Prison Experience Research Articles

Print Networks, Manuscript Pamphleteering, and the Development of Prison Politics in Seventeenth-Century London

AbstractThe 1622 publication of Imprisonment of Mens Bodies for Debt marked the beginning of a decades-long tradition of anti-carceral activism in London's prisons. By recovering prison activists’ practices of publication and republication, the article reveals a vibrant world of textual production in prisons that enabled political interventions grounded in the material and structural conditions of incarceration. Anti-carceral activism relied on the varied uses of print and manuscript that formed part of the day-to-day experience of incarceration. These local practices were combined with new processes of national political communication, from parliamentary petitioning and news printing in the 1620s, to manuscript pamphleteering and the demand for legal texts in the 1630s, and the explosion of radical printing and political agitation in the 1640s. Operating at the intersection of quotidian textual practice and developing forms of political communication, prison activism became engaged in wider currents of national debate. Thus, the article demonstrates how a relatively marginal social constituency could utilize these modes and networks of political communication across multiple media and how, in turn, such groups could both develop connections to radical political networks and come to imagine their cause as part of a wider political moment.

Стигматизациялюдей,живущих с ВИЧ-положительным статусомв Казахстане и роль социального работникав ее преодолении среди женщин с опытом тюремного заключения

Significant progress has been made worldwide in preventing, treating,and reducing new infections and deaths due to AIDS and HIV. However, there are still many gaps from a regional perspective. For example, there are barriers to access to treatment and prevention in Central Asian countries that relate to stigma and discrimination. A great deal of research and practical observation has underscored the importance of social work in this area.The aim of the work was to study the peculiarities of stigmatization, discrimination,and human rights violations among HIV-infected people by the example of women with imprisonment experience in the Republic of Kazakhstan and to formulate recommendations for improving the capacity of social work in de-stigmatization in the national context.A combined study was conducted using statistical,functional, and descriptive methods. A survey was conducted among women with imprisonment experience receiving services in HIV serviceorganizations in Astana and Almaty.There were revealedsomefindings. First, the main subjects of discrimination were healthcareworkers. Second, the main reasonfor stigmatization on the part of society was to adopt HIV. Third, every fifth PLHIV (21.3%) experienced fear of insults, harassment, or verbal threats. One in ten PLHIV feared physical harassment or threats of action (10.8%) or physical violence (9.5%).Thus, stigma is a significant barrier to involvement in receiving services, and disruption of social functioning. Among the recommendations are actions todevelop policies on interagency cooperation of government agencies, as well as inter-sectoral cooperation of state, public,and private sectors, the need to develop and conduct training of counseling skills of health sector staff, involving specialists from public organizations working with key populations (hereinafter -KP).

On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Sarah Moss’s novel The Fell (2021) is a fictional reflection upon the second UK lockdown in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its topicality, the novel is likely to be read as a “time capsule,” preserving the unprecedented experience of social isolation, anxiety and domestic incarceration. Starting with the assumption that living in a time of pestilence may be characterised as a borderline experience, this article argues that The Fell revolves around the paradigm of liminality. For the characters portrayed in the book the threshold is social, psychological and existential. Nevertheless, for the main protagonist the metaphorical and the literal merge when, driven to the limit of endurance, she falls off the edge of a cliff while taking a walk on the fells of the Peak District, in defiance of the quarantine restrictions. The article analyses various meanings of liminality in Moss’s novel.

Scoping the Potential of a Noongar Re-entry Peer Navigator Model

The Noongar people of the South West of Western Australia (WA) continue to seek self-determination and empowerment to ensure their families are able to meet cultural, economic and social needs. Their aspirations, however, are thwarted by a significant number of their members who are incarcerated and the adverse consequences of imprisonment on families. In the meantime, the WA prison system is yet to respond to the unique needs of Noongar prisoners transitioning out of the prison system. The article reviews the literature to develop the idea of a Noongar re-entry peer navigator (PN) model. In this model, select Noongar people who have lived experience of incarceration and who have received training in peer work would be used to support Noongar prisoners during the fraught and lengthy process of re-engaging with families, settling into their communities, and living on Country. The review traces the growth of the PN model in the health system, the prison system, and, more recently, in cross-sector engagements between the prison and service organisations. Consideration is thereafter given to the strengths and limits of the re-entry PN model. The article closes with a discussion on the potential of developing a Noongar re-entry PN to assist Noongar prisoners to achieve re-entry while increasing their prospects for a law-abiding and wholesome life Noongar way.

Gender pathologization and criminalization: The prison experience of transvestites

RESUMO A experiência de ser travesti é atravessada por múltiplas regulações no campo do direito e da medicina. Ambos os conhecimentos se articulam e reafirmam uma determinada concepção normativa de gênero que produz a criminalização e a patologização dessa experiência. Especialmente no caso de travestis presas, tal situação alcança patamares alarmantes. Para ilustrar a articulação entre patologiza-ção e criminalização, utilizam-se levantamento bibliográfico e relato de campo construído por uma das autoras deste ensaio. O objetivo foi demonstrar como essa articulação se dá, a partir do caso concreto de uma travesti submetida à medicalização dentro do cárcere, e como esse procedimento ensejou a sua (re) criminalização. Dessa forma, a patologização e a criminalização constroem um marco epistemológico que traça os limites dentro dos quais gênero e sexualidade se tornam visíveis e passam ao largo de uma compreensão do direito à saúde.

The Asian American Movement and the Church: Laying the Foundations for Asian American Theology

This piece outlines the importance of the Asian American Movement (AAM) for the church and for the field of Asian American theology and ongoing discussions thereof. It contextualizes the AAM in a particular demographic moment when US-born Asian Americans outnumbered immigrants for the first and only time in American history. Using the example of Japanese American Methodist clergy active in the AAM, it considers how their experiences of state-sponsored incarceration shaped a firm belief that ethnic and racial identity should inform how church leaders do ministry, teach the Bible, and engage society. In particular, their incarceration experiences cemented a lifelong commitment to justice and to the liberation of oppressed peoples both in the USA and overseas.

Peculiarities of criminal radicalism determination among prisoners sentenced to imprisonment

The article is devoted to the study of the criminal radicalism determination among convicts. It has been established and substantiated that this criminal phenomenon is linked to groups of cultural, psychological, organizational and managerial factors. It has been described and explained the content and role of elements of criminal subculture in the reproduction of criminal radicalism among convicts. Attention has been focused on the imperative of a negative attitude towards voluntary cooperation with representatives of the administration of penal institutions. The corresponding communication ban is based on the attitude of opposition to the state in general and law enforcement agencies in particular, on the internal consolidation of the criminal environment and direct or indirect opposition and personal opposition to law enforcement practices, including resocialization in penitentiary institutions.
 It has been proved that the stratification and normative elements of criminal and prison subculture determine both the system of social and status hierarchy in the criminal environment in general and among convicts in particular, and the mechanisms of forced identification and inclusion in this system. Both variants (inclusive-adaptive and inclusive-disadaptive) of prisonization provide for mandatory stratification infiltration of the convicted person into social structures of a criminal-subcultural type. In the case of conflict-free inclusion, if the convict has a predicate prison experience, personal perception and external recognition of the relevant status, the radicalization of a person occurs according to the analytical scheme of an inclusive radical. Criminal opposition is carried out either against rival criminal groups or against the administration and staff of the penitentiary institution. Otherwise, criminal radicalism is directed at the environment of convicts.
 It has been characterized the influence of reification factors, depersonalization of convicts' personalities, professional deformation of penitentiary staff, low quality of social and psychological work with convicts, shortcomings in the personnel policy of the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine, insufficient efficiency of management in the field of accommodation of convicts, formalism and low quality of diagnosis and distribution of convicts upon their admission to correctional colonies, and errors in the formation of groups of convicts.

THE EFFECTS OF LIFETIME EXPERIENCES OF HOMELESSNESS AND INCARCERATION ON COGNITIVE AGING

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) remain a pressing health concern in the U.S., and this burden and access to care are unequally distributed across the population. The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates globally, which is also unequally distributed; and groups like veterans, formerly incarcerated people, and sexual and gender minorities (SGM) face high risk of homelessness. Homelessness and incarceration are potentially traumatic experiences in themselves. Both experiences are more likely among people with less formal education, less economic security, and racialized groups, even as they reduce educational and economic opportunities. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; 1998–2016), we investigate whether self-reported lifetime experiences of homelessness and incarceration (including time spent incarcerated) are associated with cognitive functioning and risk of possible dementia. Multilevel modeling adjusted for age, education, and other demographic covariates revealed that lifetime experiences of homelessness and incarceration are associated with lower cognition (Homelessness: β=-1.231, p< .001; Incarceration: β=-0.929; p < .001), but slower aging-related declines (Homelessness-slopes: β=0.044, p<.001; Incarceration-slope β=0.041; p<.001), and homelessness moderated the impact of prior incarceration (β=-1.789; p<.001), but less-steep declines (β=0.092; p <.001). Homelessness and incarceration, independent of their other risk factors and associated harms, have associations with ADRD risk.

Viral Breakthrough Episodes Among Persons with HIV in Care in Alberta, Canada: Clinical and Public Health Implications.

Unsuppressed HIV viremia damages immunity and increases the risk for secondary HIV transmission. Successful engagement of persons with HIV (PWH) into care resulting in viral suppression is vital. PWH already engaged in care, who, after achieving viral suppression, experience viral breakthrough episodes (VBEs) with a sequence of suppressed/unsuppressed/suppressed viral loads remain problematic. We examined the frequency and outcomes of PWH experiencing VBE. HIV care is provided at no cost to all patients under Alberta's universal health program. All PWH followed at Southern Alberta Clinic, Canada, with two or more viral load tests between January 1, 2010, and January 1, 2020, were evaluated. Sociodemographic, clinical, and lifestyle variables were determined along with health outcomes (CD4 levels, HIV-related hospitalizations, and HIV/AIDS-related mortality). Descriptive and multi-variable analyses were performed comparing PWH with and without VBEs. Of 2096 PWH, 386 (18%) experienced one or more VBEs. A higher risk of VBEs was seen in adjusted analyses in those diagnosed age ≤40 years. Increased risk of VBE was seen with injection drug use (46%) and in heterosexuals (56%) compared with MSM. Experience of intimate partner violence, unstable housing, homelessness, and past incarceration also increased risks by 36%, 44% 79%, and 51%, respectively. PWH with VBEs experienced lower CD4 counts (median -417/mm3 vs. 576/mm3), higher rates of HIV-related hospitalizations (16% vs. 5%), and a 67% increased risk of death (95% confidence interval 1.17-2.39) over the study period. Nearly 20% of all PWH, after achieving viral suppression, experienced VBEs. Distinct clinical, lifestyle, and life experiences predict PWH at greatest risk for more than one VBEs. Serious negative health outcomes of VBEs were identified, suggesting that novel customized care programming is required for PWH at greatest risk.

Prisoners’ experiences and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic response – an ethnographic study conducted mid-pandemic

PurposeThis paper aims to report findings about how prisoners experience and cope with COVID-19 restrictions, which can contribute to an understanding of how pandemic responses, and specifically the COVID-19 response, affect prisoners.Design/methodology/approachData was collected through ethnographic fieldwork involving days of observations (N = 24) and the conduction of semi-structured interviews with prisoners (N = 30) in closed prisons and detentions in Denmark between May and December 2021. The transcribed interviews and field notes were processed and coded by using the software programme NVivo.FindingsThe data analysis reveals that the pains of imprisonment have been exacerbated to people incarcerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. To relieve pains of imprisonment, prisoners turn to censoriousness as an informal coping strategy, where they complain about inconsistency and injustice in the prison’s COVID-19 prevention strategy to reveal the prison system itself as a rule-breaking institution. The prisoners criticise the prison management for using COVID-19 as an excuse, treating prisoners unjustly or not upholding the COVID-19 rules and human rights. Furthermore, principles of justice and equality are also alleged by some prisoners who contemplate the difficulty in treating all prisoners the same.Research limitations/implicationsMore research will be needed to create a full picture of how prisoners cope with pandemic responses. Further research could include interviews with people working inside prisons.Originality/valueIn a Scandinavian context, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to apply an ethnographic approach in exploring prison life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trans and Living in Prison: A First-Person Perspective.

In this first-person account, the author describes key aspects of her experience in prison as a transgender woman seeking appropriate medical and mental health care as well as humane treatment from those who work in the prison system.

Camp female prose (based on «Memories» by Nadiia Surovtsova)

The beginning of the 20th century became the time of the Executed Renaissance for Ukraine. The Soviet totalitarian system sought to subjugate Ukrainian writers with prisons, camps and mass executions. We have a number of testimonies: archival materials of investigative cases, memoirs, epistolaries, camp prose. First of all, it is often a matter of men’s reception of prison and camp experience, men’s literature of fact (nonfiction). Women’s testimonies continue to be a marginal phenomenon. It determines the need to actualize in Ukrainian literature the female camp experience manifested textually.
 The scientific understanding of documentary studies was carried out by a number of Ukrainian literary experts. These are the works of Oleksandr Halych, Nadiia Koloshuk, Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska, Oleh Rarytskyi and others. Women’s camp experience as a text entered the circle of scientific interest only sporadically (texts by Oksana Zabuzhko, Nadiia Koloshuk, Mykhailyna Kotsiubynska, Liudmyla Tarnashynska).
 Nadiia Surovtsova reflects on her camp experience both in prose and poetic words. Her «Memoirs» is a unique sample of women’s nonfiction literature mentioning the path of a young woman to «Golgotha» (prisons, camps). The author focuses not only on her own feelings and thoughts but also on everyday life, people who were close to her and their stories. The book is structured according to the shades of the narrator’s life. She defines two periods that reveal the time «before» and «after»: «Chronicle of short-lived happiness» and «On the other side». It is in the second part we find ourselves together with Nadiia Surovtsova for the first time in Lubianka. In the following chapters of «Memoirs» we get to the «famous Butyrka» and then together with the author we walk the path of suffering «Arkhanhelsk – Golgotha» being full of terrible conditions, poor nutrition, hard work and also the ability to enjoy life and see beauty of nature under such circumstances. The author also talks about the imprisoned female body. We are not talking about maximum frankness but we find naturalistic episodes sporadically (a bloody female body after interrogation, bleeding that becomes unbearable in the absence of water). The path to Golgotha for Nadiia Surovtsova is also a continuous hardening of her own character. She states that she wants to «drink the cup to the bottom» and therefore always chooses new challenges for herself.

Mothering experiences in prison: Exploring distinctions between maternal and paternal caregiving arrangements

AbstractObjectiveThe current study considers the mothering experiences of incarcerated women to identify important differences between maternal and paternal caregivers and explore how these arrangements influence mother–child relationships.BackgroundMany incarcerated mothers decide who will care for minor children in their absence, often depending on relatives to care for children. Researchers have not yet explored the differential experiences of incarcerated mothers whose children are cared for by maternal and paternal caregivers.MethodThis study uses semistructured interviews with incarcerated mothers. Researchers engaged in thematic and comparative analyses to identify differences in maternal and paternal mother–caregiver dyads.ResultsMothers whose children lived with maternal caregivers received support from caregivers and were afforded co‐parenting opportunities. In contrast, mothers whose children lived with paternal caregivers experienced limited information sharing and attempts to exclude them from parental decision‐making.ConclusionMothers highlighted the importance of their maternal mother–caregiver relationships, as well as their mother–child relationships. With less support from paternal caregivers, mothers depended on maternal relatives to serve as an intermediary or resigned themselves to temporarily suspending their maternal role.ImplicationsPrisons can promote positive mother–caregiver relationships by providing counseling and can support mother–child relationships through various contact programs. Parent educators can work with incarcerated mothers to identify maternal intermediaries, and formal agencies can target interventions to include maternal intermediaries and provide additional assistance to caregivers.

Exploring the potential of ‘working-making-doing’ with people who have lived experience of the criminal justice system

This book from well-established scholars of the criminal justice system contributes new insights to the developing field of ‘co-production’ with people who have lived experience of incarceration and criminalisation. Co-production efforts can fail to empower participants and disrupt the status quo if not sufficiently clear in method and intention. Using critical theory and Australian case studies, this book gives shape and coherence to co-production efforts and details the affordances, sensitivities and frictions of co-production practice. Despite its detailed account of the relational and institutional risks for practitioners and participants, the result is a manifesto for ‘working-making-doing together’ and the emancipatory potential of ‘looking from below’. This study offers a vital reference point for anyone engaging in this space.

Echoes from the Prison Walls: A Study of Select Poems by Wole Soyinka

Prison has been a space that has manifested not only physical but alsoideological restrictions and the writings from this 'space' have shapedthemselves in particular ways. Wole Soyinka's prison poetry was an outcome ofhis experiences in prison during the Nigerian civil war after his incarceration onthe charge of his writings being sympathetic to the secessionist Biafrans. Thepoetry produced in this kind of a closed 'space' is traced with a consistentawareness of being written in a restricted context. The paper shall make anattempt to analyze how the very setting of writing shapes the act ofcommunication, here in the case of Wole Soyinka's prison poetry whichthematically focuses on interacting with the immediate setting to reflect uponthe present conditions. When physical removal becomes a major way to curbexpression, this kind of writing is characterized by an awareness of therestricted space. Soyinka's poems recurrently use the strategy of the poetencountering the most mundane in the immediate environment which triggersthought and writing, primarily through the senses. 'Space' here becomes anactive manifestation of the real and the imagined, and the writing thus producedcarries such a critical 'spatial awareness.' There is an attempt in Soyinka's prisonpoetry to use the restricted 'space' as a transgressing sphere of 'otherness' tocontest boundaries, thus also seeking to reclaim the lost cultural space. The titleof the work A Shuttle in the Crypt becomes a metaphor for enlarging thisconfined present space

Evaluation of prisoner experiences during their engagement with the self-change programme

PurposePrevious difficulties were identified with the evaluation of violence interventions, resulting in gaps in the literature regarding the effectiveness of violence interventions. This study aims to contribute towards addressing the gap in the evaluation of violence interventions, by exploring the experience of prisoners who completed the self-change programme (SCP) during a 24-month period in HMP Shotts.Design/methodology/approachFive prisoners who completed the SCP at HMP Shotts were interviewed via a semi-structured interview to explore their experiences of engaging with this violence intervention. The data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), allowing the exploration and understanding of the subjective meanings of the experiences from the individual participants.FindingsInterpretation of the data resulted in the identification of three superordinate themes that were relevant to participant experience: change as a process, supportive group environment and perceived outcomes.Practical implicationsThese findings provide insight into prisoner experiences on SCP and contribute towards the evaluation of violence interventions. As prison-based interventions undergo a process of continued evaluation and re-accreditation, it is useful to understand the programme processes that enhance participant engagement and their learning experience, while also understanding the processes that may impede participant engagement and successful completion of violence interventions.Originality/valueAlthough there has been substantial research conducted on violence interventions, this research has aimed to address some of the gaps and previous difficulties experienced within the evaluation of violence interventions.

Perceived health status and satisfaction with healthcare services of detained male individuals: a survey in Italy

ObjectivesThis study investigated the perceived health status and satisfaction with prison healthcare services of detained male individuals in Italy. Study designA cross-sectional study was performed between March and June 2021. MethodsOf 800 male detained individuals who were invited to participate in the study, 632 returned the self-administered questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 79%. ResultsOverall, 72.8% of participants reported that they were moderately or completely satisfied with their health status, and 27.2% stated that they were not at all satisfied. Moreover, 66.2% of participants reported that they had at least one health problem or disease, compared with 34% at the time of incarceration, with 35% reporting multiple health problems/diseases. In total, 10.1% of participants requested healthcare when a health problem occurred, and 12.4% were always satisfied with the healthcare that they received. Significant determinants of dissatisfaction with health status were older age, reported health problems/diseases, suicide attempts, emotional problems and no working activity in prison. Significant determinants of dissatisfaction with healthcare services were younger age, health problems at incarceration, suicide attempts and multiple experiences of incarceration. ConclusionsThis study shows that detained male individuals have multiple and frequently unmet health needs. Some of the reported health problems or diseases were present at the time of incarceration, but these often worsened and/or increased during detention. This study highlights the need to promote evidence-based intervention to strengthen the role of healthcare services provided in prisons.

Beyond Digital Literacy in Australian Prisons: Theorizing “Network Literacy,” Intersectionality, and Female Incarcerated Students

Incarcerated students, especially women and Indigenous Australians in custody, are among the most marginalized, oppressed, and invisible identities in Australian society today. These prison-based university students experience not only multi-layered disadvantages that derive from intersecting experiences of oppression, including race, gender, and class, but they are also further disadvantaged by the experience of incarceration itself, despite their attempts to improve their life chances and social positioning through distance education. This is partly due to the challenges of learning within prison environments, including disruptions, disparities, and disconnections in terms of access to digital technologies, digital literacies, and digital channels. The majority of Australian prisoners have no direct access to the internet, smartphones, or internet-enabled devices which means they are disconnected from social media and other networked communication platforms. Although significant gains have been made in developing and delivering prison-based non-networked digital devices, digital learning platforms and digital education to Australian incarcerated students over the past decade, more work must be done to adequately prepare incarcerated students, with multi-faceted needs, to live and learn as empowered agents within the informational capitalism of the contemporary “network society.” The purpose of this article is to argue for a new form of “network literacy” education over and above “digital literacy” skills for female Australian incarcerated students, through an intersectional theoretical lens which addresses the multidimensional disadvantages experienced by women in custody within Australian prisons.

Disrupting ‘healthy prisons’: Exploring the conceptual and experiential overlap between illness and imprisonment

AbstractOur aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that more thoroughly grounds it in the everyday experiences of prisoners. Our point of departure is the observation that there seems to be an intriguing conceptual and theoretical overlap between first‐person oriented empirical studies of two spheres of human experience that are normally seen as separate: serious illness and imprisonment. Our analysis leads us to reimagine the term ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that increases its usefulness for anyone interested in making prisons healthier and more constructive and reinventive institutions.

Book Review: The cage of days: Time and temporal experience in prison by Carceral, K.C. and Flaherty, Michael G.

Book Review: <i>The cage of days: Time and temporal experience in prison</i> by Carceral, K.C. and Flaherty, Michael G.