomenon in psychiatric hospitalization.

The relation between premorbid social competence and length of initial hospitalization was examined in 381 male state hospital patients in four diagnostic categories: schizophrenic, affective reaction, psychoneurotic, and personality disorder. A significant relation was discovered between diagnosis and outcome, with schizophrenic patients having the longest and personality disorder patients the shortest lengths of initial hospitalization. Premorbid social competence was related to outcome, as assessed both by length of initial hospitalization, and by whether the patient was rehospitalized. These two outcome measures were found to be positively related, thus supporting the developmental formulation that premorbid social competence is indicative generally of prognosis. The findings were employed to generate the inference that patients at differing levels of premorbid social competence require different treatment modalities.

The Revolving Door: Reactions of Chronic Drunkenness Offenders to Court Sanctions

indicates that punishment does not act as a deterrent to future encounters with the police and, subsequently, with the courts. Indeed, it would appear that there are few advocates of the view that legal punishment actually prevents acts of public intosication. Regarding the use of incarceration as a means of social control, the authors of a recent study of the revolving door phenomenon conclude results of our investigation negate completely the assumptions that incarceration acts as a deterrent to the chronic public inebriate. 2 Although we may hypothesize that in general punishment does not deter acts of drunkenness, individuals caught in the process of the revolving door may, in fact, react differentially to the type of sanction imposed by the court. It is generally thought that the lower courts tend to incarcerate recidivists; therefore, the possibility that a fine or even a suspended sentence may account for variability in the reactions of recidivists to court actions may be overlooked. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the reactions to various degrees of punishment meted out to the 1649 Minneapolis recidivists.