Irish Prison Research Articles

AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Practices (KABP) in Iranian Prisoners’ Society: Results from a Population-Based Survey in 5 Prisons of Southern Coastwise of the Caspian Sea in 2006 Iranian Epidemiological Training Programs for AIDS Prevention in Mazandaran Province

Background: AIDS, one of the most complex health problems of the 21st century, is in its third decade and has become a pandemic disease that threatens the world population. The aim of this study to report data is derived from an investigation of the KABP of AIDS prevention among the large descendants of the Iranian prisoners’ society. Material: Using a multistage area sampling method, a random sample of individuals aged 18–65 years in southern coastwise of the Caspian Sea from February to December 2006. To select a representative sample of the prisoners’ population within 5 different prisons in Mazandaran province had the same probability to be sampled. Prisoners who agreed to participate were given a four-page self-administered questionnaire. Results: 1760 (88%) of the 2000 eligible participants completed the questionnaire. The mean age of respondents was 30.05 ± 8.1 years ranging from 18 to 59, 1686 (95.8%) were male and mostly married 1054 (59.9%), and had received secondary education or above 1178 (66.9%). Most respondents (1690, 96%) had household income levels low or average, and 716 (40.7%) were out of work. The findings indicated that the respondents had average to fairly good knowledge about AIDS. The correct answers ranged from 11.9% to about 85.9%. the majority of the respondents were strongly agree or agree with the statement that people with AIDS should have social right to study or work (1378, 78.3%) or with the statement that AIDS is public health problem (1522, 86.5%). The majority of the respondents (1538, 83.4%) said that the mass media were the main source of their information about HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: findings suggest that prevention programs should be encourage and these might have the potential role to limit the emergence of Iran's HIV/AIDS epidemic especially in prison's this country.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide

Endangered Scholars Worldwide IRAN fa r z a d k a m a n g e r , an Iranian teacher, has been brutally and repeatedly tortured since his arrest in 2006 and is now facing the im m inent possibility of execution. He was sentenced to death by the Iranian Revolutionary Court on February 25, 2008, charged w ith “endangering national security” and “enm ity against God.” According to his lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, who was not perm it­ ted to defend him, Farzad’s trial took place in secret, lasted only m inutes, and failed to m eet Iranian and international standards of fairness. Education International, which has featured his case, reports that Kamanger worked for 12 years as a teacher in the city of Kamyaran, Iran, before he was arrested and placed in detention. He also sat on the governing board of both a local environm entalist group and the local branch of the teachers association. Kamanger wrote actively for the m onthly journal Royan, a publication of the Departm ent of Education of Kamyaran. He was also a w riter w ith a local hum an rights organization that documents hum an rights abuses in Kurdistan and other provinces. e s h a m o m e n i, a US-Iranian student, was recently held for three weeks in an Iranian prison and is currently being prevented from leaving the country. Momeni, a m aster’s student at California State University at Northridge, was working in Iran on a docum entary about Iranian fem inists w hen she was pulled over and arrested for supposed traffic offenses on October 15, 2008. She was held in Iran’s Evin prison w here she was charged w ith “underm ining national security and spreading propaganda against the republic” Information current, to the best ofour knowledge, as ofDecember 11, 2008. Endangered Scholars Worldwide v as a result of her interviews w ith individuals involved in the One Million Signatures campaign for wom en’s rights. Now released on bail, Momeni has been told that she can return to the United States prior to her trial, but the Los Angeles Times has reported that she has been prevented from doing so by authorities who have continued to withhold her passport. Appeals for both Kamanger and Momeni to: His ExcellencyAyatollah Sayed ‘ Ali Khamenei Leader ofthe Islamic Republic The Office ofthe Supreme Leader Islamic Republic Street— Shahid Keshvar Doust Street Tehran Islamic Republic ofIran E-mail: info@leader.ir Salutation: Your Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Head ofthe Judiciary Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh/Office ofthe Head ofthe Judiciary Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., South of Serah-eJomhouri Tehran Islamic Republic ofIran E-mail: info@dadgostaiy-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAOAyatollah Shahroudi) Salutation: Your Excellency Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie Minister ofIntelligence Ministry ofIntelligence Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue Tehran Islamic Republic ofIran Salutation: Your Excellency RUSSIA c a r in e c l ém en t, a French sociologist working at the Academy of Sciences in Russia, was attacked in Moscow on November 13, 2008. According to an article in the Le Monde, her attackers stabbed her w ith a syringe while she was on her way to a public m eeting of activ­ ists. This was the third tim e that Clément had been the victim of anonymous acts of aggression in the preceding three weeks. It coin­ cides w ith a spate of attacks on Russian activists and trade union­ ists in recent m onths. The same day th at Clement was attacked, vi social research a l e x e i e t m a n o v , leader of the trade union at the Ford-Vsevolozhsk plant, and m ik h a il b e k e t o v , leader of the movement to defend the Khimki Forest, were also attacked by unnam ed assailants. Beketov was severely beaten and is currently in a coma. The coincidence of these attacks indicates the existence of an organized campaign of intim idation against social activists in Russia, which has combined w ith a spate of attacks on foreigners (one of Clém ent’s attackers reportedly...

Kate Dolan

Midway through my lunch with Kate Dolan, a ship appears on the stretch of ocean we can see from our table in a café in Sydney, Australia. The ship, looking something like a table turned upside down, seems to be carrying four enormous, inexplicable pillars out to sea. When we return to our conversation, Dolan tells me she used to live on a boat once. It was the mid-1980s, and a formative moment in her career, when she was helping establish Sydney's pioneering needle-exchange programme near the city's red light district. The needle-exchange programme, the brainchild of Alex Wodak from St Vincent's Hospital, was a great success, and is credited with helping limit the city's HIV epidemic. Dolan volunteered to work in the programme fresh from earning a degree in psychology at the University of New South Wales. As the HIV pandemic gathered pace, needle-exchange programmes would become a focal point for activism, but Dolan says she saw herself as being at a coalface of public health. “I didn't see myself as an activist”, she says. “It was really exciting; almost an honour to be involved so early.” In the years since, Dolan continued to work in related fields, lobbying governments to provide treatments for drug users in prisons in Australia, the UK, and Asia, helping found the Australian Prostitutes' Collective, and the country's AIDS Drugs Information Collective. Now based at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, she has established the Program of International Research and Training to build capacity among the treatment and research sectors in developing countries. In 2003, at a harm reduction conference in Slovenia, Dolan met a public-health physician from Iran in a chance encounter that led to her latest focus. Later that year, she went on a tour of about a dozen Iranian prisons. Since then, Dolan has secured funding to establish drug treatment research for women in Iran's prisons and has opened a community sexual health clinic for female sex workers and drug injectors in Tehran. “I think we have made a difference for those women”, she says. “Before we started there was nothing for them; since then other clinics have started.” Now in her 40s, Dolan has two small children and has not lived on a boat for many years, preferring a beachside community south of Sydney. However, she is now wondering whether it will be possible next year to work more intensely with the women in Iran. We finish our lunch of soup and grilled fish and look out into the bay, where the ship seems to have lowered its towering cargo into the ocean. As Dolan looks over the deserted beach, she says “I go to these challenging places sometimes, and think this is heaven”.

Iranian Epidemiological Training Programs for AIDS Prevention in Mazandaran Province

The aim of this study to report data is derived from an investigation of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices of AIDS prevention among the large the descendant of the Iranian prisoners. Using a multistage area sampling method, a random sample of individuals aged 18-65 years in southern coastwise of the Caspian Sea from February to December 2006. To select a representative sample of the prisoners' population within 5 different prisons in Mazandaran Province had the same probability to be sampled. Prisoners who agreed to participate were given a four-page self-administered questionnaire. 760 (88%) of the 2000 eligible participants completed the questionnaire. The mean age of respondents was 30.05 +/- 8.1 years ranging from 18 to 59, 1686 (95.8%) were male and mostly married 1054 (59.9%) and had received secondary education or above 1178 (66.9%). Most respondents (1690, 96%) had household income levels low or average and 716 (40.7%) were out of work. The findings indicated that the respondents had average to fairly good knowledge about AIDS. The correct answers ranged from 11.9% to about 85.9%. Also the results showed that the majority of the respondents were strongly agree or agree with the statement that people with AIDS should have social right to study or work (1378, 78.3%) or with the statement that AIDS is public health problem (1522, 86.5%). The majority of the respondents (1538, 83.4%) said that the mass media including radio, television and newspapers were the main source of their information about HIV/AIDS. Such findings suggest that prevention programs should be encourage and these might have the potential role to limit the emergence of Iran's HIV/AIDS epidemic especially in prison's this of country.

Preventing HIV transmission among Iranian prisoners: Initial support for providing education on the benefits of harm reduction practices

BackgroundHarm reduction is a health-centred approach that seeks to reduce the health and social harms associated with high-risk behaviors, such as illicit drug use. The objective of this study is to determine the association between the beliefs of a group of adult, male prisoners in Iran about the transmission of HIV and their high-risk practices while in prison.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 2004. The study population was a random selection of 100 men incarcerated at Rajaei-Shahr prison. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Focus group discussions were held at the prison to guide the design of the questionnaire. The relationship between components of the Health Belief Model (HBM) and prisoners' risky HIV-related behaviors was examined.ResultsCalculating Pearson's correlation coefficient, a significant, positive association was found between the benefit component of the HBM and prisoners not engaging in HIV high-risk behaviors.ConclusionEducational harm reduction initiatives that promote the effectiveness of strategies designed to reduce the risk of HIV transmission may decrease prisoners' high-risk behaviors. This finding provides initial support for the Iran prison system's current offering of HIV/AIDS harm reduction programming and suggests the need to offer increased education about the effectiveness of HIV prevention practices.

Seroprevalence of and Risk Factors Associated With Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Among Prisoners in Iran

Introduction:Prisons are human incubators in which some people with different behaviors live together, and after they gain freedom, many of these prisoners will come back to the community. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), an

Physical and social circumstances of children in Iran affected by the incarceration of the mother

The children of incarcerated parents have been a relatively invisible population. More and more children are being affected by the incarceration of a parent. These young people are already at high risk along several dimensions and tend to live under conditions characterised by poverty, instability and diminished access to sources of support. The study presented in this research explores the physical, social and psychological conditions of children in Iran affected by the incarceration of the mother, thereby contributing to the international literature by describing the problem of children of prisoners in Iran. Here we describe in an international perspective the physical and social conditions with which these children are confronted. The study comprises 33 children who had spent some time in prison with their mothers but were then moved to welfare centres. The most prevalent illnesses of these children were infectious diseases, bruises, wounds on lips and fractures of the hand. The Vineland Social Maturity Scale indicated that the children's locomotion and socialisation skills were relatively low.

Women Political Prisoners in Iran: A Political Art Project

Women Political Prisoners in Iran: A Political Art Project

Psychiatric morbidity among women prisoners newly committed and amongst remanded and sentenced women in the Irish prison system.

To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse problems and related health and social problems among women prisoners newly committed and a cross-section remanded and sentenced in the Irish prison population. In 2002 women represented 10.7% (1043) of all persons committed to the Irish Prison system, and 3.3% (104) of the daily average number of persons in custody. We surveyed psychiatric morbidity in these two groups to assess the need for psychiatric services for women prisoners, and to compare Irish morbidity with an international average. We interviewed 94 newly committed women prisoners within 72 hours of committal, representing approximately 9% of female committals per year. We also interviewed a cross sectional sample of 92 women, representing approximately 90% of all women in custody. Mental illness and substance misuse was measured using the SADS-L, SODQ and a structured interview. Five (5.4%) of the committal and 5 (5.4%) of the cross-sectional sample had a psychotic illness within the previous six months. 8 (8.5%) of the committals and 15 (16.3%) of the women in the cross-sectional sample had a major depressive disorder in the last six months. 8 (8.6%) committals and 14 (15.2%) in the cross-sectional sample had an anxiety disorder within the last six months. 61 (65.6%) of the women interviewed at committal and 61 (65.2%) of the cross-sectional sample had a substance misuse problem in the last six months. There is a high prevalence of mental illness and substance misuse problems amongst women newly committed to prison and in a cross section of those remanded or sentenced in prison in Ireland. We found evidence of a cycle of deprivation and institutionalisation. These findings highlight the need for the integration of community and forensic psychiatric services, and for ongoing collaboration with drug services.

Psychiatric morbidity in the male sentenced Irish prisons population.

This is the first epidemiologically representative cross-sectional study of psychiatric morbidity using research diagnostic instruments in sentenced prisoners in Ireland. To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and psychiatric service requirements. We interviewed 340 men serving a fixed sentence (14.6% of total) and 98 men serving a life sentence (82% of total). Prisoners were drawn from 15 different prisons using a random stratified sampling method. Mental illness and substance misuse was measured using the SADS-L, SODQ and a structured interview to generate ICD-10-DCR diagnoses. We found a high prevalence of mental illness. Our six month prevalence for psychosis (2.7%) was similar to an international meta-analysis. We found a significantly higher prevalence of psychosis in life sentenced prisoners (6.1%) compared to fixed sentenced prisoners (1.8%). Drugs and alcohol problems were very prevalent. Using the six month prevalence figures found for psychosis, we estimate that there are approximately 79 sentenced male prisoners with a severe mental illness who would require treatment in hospital additional to current provision. We discuss the relationship between drug availability and the prevalence of severe mental illnesses in prisons.

Psychiatric morbidity in a cross-sectional sample of male remanded prisoners?

AbstractObjectives: To estimate the psychiatric service requirements for the remand population.Method: We interviewed 232 (42.6%) men, a representative sample of men on remand, using the SADS-L, SODQ and a structured demographic interview.Results: We found high rates of psychiatric morbidity in our sample. The six month prevalence of psychosis was 7.6%, almost twice the rate in a recent international meta-analysis. Major depressive disorder was present in 10.1% (six month prevalence). Substance misuse problems were also common but there was no significant difference between rates of substance misuse in psychotic and nonpsychotic prisoners. A total of 31.2% had a lifetime history of any mental illness (excluding substance misuse, adjustment disorder and personality disorder).Conclusions: The high levels of psychiatric morbidity detected in our sample indicate a substantial unmet need for mental health services and addiction treatment services for the mentally ill in Irish prisons.

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection and its related risk factors in drug abuser prisoners in Hamedan - Iran

Recent studies in Iran has shown that prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among Iranian prisoners is high, in spite of low HCV seroprevalence in general population. This study was carried out in the central prison of Hamedan--Iran, in year 2002. Inmates were interviewed using a standard questionnaire including demographic, imprisonment history and HCV-related risk behaviors items. Thereafter, the sera drawn from the participants were tested for anti-HIV and anti-HCV antibodies. A total number of 427 drug abuser inmates participated in our study. Three hundred and ninety-seven (93%) were men and 30 (7%) were women. Total number of IV drug abusers (IDA) and non-IV drug abusers (NIDA) was 149 (34.9%) and 278 (65.1%), respectively. The overall rate of antibody positivity among inmates was 0.9% for HIV and 30% for HCV. Of all IDAs, 31.5% and of NIDAs, 29.1% had serological evidence of HCV infection. The seroprevalence of HCV infection among drug abuser prisoners in comparison with the general population in Iran, is very high (30% vs in italics 0.2%). Our results indicate the importance of policies to prevent transmission of HCV infection during and following incarceration.

Imprisonment and Penal Policy in Ireland

Abstract: The penal landscape in the Republic of Ireland has changed significantly since the mid‐1990s. Most notably, the average daily prison population grew swiftly at a time when recorded crime was falling. This contradictory trend was due to a combination of factors including the politicisation of the debate about crime, a build up of long‐sentence prisoners, an expansion of the remand population and a reduction in the use of early release to ease overcrowding. The costs of incarceration, especially prison officer overtime, became the focus of acute concern and for the first time foreign nationals became a significant presence in Irish prisons.

Prisoners’ views of injecting drug use and harm reduction in Irish prisons

Drug misuse and hepatitis C are known to be endemic in Irish prisons. Using a grounded theory approach, this qualitative study sought to examine prisoners’ views of drug injecting practices and harm reduction interventions in Dublin prisons. Thirty-one male prisoners were interviewed (16 injecting drug users and 15 non-injectors). Two themes relevant to drug use practices emerged. Respondents described increased health risks related to injecting drug use during detention and associated with a prison environment. These included: the low availability of heroin which encouraged a shift from smoking to injecting; the scarcity of injecting equipment which fostered sharing networks far wider than outside prison; inadequate injecting equipment cleaning practices; and the rent of needles and syringes in exchange for the drugs. Both non-injectors and injectors interviewed supported harm reduction interventions in prison and felt that the range of drug services available in prison should mirror those currently available in the community, although half opposed or had reservations about syringe exchange in prison. Prisoners’ viewed their time in prison as an opportunity to address substance misuse related problems; health professionals should not miss this opportunity.

Beneath the Narcissus: A Woman's Experience of Iranian Prisons and Beyond

Beneath the Narcissus: A Woman's Experience of Iranian Prisons and Beyond

The prevalence, nature and psychological correlates of bullying in Irish prisons

Purpose. The objectives of the study were to analyse the prevalence and nature of bullying reported among a representative sample of prisoners in Irish custodial institutions, to identify potential correlates of bullying behaviour and vulnerability to victimization, and to assess the psychological impact of the experience of bullying.Methods. The sample was selected from seven separate custodial institutions and consisted of 213 male and 19 female inmates. In a structured interview, prisoners were asked to report their experience of bullying and were categorized as ‘pure bullies’, ‘bully‐victims’, ‘pure victims’ or ‘not involved’. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, short version) was used to assess the psychological well‐being of the interviewees.Results. The level of victimization was very high, with almost half of the interviewees reporting at least one type of victimization. Slightly over a quarter reported bullying another inmate, although the majority of these had themselves been victimized. Bullying took many forms but the most common were verbal abuse, theft and assault with and without an implement. Females reported engaging in bullying more frequently than males, especially in less direct forms. Victims (including bully‐victims) had significantly higher GHQ scores, indicating greater psychological distress than those not bullied. ‘Pure victims’ were older than other inmates and had entered the prison system at an older age.Conclusion. Definitional differences make cross‐national comparisons difficult but bullying in Ireland shows many of the same characteristics as reported in UK studies. The phenomenon of older victims may be a distinctive feature. The category of ‘pure bully’ is a useful one to include in future research.

Interaction of forensic and general psychiatric services in Ireland: learning the lessons or repeating the mistakes?

General psychiatric bed numbers in Ireland have reduced markedly in recent decades. In other jurisdictions such reductions have been accompanied by increases in the prevalence rates of severe mental illness among prisoners. We examined variations in per capita provision of local psychiatric beds and community residential places in Ireland for associations with forensic psychiatric service utilisation. All admissions via the courts and prisons to the national forensic psychiatry service during the years 1997-1999 were assigned to the appropriate health board. Forensic admission and bed utilisation rates were compared with measures of general psychiatric service provision. There were 476 admissions via the criminal justice system during the study period (0.74% of all psychiatric admissions in Ireland). A disproportionate number came from the most urbanised area. There were fivefold differences in overall bed and hostel place allocation between Irish health boards. Combined general psychiatric beds were inversely correlated with forensic bed utilisation (Spearman r = -0.75, p = 0.013). These differences showed a strong inverse correlation with forensic service utilisation. General psychiatric services are relatively under-resourced in areas of greatest predicted need in Ireland. This is associated with increased use of forensic psychiatric services and may reflect accumulation of the mentally ill in Irish prisons.

Inside Methodologies: For Counting Blood‐Borne Viruses and Injector‐Inmates' Behavioural Risks – Results From European Prisons

A resume, with key European results, is given of Willing Anonymous Salivary HIV/Hepatitis C (WASH‐C) surveillance studies for estimating HIV and Hepatitis C prevalence among prisoners, and associated risk behaviours. The WASH methodology was acceptable to prisoners, with participation rates of 75% to 88% in EC Network, UK and Irish prison studies; one‐third of nearly 9,000 male participant adult prisoners had a history of injection drug use, half of whom reported having injected inside prison. Half of the injector‐inmates were Hepatitis C antibody positive in saliva (1,157/2,246). We then set out four other methodologies for future international application inside prisons. All four have been designed to safeguard prisoner and medical confidentiality and to avoid deductive disclosure about participant prisoners. They are: database linkage, for example to enable follow‐up of drugs‐related deaths soon after release from prison; randomised controlled trials in criminal justice, for example to determine whether drug treatment and testing orders are preferable (in terms of recidivism, morbidity and mortality) to incarceration for drug‐dependent offenders; a new WASH methodology for quantifying Hepatitis C and injector incidence among young offenders; and audit, for example to monitor prisoners' uptake of short‐course Hepatitis B immunisation.

Out of Mind, Out of Sound: Solitary Confinement of Mentally Ill/Dysfunctional Prisoners in Irish Prisons

AbstractNo Abstract

Prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV and risk factors in entrants to Irish prisons: a national cross sectional survey.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen, hepatitis C virus, and HIV in entrants to Irish prisons and to examine risk factors for infection.Design: Cross...