Issue Of Prisoners Research Articles

Explaining U.S. Imprisonment

Explaining U.S. Imprisonment

‘Coping Inside?’: The prevalence of anxiety and OCD amongst incarcerated young offenders and an evaluation of a one‐day CBT workshop

Incarcerated UK young offenders were screened and offered a one‐day low intensity (four‐hour) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) group workshop if they met criteria for an Anxiety and/or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Sixty-six per cent of 684 (n = 451) young offenders were screened, revealing high rates of anxiety (21–43%) and OCD (73%). Despite attrition following prison issues, 106 (58% of referrals) attended a ‘Coping Inside’ workshop resulting in a significant decrease in participants' cognitive self-consciousness, and trends towards decreases in maladaptive beliefs about superstition and responsibility, slowness and avoidant or detached coping styles. However, the ‘dose’ of intervention didn't appear sufficient. Nevertheless, participants reported high satisfaction with the format, style, content and setting of the workshops, suggesting the approach was acceptable in this population. Consequently, despite the limited impact on symptoms, the format maybe a useful introduction to or promotion of more intensive group based offending behaviour or psychological treatment programmes for young offenders.

Burman, Burmanisation and Betrayal

The root cause of the decades-old political crisis in Burma has been neither the issue of political prisoners nor the political confrontation between the opposition group (NLD) and the brutal military junta (SPDC) but Burmanisation policy, apparently suggesting that successive Burman leaders continue to deny equal rights to all citizens and greater autonomy to ethnic groups who make up 40 per cent of the entire population of the country. In order to restore permanent peace, political stability and economic prosperity in Burma, the Burman-dominated regime must thus give rights of equality to all citizens, greater autonomy to ethnic groups and religious freedom to all religious groups. It is certain that as long as the ethnic groups are denied religious freedom, ethnic equality, greater autonomy, innate rights, a federal system and self-determination, there will be no peace, stability or prosperity in the country.

Message from a Palestinian prisoner

In this speech read out by his wife to the International Conference on Palestinian Prisoners, held in Jericho in November 2009, the jailed leader of the first and second intifadas calls for the issue of Palestinian prisoners to become central to the national liberation movement.

Prisoners and Autonomy: Implications for the Informed Consent Process with Vulnerable Populations

This article uses certain essential characteristics of the principle of autonomy to explore the issue of prisoners' rights to decision-making and action in general, and research participation in particular. Exploring the moral principle of autonomy and its importance in furthering human rights will inform nurses who are conducting research with prisoners or other vulnerable populations.

Las cárceles y población reclusa en Venezuela

Despite the importance of prison issues in Latin America, there is little in the way of detailed local studies or recommendations on the subject. This article sets out to describe the situation concerning prisons and inmates in Venezuela. Data for this study was compiled from documentary sources and visits to a number of Venezuelan prisons from 1998 to 2006 as part of the Health Conference of the Programa Penitenciario de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, (Central University of Venezuela Prison Program). The program's aim was to make contributions towards research on the prison environment at national and regional levels that might serve as a precedent for further study of the problems and issues that exist, and promote and implement possible solutions.

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails

A Re-Birth for Civil Rights Litigation: Using the Americans with Disabilities Act to Overcome Section 1983 Hurdles and Hold Government and Police Accountable

This article discusses how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can fill a void left by 42 U.S.C 1983 decisional law, and provide relief where 1983 may not do so. It offers examples, not a comprehensive list, but suggestions of possibilities to the practitioner and court. The ADA, enacted in 1990, offers an alternative vehicle for vindicating the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities beyond that accorded by the traditional civil rights statute, 1983. The article also shows how, in some situations, 1983 and the ADA go hand-in-hand to make a stronger lawsuit, and how at times the ADA can inform 1983 standards. The examples here point toward the direction in which careful and creative civil rights litigation is moving, and where it may move further in the future. The article addresses jail and prison issues (HIV, suicide, interpreters and the Prison Litigation Reform Act), police activities (use of force and persons with mental disabilities, and suicide calls), the administration of justice, parole and probation, and attorneys' fees, costs, and litigation expenses.

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

This is a retrospective chart review of a systematic sample of 200 persons identified as diabetic who were incarcerated in the San Francisco County Jail in 2003 out of approximately 55,000 annual admissions. Of the 424 inmates identified with diabetes, 200 underwent a detailed chart review. Inmate care achieved a score of greater than 90% in five out of nine quality-of-care indicators. Greater adherence to quality measures was found in inmates with longer jail stays. The authors conclude that quality diabetes care can be provided using a protocol-driven approach based on American Diabetes Association and National Commission on Correctional Health Care guidelines. They also conclude that jails can play an important role in improving health care for poor and minority populations with both initiation of chronic disease evaluation and management and education. The authors call for improved links between jails, public health systems, and other healthcare providers.

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Health Issues in Prisons and Jails: Implications for Urban Health

Reading about prisons: Substance over sensationalism

I try to read anything I find that relates to prisons. Usually, the crop is pretty thin. Over the past couple of years, however, a number of books have arrived on the scene. Some have been written by former guards and wardens, and some by journalists. These have some interest so long as one steers clear of personalized accounts that seem more like first drafts of a screenplay for a cheap movie. But these are not the only efforts that go too far. There seems to be a "blood and guts" attraction to stories about crime and the treatment of offenders that often encourages even professional writers to cross the line from objectivity to sensationalism. But this is not the only pitfall that makes some books more titillating than factually informative. Public attitudes about prison issues are potential political issues. It is easy for an author who wants to prey on "law and order" public attitudes to inject an ideological tilt into a book that permeates every chapter with rhetoric and turns it from an account into a diatribe. While good investigative journalists spend enormous time digging for details, and sifting through sources for reliable material, it is easy to stop at the source who satisfies the author's agenda. This is not to say that all prison books by journalists are wanting. One recent example of an interesting prison book was Conover's "Newjack"(') where a journalist went to work at Sing Sing as a guard and later wrote about the experience. This methodology has been referred to as "participant observation", and it produced a book worth reading. Whether you agree with Conover's take or not, it is clearly a serious attempt to convey a critical account of a difficult topic. Still, most prison books, outside of the realm of fiction, fail to deliver. They are either trite, uninformed or over the top.

Toward a Theory of Prisoners' Rights

This paper explores the issue of prisoners' rights. The conditions of incarcerated people in jails and prisons include psychological and physical deterioration brought on by their condition of confinement. The one sanction that has been debated extensively in the United States is the death penalty. Yet there are numerous losses or deprivations short of death that we might impose on legal offenders. In addition to broader issues such as the nature of rights and the basic moral rights possessed by individuals, issues specific to the rights of serious legal offenders are distinguished and discussed. The latter issues include whether offenders forfeit all or some of their moral rights, whether their retained rights are less stringent, whether the state has any obligation to facilitate exercise of their retained rights, and what specific rights prisoners retain or acquire.

SHOULD PRISONERS HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE?

This article raises a number of issues, such as voting rights in general and the extent that government should go to ensure that all are able to exercise this right in a democracy. Also raised is the issue of prisoners' rights. Finally, the peculiarities of the South African prison system are at issue here too. The article will examine prisoners' voting rights in general elections. Provincial and local government elections are somewhat different and will not be discussed.

Sex in prisons--a management guide.

Prisons are invariably unisex institutions where, besides many deprivations, heterosexual expression in its normal sense is absent. It is this characteristic that make prisons settings potentially fertile grounds for sexual aberrations. Since definite and accurate data concerning sexual activities among prison inmates are difficult to obtain, the phenomenon of sexual practices in prisons has traditionally been a topic of much speculation. However, the descriptions and explanations of most authors on the subject are often contradictory, and some of the best information are from unpublished sources. This article is an attempt to subsume many fragmented explanations about seven main types of sexual issues in prisons (i.e. consensual homosexuality, masturbation, transsexualism, prostitution, conjugal visits, sex between prisoners and prison staff, and rape among prison inmates) under more general criminological and management concepts. Suggestions for prison administrators on how to manage these complex issues in the best interests of security and inmates' health are also provided.

Evidence-Based Policy Making?

This article is concerned with the role of evidence, research and knowledge in the recognition, definition and framing of drugs issues in prisons and in the development, implementation and reformulation of policy. As the drugs issue in prison has become more politicized and policies have become more explicit and defined over time, research and evidence have become increasingly important dimensions within the policy process. Drawing on semistructured interviews with key policy players and an analysis of documentary materials, this article examines research utilization in the development of contemporary prison drugs policy since 1980, situating this process within its political, economic and social contexts. In order to make sense of the interplay between research and policy in this area, the analysis employs the various models of research utilization put forward by Carol Weiss (Weiss, 1986). Within the current context of increasing managerialism and new commitments to evidence-based policy making, the article concludes by suggesting that researchers should become more active agents at all stages of the policy process.

The Short Life and Painful Death of Prisoners' Rights

Twelve years ago in this journal Viviane Treacy (1989) predicted a conflict between the common law and the European Convention on Human Rights over the issue of prisoners' rights. At first glance this view was a pessimistic one, as we now have legislation that requires English judges to pay heed to the Convention in their deliberations (Human Rights Act 1998). Two Court of Appeal decisions immediately prior to the enacting of the legislation (R v. SSHD ex parte O'Dhuibhir[1997] (unreported) CA Transcript 383; R v. SSHD ex parte Simms, ex parte Main[1998] 2 All ER 491) however suggest that the impact of the Act in prisoners'cases will be limited. Furthermore these two cases are an indication of a retreat from a position where our courts acknowledged prisoners as having positive legal rights. This article attempts an explanation of this by tracing the development of prison law and prisoners' rights in the last 20 years.

Correctional Case Law

In this issue the Review continues its practice of offering brief summaries of selected decisions of federal courts in the areas of corrections and pretrial detention. These cases are drawn from the period since the previous survey. Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in this area are included in the Review's autumn issue, which surveys the major criminal justice decisions of that court. The chief purpose of the following summaries is to introduce the reader to cases that appear to have significance beyond their immediate facts and outcomes so that in-depth research on any particular topic might be facilitated. Thus the survey is limited primarily to decisions at the court of appeals level and to cases reported in readily available sources. Together with the annual surveys that have appeared in prior spring issues of the Review, the following summaries should provide a comprehensive starting point for research on federal court review of prison, jail, and community-based corrections issues in the modern era. To enhance the usefulness of these surveys, the major decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in each topical area surveyed are cited in the context of their role as precedents for the lower court decisions that are summarized. For the information of those readers who wish to follow developments in the period immediately following the cutoff point of the present survey, the latest sources that were consulted were advance sheets number 53 of the Federal Reporter (Vol. 978, No. 2, ending at page 1268) and the Federal Supplement (Vol. 803, No. 2, and Vol. 804, No. 1, ending at page 372 of the latter), both dated December 28, 1992. Thus, the summarized decisions date from late 1991 to late 1992. The reader is reminded that the cases surveyed do not serve as binding precedent beyond their respective jurisdictions and that some of the decisions are being appealed and are therefore subject to possible modification or reversal.

The place of medicine in the American prison: ethical issues in the treatment of offenders.

In Britain doctors and others concerned with the treatment of offenders in prison may consult the Butler Report (see Focus, pp 157) and specialist journals, but these sources are concerned with the system in Britain only. In America the situation is different, both in organization and in certain attitudes. Dr Peter L Sissons has therefore provided a companion article to that of Dr Paul Bowden (page 163) describing the various medical issues in prisons. The main difference between the treatment of offenders in prisons in America and in Britain lies in the nature of the federal system which means that each state may operate a different system in a variety of prisons and prison medical services are as various. Nationally, the prison systems are 'structured to treat and cure the offender'. Therefore it follows that the prison medical officer is only one of the professionals concerned with this 'cure' of the offender. This principle also applies to any form of research: medical research in prisons is part of a programme which covers a wide field of social and judicial research. The prison medical officer (where there is one) has of course to look after sick prisoners, and the American idea of 'cure' is also expressed in the need for more corrective surgery where, for example, it is necessary to remove physical impediments to social rehabilitation. But a doctor is only found on the staff of those institutions which are large: in the smaller prisons there may be only first-aid facilities, and no specially appointed doctor in the community. Moreover medicines are often dispensed by medical auxiliaries who are sometimes prisoners themselves. Finally, in America prisoners are regularly invited to volunteer as subjects for medical and social research for which they are paid. In short, although it is hoped to 'cure' a prisoner he is a criminal first and a patient second.