Craig Love interviewed hundreds of inmates while working with the Federal Bureau of Research. He discovered that many had drug and alcohol issues that he knew little about. He resolved to help them.
He joined the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown to shore up his knowledge of addictions. His intent was to one day return to the prison systems to help improve substance abuse treatment for inmates.
A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant may enable Love to do just that. The three-year grant for $349,984 will finance research into the effectiveness - cost and otherwise - of substance abuse treatment programs for inmates.
"This could have a tremendous impact on policy decision making," said Love, a research associate at the center. Love hopes the project's results will find that it makes more sense to spend money on treatments while in prison than it does to spend money on post-release treatment.
Love and colleagues from Brandeis University will study inmates in the Connecticut State Penitentiary System.
Thirty-five eighth- and eleventh-graders from Harlem's Frederick Douglass Academy and Crossroads Middle School sampled what college could offer them when they visited the Brown campus April 24-25.
Their guides were Brown undergraduates Sonal Patel and Hector Ortiz, and Shael Polakow-Suransky '94. Patel and Ortiz, both of the Class of 1997, are apprentice teachers this semester at Douglass Academy through the Urban Education Semester offered by the Venture Consortium.
The idea for such a visit came to Polakow-Suransky, a teacher at Crossroads, last year while participating in a program similar to UES. He escorted a group of youngsters to Brown last spring, and the trip drew rave reviews from participants.
Patel, Ortiz and Polakow-Suransky hope the youngsters' visit will make a lasting impression and persuade them to continue their education after high school, perhaps even to attend Brown.
The visitors met with Tony Canchola-Flores, director of financial aid, and representatives of the admissions office to chat about the college admission process. Their two-day itinerary also included lectures by Professors Anani Dzidzienyo and James Valles; tours of the dance studio, theater, animal care facility and athletic center; dining in the Ratty; and a computer graphics demonstration with Dave Klaphaak. Each guest roomed with a Brown undergraduate.
The trip was sponsored by the Resource Center and the Venture Consortium. Eighty percent of the trip's cost was covered by the Office of the President, Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of College Admissions; the Brown Bookstore provided notebooks for each visitor.
Brown's women's basketball team is sponsoring a Girls Basketball Day Camp for girls in grades 1-12. The camp runs from June 24-28. For more information or to sign up, contact Janet Hollack, assistant coach of women's basketball, at 863-1768