People In Detention Research Articles

Euthanasia in detention and the ethics of caring solidarity: A case study of the 'Tarragona Gunman'.

Almost a year after the enactment of the law regulating euthanasia in Spain, public opinion was shocked to learn that a defendant in criminal proceedings obtained medical assistance in dying following injuries sustained in an exchange of gunfire with the police after having committed a series of severe crimes. Although there are very few cases in the world where prisoners have received euthanasia, the one we will discuss in this article is the only known case where both the public prosecutor's office and the private prosecutors judicially opposed the defendant's euthanasia. This article aims to offer a new perspective on the ethical legitimacy of detainees' access to euthanasia: the ethics of caring solidarity. To do this, we will first place the case in its legal context. Subsequently, we will address the two main arguments proposed in the literature to justify euthanasia in detention: respect for the autonomy of the detainee and the principle of equivalence of care. Finally, after having identified serious shortcomings in both arguments, we will argue that the perspective of caring solidarity offers a better ethical basis for people in detention's access to euthanasia.

Protecting the Rights of Children and Young People in Detention: Evaluating Credibility and Effectiveness of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies

The need to protect the rights of children and young people in detention is the subject of a recent United Nations study (Nowak 2019) and is highlighted by national and international controversies. This article examines the role of external monitoring in preventing the ill-treatment of children and young people in detention. Australia has until recently shown limited interest in protecting the rights of people in detention, but, in 2017, it finally ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (OPCAT). This article examines Australia’s steps to ensuring the effective monitoring of the rights of people in detention, specifically the rights of children and young people in criminal justice detention. As a federal state, Australia must establish a comprehensive network of monitoring bodies constituting OPCAT’s National Preventive Mechanism across nine jurisdictions and with a range of existing monitoring bodies. This article highlights the importance of the “monitoring of monitoring” to ensure the fair treatment of children and young people in correctional detention. It identifies factors relevant to the effectiveness and credibility of child-centered monitoring processes and analyzes the opportunities for maximizing both in the Australian context and globally.

Documentary Poetry: A Study of Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew up America"

The modern age is prolific of literary movements and literarygenres. Documentary poetry, which can be considered a new genre,combines both primary source material, such as war, political events,terrorism, people in detention and many other events with poetry.Amiri Baraka is a contemporary American poet whose poem"Somebody Blew up America" belongs to this genre. It records theSeptember 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre from a perspectivedifferent from what the American propaganda and mass media tell theworld. The recent paper attempts to shed light on Amiri Baraka'sattitude towards this event, the reasons behind it, the real terroristsand the intentions behind this terrorist event according to this poem.The poet argues that the American government knew beforehand thatthe Trade Centre was going to be blown up and they took no action toprevent the catastrophe and, in this sense, they were partners in thecrime. Furthermore, he accuses the Americans of blowing up the tradecentre. The paper is divided into three sections and a conclusion.Section One is Introductory; it sheds light on documentary poetry, itscharacteristic features and practitioners. Section Two is a biographicalnote of Amiri Baraka paying special attention to his attitude toAmerican politics based on domination, persecution and genocide.Section Three gives a detailed analysis of "Somebody Blew upAmerica" as a documentary poem recording the September 11 blowingup of the Trade Centre with the aim of finding a pretext to invadeother countries. The paper concludes that this event happenedaccording to a well-made plan in cooperation with the Americangovernment and the CIA as partners.

Patterns of alleged offending amongst Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal young people in the Northern Territory of Australia, 1997–2019

AbstractIn Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are much more likely to be arrested, charged with criminal offences and imprisoned than other Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprise 49% of young people in detention but only 5.8% of the Australian population aged 10–17. This study investigated changes between 1997 and 2019 in the interaction of Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal young people with the justice system in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. The prevalence of young people being charged with an alleged offence decreased by more than 60% between 1999 and 2001, co‐incident with the introduction of the Juvenile Diversion Scheme in August 2000. Thereafter, for non‐Aboriginal young people there was a small and temporary increase, but for Aboriginal young people prevalence increased almost back to pre‐2000 levels by 2015 before starting to decrease. Aboriginal young people comprised 57% of those charged with any offence in 1997, rising to 88% in 2019. Further investigation is needed to understand the reasons for divergent trends in the prevalence of alleged offending for Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal young people, which may include the role of diversion, differences in the nature of offences and systemic bias and racism.

Stereotypes and Prejudices in Nursing Prison Activities: A Reflection.

In the prison environment, the nursing profession has particularly complex peculiarities and aspects, so much so that prison nurses require advanced specialist skills and specific education. Can nurses' stereotypes and prejudices in prison settings affect nursing care? What are nurses' perceptions of the prison environment and people in detention? This study aims, on one hand, to outline the figure of the nurse in the prison environment and current regulations and, on the other hand, to explore whether and how stereotypes and prejudices may affect the way care is provided. Starting with an analysis of the literature, the authors administered a questionnaire to a group of nurses who shared data and reflections. This study sheds a new light on nursing in the prison environment, exploring how nurses' stereotypes and prejudices may affect the care of patients. It would be desirable to develop research in this field to enable a more conscious approach to a world that is still considered distant and dangerous, and to overcome the misperceptions and prejudices that may negatively affect the way of caring.

Features of Aggression and Frustration in People in Detention

Features of Aggression and Frustration in People in Detention

Assisted dying requests from people in detention: Psychiatric, ethical, and legal considerations-A literature review.

The principle of equivalence of care states that prisoners must have access to the same standard of health care as the general population. If, as recent court decisions suggest, assisted dying is not limited to people with a terminal physical illness or irremediable suffering, it might also be requested by people with severe mental illness in detention. Some of the countries with legal regulations on assisted dying also have recommendations on how to handle requests from prisoners. However, detention itself can lead to psychological distress and suicidality, so we must consider whether and how people in such settings can make autonomous decisions. Ethical conflicts arise with regard to an individual's free will, right to life, and physical and personal integrity and to the right of a state to inflict punishment. Furthermore, people in prison often receive insufficient mental health care. In this review, we compare different practices for dealing with requests for assisted dying from people in prison and forensic psychiatric facilities and discuss the current ethical and psychiatric issues concerning assisted dying in such settings.

Suffering to Save Lives: Torture, Cruelty, and Moral Disengagement in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres

Abstract Since Australia re-established offshore processing on Manus Island and Nauru in 2012, there have been ongoing reports that asylum seekers and refugees are being subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDT). People in detention have endured indefinite detention, inadequate provision of health care, and sexual, physical, and mental harm as the government attempts to ‘stop the boats’ and prevent deaths at sea. How can Australia continue to violate the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, while at the same time, promote its offshore detention policies worldwide? This article explores how Australia has engaged in moral disengagement from the pain and suffering of people in detention. Examining self-deception strategies such as denial of torture, denial of responsibility, and denial of wrongdoing, it shows not only how Australia privileged migration deterrence goals over human rights considerations, but utilized legal and humanitarian arguments to evade accountability and deny the existence of, and responsibility and wrongdoing for, torture and CIDT. This article explores the under-examined issue of moral disengagement to show how it is exacerbating the vulnerability of asylum seekers and refugees to torture and CIDT along their migration journeys.

The Politics of Pain in Immigration Detention

In this paper I draw on qualitative material from the first complete data set of the ‘ Measure of the Quality of Life in Detention’ (MQLD) survey in the UK to reflect on its implication for understanding and challenging these sites. While similarities between immigration detention centres and prisons make it tempting to place the testimonies from people in detention within the framework of the ‘pains of imprisonment’, I propose an alternative reading of these first-hand accounts. Rather than approaching them as sociological statements of suffering, caused by the loss of liberty, I interpret them as political statements which, in turn, demand a political response. Immigration removal centres (IRCs), these people assert, are fundamentally at odds with key values of a liberal democracy. Those detained within them are not considered to be equal members of a shared community of value; rather, their incarceration marks them out symbolically and, quite practically, as outsiders to these ideas. The pain people describe illuminates the need for a new politics of detention.

7.K. Workshop: The impact of COVID-19 response measures on health and healthcare for people in detention in Europe

Abstract In the WHO European region alone, approximately 6 million people are incarcerated every year. Prison populations include many individuals belonging to socially deprived and marginalised communities and vulnerable groups such as women, older people, ethnic minorities, and foreigners, among others. Ensuring the right to health is a complex task, and the health status of people in detention (PiD) is often inferior to that of people who are not deprived of their liberty. Since the start of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, attention was called on the potential risk of COVID-19 outbreaks occurring inside prisons, and the impact on health and well-being of PiD. Proximity, overcrowding, infrastructural constraints and environmental circumstances pose PiD at higher risk of acquiring infection. The likelihood of COVID-19 introduction in detention facilities is notably high, due to high turnover, movement within prison and between prison and community of staff, PiD and external contacts (e.g. family/personal visits). COVID-19 prevention and control measures in prison settings, although heterogeneous across Europe, included: implementation of internal containment measures, including use of PPE and physical distancing, screening and testing followed by the establishment of internal quarantine zones and mechanisms of medical isolation and transfer of severe cases to hospital or specialised care, coupled with the introduction of non-custodial measures of incarceration and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. While necessary, those measures impacted on the health status of PiD and on the internal prison organisation, including the provision of health services, as the already scarce resources were reduced or redirected towards mitigating the impact of COVID-19. Yet, the incidence of COVID-19 infections in prison has grown in the last months of 2020 in several European countries and there were reports of a general worsening of PiD mental health, including drug use disorders. COVID-19 pandemic calls on us to focus on the principle “prison health is public health” in order to protect the well-being of people in prison and the surrounding community, uphold equity and continuity of care whilst keeping a secure and safe environment. The main objective of this workshop is to describe COVID-19 prevention and control interventions implemented in prison settings across Europe, and analyse their impact on SARS-CoV2 transmission, mental health of PiD in prison, including drug use disorders and provision of health interventions. The workshop will be structured in 5 presentations of 5-10 minutes each. Together, they will provide participants with an overview of prison health during the COVID-19 pandemic era at European level. Presentations will be followed by a moderated questions and answers session, and participants will be invited to take part in varied activities at the beginning, during and at the end of the workshop to foster interaction. Key messages COVID-19 control measures impacted on the internal prison organisation, provision of healthcare services and the health of people in detention, including mental health and drug use disorders. We call for heightened global attention to prison health as part of a comprehensive public health approach addressing health inequalities.

The epidemic burden on prisons in Lombardy (Italy) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: the transmission and measures of prevention in detention facilities

PurposeEarly on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community highlighted a potential risk of epidemics occurring inside prisons. Consequently, specific operational guidelines were promptly released, and containment measures were quickly implemented in prisons. This paper aims to describe the spread of COVID-19 in detention facilities within the Lombardy region of Italy during March to July 2020, and the impact of the prevention and control measures implemented.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive retrospective analysis of case distribution was performed for all COVID-19 cases identified among people in detention (PiD) and prison officers (POs). A comparison of the epidemic burden affecting different populations and a correlation analysis between the number of cases that occurred and prevention measures implemented were also carried out.FindingsFrom this study, it emerged that POs were at a high risk of contracting COVID-19. This study observed a delay in the occurrence of cases among PiD and substantial heterogeneity in the size of outbreaks across different prisons. Correlation between reported cases among PiD and registered sick leave taken by POs suggested the latter contributed to introducing the infection into prison settings. Finally, number of cases among PiD inversely correlated with the capacity of each prison to identify and set up dedicated areas for medical isolation.Originality/valuePrevention and control measures when adopted in a timely manner were effective in protecting PiD. According to the findings, POs are a population at high risk for acquiring and transmitting COVID-19 and should be prioritized for testing, active case finding and vaccination. This study highlights the critical importance of including prison settings within emergency preparedness plans.

Reproductive Injustice at the Southern Border and Beyond: An Analysis of Current Events and Hope for the Future.

Reproductive Injustice at the Southern Border and Beyond: An Analysis of Current Events and Hope for the Future.

Pad in forensic psychiatry

IntroductionA recent court decision in Germany defined assisted suicide as a basic human right. Consequently, the discussion regarding PAD needs to be extended to people who are in forensic/secure psychiatric hospitals or prisons, sometimes without any prospects of release. Several studies have shown that long-term hospitalization and detention are associated with feelings of hopelessness, depression and suicidal ideations. Moreover, the resources for adequate therapy are often rare. This results in complex moral challenges for mental health care.ObjectivesTo review current practices in countries that allow PAD and to discuss ethical conflicts.MethodsLiterature review; international comparison of current regulations.ResultsA majority of the literature on PAD in detention refers to prisoners with terminal medical conditions. Single case reports of PAD-requests of mentally disordered offenders aroused great public interest. The resulting ethical conflicts are similar to those issues regarding PAD and mental disorder in general. However, in secure treatment settings and detention additional aspects such as adverse living conditions and inadequate access to mental health care need to be taken into account.ConclusionsIf unbearable pain is not a precondition for assisted suicide, then mentally disordered and healthy offenders have a right to request PAD, provided they have medical decision-making capacity. Considering the common insufficient mental health care for people in detention, policy and law makers need to ensure that access to PAD will not replace therapy. Professionals involved in PAD evaluations need support by specific guidelines.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

The physical and mental health of young people in detention: A global scoping review

The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021.

Protecting human rights in youth detention: listening to the voices of children and young people in detention

ABSTRACT Human rights abuses and entrenched cultural problems have been exposed in youth detention centres across Australia in recent years. Australia’s recent commitment to a comprehensive system of human rights monitoring under the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture by January 2022 creates the opportunity to better protect rights. This includes ensuring that monitoring bodies overseeing youth justice detention engage effectively with the children and young people. It is widely recognised that these young people have commonly experienced significant disadvantage, and that the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention is an intergenerational legacy of the destruction wrought by colonisation. Monitoring methodologies must ensure that children and young people detained can participate in the monitoring process, and are protected from possible reprisals. This article will outline the legal background to these monitoring requirements and make practical recommendations for effective monitoring in youth justice detention.

Functions and features of mentoring in personnel adaptation of the penal system

The article analyzes the state of the mentoring system during personnel adaptation within the penitentiary system. Mentoring is a fundamental method of working with a mentee to introduce them into the activities of a closed occupational group. However, nowadays, mentoring in institutions of the penitentiary system is often of a formal nature. This does not allow institutions to use the full potential of mentoring to replenish a closed occupational group with high-quality human capital. A mentee should be introduced into professional relations not only at the formal, but also at the informal level, since informal communications play an important role when a closed occupational group accepts a new member. The purpose of the article is to identify the main features of mentoring, its functions that allow achieving personnel related, strategic and social results in functioning of the penal enforcement system. To achieve this goal, an expert survey was conducted with the senior officers of correctional institutions, which allowed identifying practical aspects of implementing personnel adaptation using the mentoring institute. The modern institution of mentoring is reflected in the functions of labor adaptation, which are implemented by a mentor through interaction with a mentee. The performance effectiveness of the functions of adaptation is determined not only by the achievement of high labor activity indicators by a new employee, but also by the construction of effective communications that should be arranged with colleagues, as well as with people in detention. The result of the study will be an understanding of the features of an effective mentoring system for a closed occupational group of the penitentiary system and possible ways to improve it.

Constitutional and Procedural Pathways to Freedom from Immigration Detention: Increasing Access to Legal Representation

Each day, tens of thousands of noncitizens are caged in immigration prisons and jails across the United States. Locked up and separated from their families and the outside world, detained noncitizens experience the pain and suffering associated with criminal incarceration without many of the same salient procedural safeguards. One of the most crucial missing protections is access to legal representation. Empirical studies show that legal representation makes all the difference in allowing noncitizens to challenge their imprisonment and gain freedom. Yet, the vast majority of detained noncitizens never receive legal representation. As a result, for many people in immigration detention, the only conceivable exit options are those worse than detention itself: deportation or death.Despite legal scholarship arguing for a right to appointed counsel in removal proceedings, comparatively little attention has been devoted to access to legal representation for the specific purpose of seeking freedom from detention. This Article aims to fill that gap by examining two structural pathways to increasing access to legal representation for people seeking release from immigration detention. First, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment demands a right to appointed counsel for the purpose of challenging detention (the “constitutional pathway”). A direct application of the procedural due process test established in Mathews v. Eldridge and expounded in Turner v. Rogers provides sufficient justification to extend the right to appointed counsel to individuals in immigration detention. Although courts have yet to recognize a constitutional right to appointed counsel in criminal bail hearings, the comparative dearth of procedural protections in immigration detention proceedings justifies identifying the right in that context. Second, “legal representation” is not limited to each detainee getting her own lawyer: the class action, a device that allows a small group of detained noncitizens to litigate on behalf of a larger group of detainees, is a powerful, but underappreciated, tool for allowing detained noncitizens their day in court (the “procedural pathway”). Two recent developments—specifically Justice Alito’s dicta on the viability of the class device in Jennings v. Rodriguez and debates over whether the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits classwide injunctions—threaten the existence and efficacy of class actions in the context of immigration detention. The first, questioning the class device’s viability, mistakenly conflates the flexible nature of due process with the requirements for class certification. The second, doubting the permissibility of classwide injunctions, reveals that the only relief available for the class may be declaratory in nature, which often falls short of the relief detainees most need.Immigration detention is unique among the crises currently plaguing the U.S. immigration system. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on people in detention has only made this problem more apparent. Access to legal representation is crucial to prevent unlawful imprisonment, lessen the economic and human costs of detention, and fight forces of xenophobia and racial prejudice that have influenced immigration law’s understanding of “who belongs” for far too long. In tandem, the constitutional and procedural pathways chart two broad solutions, present benefits and limitations, and raise further ideas for roads to a fairer, more just system.

الشعر الوثائقي: دراسة لقصيدة امريكية “احدهم فجر امريكة”

The modern age is prolific of literary movements and literary genres. Documentary poetry, which can be considered a new genre, combines both primary source material, such as war, political events, terrorism, people in detention and many other events with poetry. Amiri Baraka is a contemporary American poet whose poem "Somebody Blew up America" belongs to this genre. It records the September 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre from a perspective different from what the American propaganda and mass media tell the world. The recent paper attempts to shed light on Amiri Baraka's attitude towards this event, the reasons behind it, the real terrorists and the intentions behind this terrorist event according to this poem. The poet argues that the American government knew beforehand that the Trade Centre was going to be blown up and they took no action to prevent the catastrophe and, in this sense, they were partners in the crime. Furthermore, he accuses the Americans of blowing up the trade centre.The paper is divided into three sections and a conclusion. Section One is Introductory; it sheds light on documentary poetry, its characteristic features and practitioners. Section Two is a biographical note of Amiri Baraka paying special attention to his attitude to American politics based on domination, persecution and genocide. Section Three gives a detailed analysis of "Somebody Blew up America" as a documentary poem recording the September 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre with the aim of finding a pretext to invade other countries. The paper concludes that this event happened according to a well-made plan in cooperation with the American government and the CIA as partners.

Addressing the needs of people in prison: the case of prison work

ABSTRACT The research literature exploring prison work includes few studies that address the perspective of a prisoner’s needs. In this paper, we argue that adopting the lens of a thin and thick understanding of human needs (Dean, H. [2010]. Understanding Human Need. Policy Press) in the analysis of prison work could allow the development of a more critically nuanced perspective on prison work. The article is based on interviews with 14 prisoners in Belgium. The analysis indicates that, while prison work focuses primarily on addressing thin needs of people in prison, a thicker understanding of human needs is needed. Social work can play a critical role in supporting the identification and claiming of both thick and thin needs of people in detention. These processes could yield a more balanced understanding of how needs can ultimately be translated into rights.

Prevalence of Opioid Dependence and Opioid Agonist Treatment in the Berlin Custodial Setting: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundAmong people living in detention, substance use is highly prevalent, including opioid dependence. Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) has been established as an evidence-based, first-line treatment for opioid dependence. Despite high prevalence of opioid dependence, conclusive data regarding its prevalence and the OAT practice in German prisons is scarce; rather, the existing data widely diverges concerning the rates of people in detention receiving OAT.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of all detention facilities in Berlin. On the date of data collection, a full census of the routine records was completed based on the medical documentation system. For each opioid dependent individual, we extracted sociodemographic data (i.e., age, sex, and non-/German nationality, whether people experienced language-related communication barriers), information about OAT, comorbidities (HIV, hepatitis C, schizophrenia), and the detention center, as well as the anticipated imprisonment duration and sentence type. The data was first analyzed descriptively and secondly in an evaluative-analytical manner by analyzing factors that influence the access to OAT of people living in detention.ResultsAmong the 4,038 people in detention in the Berlin custodial setting under investigation, we identified a 16% prevalence of opioid dependence. Of the opioid-dependent individuals, 42% received OAT; 31% were treated with methadone, 55% were treated with levomethadone, and 14% were treated with buprenorphine. Access to OAT seemed mainly dependent upon initial receipt of OAT at the time of imprisonment, detention duration, the prisons in which individuals were detained, German nationality, and sex. The overall prevalence of HIV was 4–8%, hepatitis C was 31–42%, and schizophrenia was 5%.ConclusionsThe prevalence of opioid dependence and access to OAT remains a major health issue in the custodial setting. OAT implementation must be especially intensified among male, non-German, opioid-dependent individuals with a short detention period. Treatment itself must be diversified regarding the substances used for OAT, and institutional treatment differences suggest the need for a consistent treatment approach and the standardized implementation of treatment guidelines within local prison’s standard operating procedures. Testing for infectious diseases should be intensified among opioid-dependent people living in detention to address scarcely known infection statuses and high infection rates.