Months Of Imprisonment Research Articles

Legal Protection of Copyright in Digital Film Piracy Cases in Indonesia (Case Study: Piracy of Keluarga Cemara Film)

Technological advancements in the Globalization 4.0 era, along with the rise of the internet, are perceived as progress that brings both positive and negative consequences. One of the negative effects is the facilitation of crimes, particularly in providing unrestricted access to individuals to commit copyright violations on film works for personal gain. This issue is highlighted in the ruling of Case Number 762/Pid.B/2020/PN-Jmb. This study utilizes a normative juridical approach by examining literature or secondary data as the primary research material, reviewing laws and literature related to the topic under investigation. The research findings indicate that the case was resolved through the Jambi District Court (litigation), where Aditya Fernando Phasyah was found guilty of infringing the exclusive rights of PT Visinema Pictures, the copyright holder of the Keluarga Cemara film. He was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months of imprisonment and fined Rp. 500,000,000.00 (five hundred million rupiah).

Contrasting Legal Aid in Jinayat and KUHAP: Free Counsel Provision Diverges in Procedural Laws

This study aims to investigate the comparison between the Jinayat procedural law and the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) in providing free legal assistance for suspects. The method used is a normative juridical approach with legislative and conceptual perspectives, employing primary legal materials such as Qanun Aceh Number 7 of 2013 on Jinayat Procedure and Law Number 8 of 1981 on Criminal Procedure Code, as well as secondary legal materials like journal articles and books. The analytical technique employed is descriptive analysis, and the interpretation involves grammatical and systematic interpretations. The research results indicate that under Jinayat procedural law, an individual provided with legal counsel is threatened with 60 (sixty) lashes or a fine of 1200 (one thousand two hundred) grams of pure gold or 60 (sixty) months of imprisonment or more, or for those who cannot afford it. On the other hand, criminal procedural law limits the provision of legal advice to suspects facing imprisonment of five years or more, the death penalty, or fifteen years of imprisonment. As a recommendation for the future, this article suggests that the concept of free legal counsel provided by the state should be extended to all suspects. Further discussion may involve a reconsideration of these limitations and further investigation into the legal consequences if law enforcement fails to provide legal assistance in accordance with the requirements stipulated in procedural laws.

Sport in prison: social and subjective health outcomes of different sport programs

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effects of four different sport programs on various social and subjective health outcomes among prisoners.Design/methodology/approachFour different sport programs (endurance, strength, dance-like martial arts, soccer) were provided in 2020 and 2021 in a German prison. Participants completed paper-pencil surveys before and after the sport programs (n = 134 observations), including questions about potential social health (enjoyment of physical activity, interpersonal exchange, interpersonal trust, self-efficacy) and subjective health outcomes (health status, health satisfaction, well-being). Further information such as prisoner characteristics were added to the data.FindingsResults of regression analyses show that the endurance program had a significant positive effect on interpersonal trust, while the soccer program had a negative effect. Subjective well-being increased significantly after the strength and the soccer program. The weekly sport hours before imprisonment had a positive association with enjoyment of physical activity and interpersonal exchange while being negatively related to health status and health satisfaction. Furthermore, the number of months of imprisonment before the survey, being a young offender, the prisoners’ body mass index, educational level and migration background were significantly associated with several social and subjective health outcomes.Originality/valueThis study analyzed the effects of different sport programs for prisoners on various social and subjective health outcomes, revealing differences across programs and outcomes. The findings suggest that sport can be a way to enhance prisoners’ social and subjective health, ultimately facilitating their rehabilitation process.

Trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder and violence in the prison population: prospective cohort study of sentenced male prisoners in the UK.

Violence is a common problem in prisons. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a prevalent disorder in prison populations, has been identified as a risk factor for violent behaviour in community and military populations. Although cross-sectional associations between PTSD and prison violence have been documented, prospective cohort studies are required. To investigate whether PTSD is an independent risk factor for prison violence, and examine the potential role of PTSD symptoms and other trauma sequelae on the pathway from trauma exposure to violent behaviour in prison. A prospective cohort study was conducted in a large, medium security prison in London, UK. A random sample of sentenced prisoners arriving into custody (N = 223) took part in a clinical research interview, which assessed trauma histories, mental disorders including PTSD, and other potential sequelae of trauma (anger, emotion dysregulation). Incidents of violent behaviour were measured with prison records covering the 3 months after reception into custody. Stepped binary logistic regression and a series of binary mediation models were performed. Prisoners who met current (past month) criteria for PTSD were more likely to engage in violent behaviour during the first 3 months of imprisonment, after adjusting for other independent risk factors. The relationship between lifetime exposure to interpersonal trauma and violent behaviour in custody was mediated by total PTSD symptom severity. Hyperarousal and negatively valenced cognitive and emotional appraisal symptoms were particularly implicated in this pathway. The identification and treatment of PTSD has the potential to reduce violence in prison populations.

1435. Incidence of Tuberculosis Infection Among New Prisoners in Southern Thailand

Abstract Background Tuberculosis in prisons was reported to be 100 times higher than the normal population. Late diagnosis, overcrowding, and poor ventilation encourage the transmission of tuberculosis. Five percent of new tuberculosis infections turn into active disease within two years. This study was conducted to determine the incidence of tuberculosis infection among new prisoners in southern Thailand. Methods A prospective cohort study was planned for January 2020‒December 2021 at Songkhla Provincial Prison. However, due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, the study was terminated early in February 2021. All new prisoners aged ≥15 years were included. Subjects were excluded if they had any history of a previous diagnosis of tuberculosis, household contact with a tuberculosis patient, or a history of repeated imprisonment. Chest radiography together with a 2-step tuberculin skin test (TST) was done within 2 weeks after imprisonment and at 6 months using the one-step TST. A positive TST was defined by a skin reaction ≥1.5 cm. Prisoners with negative TST had a repeat TST at 6 months. New tuberculosis infection was defined by conversion of TST to positive after 6 months of imprisonment without evidence of active tuberculosis from chest radiography. Results The number of new prisoners during the study period was 602. All prisoners were men with an average age of 31.11 (range 18‒75) years Fifty-one prisoners were excluded. Three hundred and eighty-five prisoners completed the 2-step TST. A total of 11.07% (61/551) of subjects had initially tested positive. Three hundred and seventy prisoners were followed. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a total shutdown of the study because access to the prison was blocked. Therefore, only 53 (9.6%) prisoners completed the study protocol at 6 months. Five prisoners (9.4%) were tuberculin converters with no evidence of active tuberculosis from chest radiography Conclusion The incidence of tuberculosis infection in new prisoners was 9.4%. This study has limitations. Due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, 90.4% of subjects were lost to follow-up and some prisoners were released before 6 months, which caused low power of the study. Further studies are needed to identify the incidence of new tuberculosis infection in new prisoners. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

The Pre-Siberian Period in the Biography of F. M. Dostoevsky in New Documentary Research (Review of the Collective Monograph: New Archival and Printed Sources of the Scientific Biography of F. M. Dostoevsky. St. Petersburg, The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities Publ., 2021. 260 p.)

The peer-reviewed collective monograph is a series of articles, each of which, filling a certain lacuna of the least studied first half of F. M. Dostoevsky's life, is an example of a real investigation of confusing, unclear or completely distorted facts about the writer and his genealogy based on a strict systematization of the already known and newly discovered documentary sources. The main body of articles and the appendix were prepared by the project manager B. N. Tikhomirov, three sections — with the participation of E. D. Maskevich, and one — in co-authorship with N. A. Tikhomirova. The study includes various aspects that in one way or another influenced the formation of the personality and worldview of the classic, and his artistic system. The reader will learn numerous new details not only about Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, but also about his milieu (father, brothers, especially Mikhail, with whom he was closest; fellow students, teachers and colleagues in the Main Engineering School and the Drawing Room of the Engineering Department), as well as about the collisions of this period, the vicissitudes of the time of Dostoevsky's entry into the literary circle, months of imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the details of sending convicted Petrashevites to Siberia. Through the prism of the writer's scientific biography, little-known facts of Russia’s history and culture are revealed to the general public, i. e., the peculiarities of the education system (using the example of the educational process at the Main Engineering School) and the provision of material assistance from the imperial treasury to the families of political prisoners, including Mikhail Dostoevsky. The literary block of the study included a scrupulous analysis of the reading circle of the young Dostoevsky, which in a certain sense determined the features of his artistic poetics: the book “One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories of the Old and New Testaments” by I. Gibner, as well as Gothic novels by A. Radcliffe, and numerous “pseudo-Radcliffians.” Many archival documents reflected in the monograph are published and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The logical conclusion of the data added by the authors to the scientific biography of Dostoevsky of the preSiberian period was the first complete publication of the memoirs written by Baron A. E. Rizenkampf, a friend of the writer's youth, with a commentary by B. N. Tikhomirov, which supplements and corrects certain points in the previous editions of the memoirs. The importance of the reviewed monograph cannot be overestimated. It seems necessary to continue the monumental work of the authors to fill in the gaps in the scientific biography of F. M. Dostoevsky.

Assessment of the Health Status of Women in Prison: A Comparison between Drug Users versus Non-users.

This study aims to analyze the history of substances use, clinical diagnoses, contacts with healthcare, and health complaints. Also, it aims to compare the health status of substance users versus non-users. Health records of 93 detained women from a prison in northern Portugal, with a mean age of 38.02 years old, were reviewed and coded using both International Classification of Primary Care-2 and International Classification of Diseases-10th. Data revealed high percentages of detainees with a history of substance use and pre-existing clinical diagnosis. During the first month of imprisonment, on average, participants had complained to a health professional 14.63 times. Substance users were younger and presented more mental health problems and health complaints. Health policies and professional practices in prison must include immediate assessment of a woman's health concerns and foster the development of efficient protocols to address those problems, especially substance use disorder treatment.

The effect of offender race/ethnicity on public opinion of appropriate criminal sentences

AbstractPurposeThere has been a long history of sentencing disparities in the United States criminal justice system, in particular amongst defendants of different races or ethnicities. The most commonly noted disparity is that Black defendants are typically sentenced more harshly than White defendants. This study analysed the relationship between an offender's racial/ethnic status and the layperson's opinion of an appropriate sentence by investigating an array of racial/ethnic categories amongst a variety of crimes.MethodUndergraduate students (Experiment 1, N = 594; Experiment 3, N = 263) recruited from introductory psychology courses and a community sample (Experiment 2, N = 124) recruited via Amazon MTurk were presented with crime vignettes and photos of offenders and asked to assign a punishment that they deem appropriate (operationalized as number of months of imprisonment). Participants were also randomly assigned to either receive the 2018 Federal Guidelines’ recommended sentence for each crime or not.ResultsTwo findings were the most striking: 1) White offenders were sentenced significantly more harshly than any other race/ethnicity for assault crimes and 2) significant differences in sentencing due to offender race/ethnicity were only apparent when participants were exposed to all five race/ethnicity categories (Experiments 1 and 2) rather than just one race/ethnicity (Experiment 3).ConclusionsThe results of the present study may be time‐sensitive and reflective of the current sociopolitical climate following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Future research may benefit from replicating this study longitudinally to assess the longevity of these results.

White Skin, Silvered Plate: Encountering Jonathan Walker’s Branded Hand in Daguerreotype

In an 1841 speech in Massachusetts, Frederick Douglass reflected that his white abolitionist colleagues ‘cannot speak as I can from experience; they cannot refer you to a back covered with scars, as I can; for I have felt these wounds’.1 Just a few years later, a white man named Jonathan Walker would emerge to complicate this claim. In 1844, Walker was apprehended along with seven enslaved men – Anthony Catlett, brothers Charles, Leonard, Moses, and Philip Johnson, and brothers Harry and Silus Scott – while sailing from Florida to the Bahamas. This attempted self-emancipation marked only a brief appearance in the historical record for the seven passengers in Walker’s boat, while it made Walker worthy of press and attention for years to come, all the more so because he received an unusual sentence: his right palm was branded with the letters SS for slave stealer. In the following years, he presented his branded hand as physical proof of the brutality of slavery to eager crowds around the Northeast, sometimes appearing alongside Frederick Douglass at abolitionist events. Like Douglass, Walker could speak from experience authenticated by scars, yet the small marks on his hand attested to only eleven months of imprisonment, rather than two decades of enslavement. Looking back on the antebellum era on the occasion of Walker’s death in 1878, Douglass wrote, ‘I well remember the sensation produced by the exhibition of his branded hand. It was one of the few atrocities of slavery that roused the justice and humanity of the North to a death struggle with slavery.’2

«ПОЛЬСКИЕ ПЕРЕБЕЖЧИКИ» ИЗ ЗАПАДНОЙ БЕЛАРУСИ В «ПОЛЬСКОЙ ОПЕРАЦИИ» 1937–1938 ГОДОВ В ПЕРМИ

Using the example of the so called “Polish refugees” (pol’perebezhchiki), the paper discusses a research problem of the “blind spots” of historical memory. By the technical term pol’perebezhchiki the NKVD investigators denoted a special social group of the former citizens of the interwar Poland – mainly ethnic Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Jews, – who escaped to the Soviet Union in the 1920s – 1930s, and, according to the order № 00485 from 11.08.1937 issued by Nicholas Ezhov, were almost totally exterminated during the 1937–38 ‘NKVD Polish operation’. “Polish refugees” do not exist, as the objects of commemoration, neither in traditions of national remembrance (Polish, Jewish, Belarusian, Ukrainian or Russian ones), because they cannot be introduced into the heroic or lacrimous national narratives; nor in the memory of their families: as young men, they were not married and did not have children. They are ignored by scholars as well. Based on the materials of the NKVD archives in Perm, the author tries to reconstruct the main features of the standard procedure of the treatment of “Polish refugees” elaborated by the NKVD up to 1931: (1) several months of imprisonment near the Polish-Soviet border, (2) transferring to the “Sarov concentration camp” organized especially for such refugees, (3) several years of labour in one of the GULAG camp, (4) and finally, liberation from the camp and accepting of Soviet citizenship. The object of special interest are the series of biographies of the group of “Polish refugees” who were, at the moment of their arrest, the students of Perm educational institutes.

Prison and the brain: Neuropsychological research in the light of the European Convention on Human Rights

Prison is by its nature a deliberately impoverished environment, with few physical, mental and social activities. Various studies have shown negative effects of an impoverished environment on animal as well as human brain functions. A recent study in a Dutch remand prison showed that brain functions connected with self-regulation decline after 3 months of imprisonment. Reduced self-regulation appears to be a risk factor for recidivism. In this article, we examine the legal implications of these neuropsychological findings in a European context. Firstly, we analyse these results in the light of the principle of rehabilitation as interpreted in case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Secondly, we explore how the neuropsychological insights could be relevant in the context of the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)). We argue that if the impoverished prison environment hampers rehabilitation, states are positively obliged to take appropriate measures to counter these effects. Ultimately, negative effects on brain functioning by impoverished prison environments could even raise an issue under Article 3 ECHR. Furthermore, we argue that neuropsychological insights have to be taken into account when establishing the threshold according to which the European Court on Human Rights judges prison conditions. We conclude that in the light of these considerations further research on the neuropsychological effects of the prison environment is required.

МЕХАНІЗМИ ПСИХОЛОГІЧНОГО ЗАХИСТУ ЯК ЗАСОБИ ПОДОЛАННЯ ПЕНІТЕНЦІАРНОГО СТРЕСУ ЮНАКАМИ, ЩО ВІДБУВАЮТЬ ПОКАРАННЯ В МІСЦЯХ ПОЗБАВЛЕННЯ ВОЛІ

Problem formulation. Due to the problem of the role and place of psychological protection mechanisms as a way to overcome stress, the question remains as to how the initial or final stage of the youth’s stay in detention centres imprints on the manifestation of mechanisms of psychological protection and on the nature of the interconnections of ways to overcome penitentiary stress with forms of penitentiary stress. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the impact of the first and last six months of serving a prison sentence on the manifestations of mechanisms of psychological protection as ways of overcoming penitentiary stress of the youth who are in detention centres. Research methods. Method of conversation and testing. Sample description. 50 young people serving the sentence for the first time in a correctional colony took part in the research. Results of the research. Summing up the research it is possible to state both similar tendencies and differences. Whether it comes to a stage of adaptation or the last six months of imprisonment, the most active ways of overcoming the penitentiary stress in young men are the mechanisms of psychological protection: compensation, negation and projection, although there are certain manifestations of all others. Consequently, the preservation of the positive assessment of oneself happens due to the attribution of real or diffused alternative successes to yourself in other spheres; the refusal to admit the existence of certain facts, the transformation of reality in order to adapt it to its behavior; an unconscious process in which a person attributes their feelings, desires and abilities to others, because they understand that they are socially inappropriate. The relationship between the indicators of mechanisms of psychological protection is also the same – close interweaving of most of them among themselves and the absence of any connection to the return to children’s forms of behavior, "falling into childhood" with other mechanisms of psychological protection. The beginning or almost completion of imprisonment provokes certain differences in manifestations of the mechanisms of psychological protection of personality from the consequences of penitentiary stress. During the first six months of serving sentences, boys often turn to childlike forms of behavior, as a means of eliminating the threat to physical and psychological well-being, in order to overcome penitentiary stress. In the last six months of serving sentences, boys often deny and compensate. These means contribute to displacement of depressing thoughts out of the mind, which are associated with staying behind bars. So, that makes it possible to compensate them for the protection of their «self» from anxiety, suffering, «inferiority complex». Only among boys who still need to adapt to their new role in detention centres, there is a direct relationship of the ways to overcome penitentiary stress through rationalization, projection, hypercompensation, compensation, denial of forms of penitentiary stress: memory impairment and concentration of attention, problems with sleeping. «Childish» reactions or forms of behavior, or the replacement of a goal that is inaccessible to another that is possible to achieve, conflicts with optimism as a form of penitentiary stress.

Briefly Noted

On September 17, 2018, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Trial Chamber VII delivered its re-sentencing decision for Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, and Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, following the ICC Appeals Chamber judgment that had reversed the initial sentences against the men in March 2018. The Chamber “sentenced M. Bemba to one year imprisonment and fined him EUR 300,000. M. Kilolo and M. Mangenda were sentenced each to a total of 11 months of imprisonment. M. Kilolo was also fined EUR 30,000.” Because of the time they had already spent in detention, the sentences were considered to have already been served and the fines were ordered to be paid within three months.

An Analysis on the Judges’ Consideration Basis in Penalizing the Actor of Cultural Conservation Object Vandalism; Case Study in Decree of the State District of Mojokerto Number: 52/Pid.Sus/2018/PN. Mjk

The existence of ancient and cultural conservation objects are prone to damage, loss, and ruin. It is caused by either natural factor or the human’ behavior. Law enforcement against the criminals who intentionally not reporting the object presumed as Cultural Conservation Object on the Decision of the District Court of Mojokerto number: 52/Pid.Sus/2018/PN. Mjk which state that the defendant, Fendi Andriyanto Bin Badri, has been legally and conclusively proved guilty by committing crime for “intentionally not to report the findings that is presumed as a cultural conservation object and because of it, the judge sentences the defendant with 7 (seven) month of imprisonment and Rp.1000.000,- (one million rupiahs) penalty and if that penalty is not paid, it shall be substituted with 2 (two) months of imprisonment. This study was classified as a normative legal study by employing primary and the secondary data obtained from literature study. Based on the findings of the study, the basis of the judge’ consideration in subjecting the penalty was based on the aspect of certainty, fairness, and benefits of law based on the evidence materials proposed in trial, the witness’ testimony, the defendant’ testimony, the expert information, trial fact, and all the lightening and burdening things.

SPECIFICS OF ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION DEVELOPMENT IN PENITENTIARY STRESS CIRCUMSTANCES

Aim. To reveal the specifics of arterial hypertension (AH) development under the circumstances of penitentiary stress.Material and methods. Totally, 107 patients included, among the persons first time imprisoned, comparable by age and gender — almost healthy young males 25-36 y. o. The relation studied, of psychological test and 24-hour blood pressure (BP) profile and Holter ECG, as heart rate variablity, in three groups of participants formed depending on the duration of imprisonment.Results. It was found that psychoemotional state during the first month of imprisonment is characterized by a high level of situational, personality anxiety with predominant depressive symptomatic. This is followed by heart conduction and rhythm pathology. With the time of imprisonment, level of anxiety and depression declines. Also, heart rhythm variability analysis shows significant decrease of value of LF (%) and predomination of VLF (%) in the wave spectrum. The parameters of 24-hour BP show a significant increase of BP at later periods of imprisonment. Daytime BP level shows direct relation with the parameter “duration of imprisonment”, and nocurnal BP — with the level of situational anxiety.Conclusion. Under the circumstances of penitentiary stress, one of the revealed mechanism of AH development is weakening of sympathetic modulation of vegetative innervation of the heart and decline of baroreflectory sensitivity. Increase of the duration of imprisonment and of the level of situational anxiety are the specific factors of penitentiary circumstances that influence AH development in young clinically healthy men.

Reduced Self-Control after 3 Months of Imprisonment; A Pilot Study.

Background: Prison can be characterized as an impoverished environment encouraging a sedentary lifestyle with limited autonomy and social interaction, which may negatively affect self-control and executive function. Here, we aim to study the effects of imprisonment on self-control and executive functions, and we report the change in neuropsychological outcome after 3 months of imprisonment.Materials and Methods: Participants were 37 male inmates in a remand prison in Amsterdam, Netherlands, who completed six tests of a computerized neuropsychological test battery (the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery) in the first week of arrival. Participants were retested after 3 months of imprisonment. Change in performance was tested using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.Results: After 3 months of imprisonment, risk taking significantly increased (measured as an increase in the proportion of available points used for betting) and attention significantly deteriorated (measured as increased variability in reaction times on a sustained attention task), with large to medium effect sizes. In contrast, planning significantly improved (measured with a task analog to the Tower of London) with a medium effect size.Discussion: Our study suggests that 3 months of imprisonment in an impoverished environment may lead to reduced self-control, measured as increased risk taking and reduced attentional performance. This is a significant and societally relevant finding, as released prisoners may be less capable of living a lawful life than they were prior to their imprisonment, and may be more prone to impulsive risk-taking behavior. In other words, the impoverished environment may contribute to an enhanced risk of reoffending.

Sla het brein niet in de boeien

Executive functions (EF) are higher order brain functions that are crucial for self-regulation, which may be negatively influenced by an impoverished environment. Since prison can be characterized as an impoverished environment, we studied whether EF and self-regulation decline during imprisonment. While EF are already often impaired in antisocial and criminal populations, we found a decline in attention and self-regulation after three months of imprisonment. We discuss the implications of our findings regarding recidivism and propose to aim for an improvement in executive functions during imprisonment, by enriching the prison environment.

Mental and Physical Healthcare Utilization Among Young Prisoners: A Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACTThe present longitudinal study describes changes in and covariates of healthcare utilization in 75 young males (aged 17– 22 years) during their first year in a Portuguese prison. The prisoners were assessed 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after their arrival in custody. Multilevel negative binomial regression analyses were conducted to examine the effect of time in prison as well as several clinical, socio-demographic, and criminological characteristics on: (a) treatment for mental health problems and (b) treatment for physical health problems. Although healthcare utilization for mental health issues remained stable over 12 months of imprisonment, visits for physical health problems were highest during the first month and then declined significantly. Patterns of healthcare utilization were associated with time spent in prison, mental health symptoms, Portuguese nationality, older age at the onset of imprisonment, criminal history, and severe disciplinary infractions. Strikingly, prisoners who initially reported more mental health symptoms upon arrival to the prison facility received less mental health services for the first six months of imprisonment. The limitations of this study and its implications for correctional research and practice are discussed.

The predictive validity of the Depression Hopelessness Suicide screening form for self-harm among prisoners

The Depression Hopelessness Suicide Screening Form (DHS) includes 12 ‘critical items’, which have not been validated for the prospective prediction of self-harm. We conducted a retrospective cohort study (N = 4196) to validate the ability of the DHS critical items to prospectively predict inmates with at least one incident of self-harm during the first six months of imprisonment. While the critical items were highly sensitive (89.5%) at predicting incidents of self-harm, 51.3% of the inmates endorsed at least one item. Five items reflecting more recent and specific risk factors reduced the referral rate to 17.7%, while maintaining high sensitivity (84.2%). While the DHS has high sensitivity to predict inmates at risk of self-harm, treating all items as equally critical results in excessive numbers of false positives that likely exceed the capacity of prison resources for professional assessment and intervention. Referral rules based on recency and specificity of risk factors are proposed.

Disentangling Alcohol-Related Needs Among Pre-trial Prisoners: A Longitudinal Study.

To disentangle the alcohol-related needs of short stay, revolving door, male prisoners, and offer a theoretically driven but practical approach for allocation of scarce service resources. A prospective longitudinal interview, questionnaire and records study of pre-trial men newly imprisoned in Wales and SW England. Two hundred and forty-one pre-trial men completed an interview and questionnaires within a week of a new reception into prison; 170 completed follow-up 3 weeks later. Questions about problems with alcohol or illicit drugs revealed that problem drinkers were less likely than problem drug users to recognize their difficulty or seek or get help for this during their first month of imprisonment. Co-morbidity was common, but a third of the men had alcohol problems alone. Use of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire identified 80% (195/241) men likely to require some intervention, twice the number identified by direct questions relying on prisoners' judgment about problem use. Furthermore it allowed categorization according to likely risk (dependency), need (problem recognition) and responsivity (wish for help). Alcohol misuse is recognized, worldwide, as fuelling crime and more common among prisoners than the general population. In England and Wales, it is a particular factor in brief but recurrent periods of imprisonment. There have been calls to pay more attention to its use in this context, albeit without any increase in resources. Adding two questions to standard screening enables application of the risk-need-responsivity model to problem drinkers and may identify those most likely to benefit from treatment.