Profile Of Inmates Research Articles

Vicious Infants: Dangerous Childhoods in Antebellum U.S. Literature by Laura Soderberg (review)

Reviewed by: Vicious Infants: Dangerous Childhoods in Antebellum U.S. Literature by Laura Soderberg Ellen Butler Donovan (bio) Vicious Infants: Dangerous Childhoods in Antebellum U.S. Literature, by Laura Soderberg. U of Massachusetts P, 2021. Vicious Infants is not a book that discusses children's literature. However, scholars who take a childhood studies approach will find that this book enriches our understanding of how childhood was viewed and used in the early nineteenth century in the US. In four dense chapters, Soderberg pairs literary and extra-literary texts to examine childhoods that were viewed as threatening to social stability, that is, texts that depict children in ways that reveal social and political anxieties. While this idea is not new or radical, challenging the assumption that all childhoods were White, protected, and pastoral continues to be necessary. In the first chapter, "Bound Children: Sidestepping the Social Contract in Apprenticeship Literature," Soderberg reads William Apess's autobiography, A Son of the Forest (1829), and Harriet Wilson's semi-autobiographical novel, Our Nig (1859), through apprenticeship contracts. Soderberg traces the history of legal minority back to William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England in order to highlight the status of the child as unable to control one's body and therefore unable to enter into contracts, with the exception of indenture, in which the future adult retrospectively agrees to the terms of the contract (a kind of prolepsis). Soderberg suggests that this same prolepsis is characteristic of the bildungsroman, using this similarity to juxtapose the literary texts and the apprenticeship documents. The ostensible goal of both the bildungsroman genre and apprenticeship documents is to move individuals from dependence (public dependence in Soderberg's examples of apprenticeship indenture and in the situations Apess and Wilson depict) to independent, socially assimilable adults. Yet Soderberg highlights the ways in which indenture both in the apprenticeship documents and the narratives by Apess and Wilson prevented independence, forcing the eventual adults to remain dependent on public welfare. In the cases of Apess and Wilson, the indenture that both protagonists experience does not result in the conventional ending of a bildungsroman—an independent self fully integrated into society. Instead, due to their racial identities, both protagonists exist outside the social organization. The second chapter, "The Incorrigible Child: Juvenile Delinquency and the Fearful Rise of the Child Self," examines records from the New York House of Refuge (essentially juvenile prison) and child-rearing [End Page 192] advice from domestic manuals by Amos Bronson Alcott, Lydia Maria Child, Heman Humphrey, and John A. Gere. Soderberg again traces back the use of the phrase "incorrigible child" to Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and further posits that in antebellum America, the term became an assertion "beyond interrogation by any other parties" (51). She concludes, "Under this model, criminalized children defy scrutiny because their bodies have been marked as unreadable" (51). Soderberg's argument in support of this conclusion illustrates a weakness that pervades the work: though Soderberg references specific sources, her discussion is too cursory to be convincing. More useful, though unsurprising, is her observation that inscrutability was most often ascribed to immigrant children and urban child laborers in factories who were beyond the reach of parental oversight. Of most interest in this discussion is the analysis of the distinction between a child's interiority and exteriority. Drawing on the domestic manuals, Soderberg shows that corporal discipline, when necessary, was designed to shape the child's interiority. However, the profiles of inmates in the House of Refuge repeatedly describe the interiority of "incorrigible" children as "inscrutable," consequently out of reach of any disciplinary influence and therefore dangerous. In the third chapter, "Prodigious Births: Black Infancy, Antebellum Medicine, and the Racialization of Heredity," Soderberg juxtaposes Sir Jonah Barrington's "Skinning a Black Child" (1827) and Henry Clay Lewis's "Stealing a Baby" (1843), comic stories that circulated widely within medical discourse and which sought to separate White paternity from Black bodies, with Susan Paul's The Memoir of James Jackson, the Attentive and Obedient Scholar, Who Died in Boston, October 31, 1833, Aged Six Years and Eleven Months (1835), thought to be the first biography by an African American...

The making of an evangelical prison: Study on Neo-Pentecostalism and its leadership processes in the Argentine penitentiary system

The aim of this article is to analyse the origin and development of ‘prison Pentecostalism’ in the Penitentiary System of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The article is divided into three parts. In the first, we briefly describe the current situation in prisons, focusing on their crisis of governance, how the religious phenomenon is involved in this context and the discussions posed by researchers on this new topic. In the second, we will explore, through the trajectory of its initiators, the different strategies of evangelism that led to the emergence of Unit 25, the first prison-church. Finally, we will characterize the processes of intramural leadership and the profiles of inmates who govern the daily life of the evangelical cellblocks.

Prison types and inmates' psychosocial profiles: A comparison between medium and maximum security prison

Studies on the impacts the type of prison's environment had on the psychosocial well-being of their inmates were few. To contribute more study on this, the current study explored the psychosocial health profiles of inmates and the type of prison environment by comparing inmates' psychosocial profiles of a medium security prison to a maximum security correctional facility located in north central Nigeria. Participants were male inmates of medium security prison located in Bida, Niger-State and Jos maximum security facility in Plateau-State. All the participants filled the study instruments (i.e., a sociodemographic questionnaire, the ten-item personality inventory, resilience scale, and Oslo Social Support Scale) after obtaining informed consent from them. There was a significant positive association of prison types with resilience and social support which was reversed for spirituality. The multivariate analysis showed that inmates of medium security prison had significantly higher resilience and social support scores compared to those in maximum security correctional facilities. There was no difference in the five dimensions of personality among the inmates and in their experience of spirituality. The findings add to extant knowledge on the impact that the level of “indigenous” deprivations had on inmates psychosocial wellness factors. The study hence advocated to the department of correctional services to modify the indigenous measures that promote resilience and social support without compromising security.

Morbidity profile of inmates in old age homes in Mangalore, South India

Background: Ageing is a natural and inevitable process. As per WHO, in 2012, it has been estimated that over 8% of the total population is aged above 60 years. This proportion is expected to increase to 12% by 2025 and over 20% by 2050. India is witnessing a rapid increment in aged population constituting 8.2% of the national population. The old age homes, which were uncommon, have recently spread across the country indicating the growing rift between the generations. Objective: To assess the morbidity and sociodemographic profile of inmates in old age homes in Mangalore. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study done in three selected old age homes in Mangalore from June 2015 to August 2015. Universal sampling was done to obtain a sample size of 87. Totally, 80 inmates were enrolled. Data were obtained by interviewer method, medical records, and clinical examination, by using a pretested questionnaire after obtaining an informed consent. Results: Among the 80 inmates, 25% were male and 75% were female, out of which 63% were in the age group of 60–70 years. Among the elders, 69% were widow/widower, 55% did not have any source of income, 29% were illiterate and 46% had completed primary education, 75% had musculoskeletal disorders, 69 % had visual defects, 64% were hypertensive, 30% had dental problems, and 28% were diabetic. Conclusion: There is an essential need for specialized geriatric clinics. Proper and regular health checkups should be conducted in old age homes with referral services. There is a need for insurance coverage for all the elders to meet their medical expenses.

Profile of inmates of a special school for the mentally ill and disabled in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu: An institution based cross-sectional study

Context : The health care and social welfare needs of persons with mental illness and differently abled persons should not be ignored. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the socio-demographic and morbidity profiles of the inmates in the special school and to explore the reasons that have contributed to their admission in the school. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study of six months duration (September 2013 to February 2014) was conducted in a special school for mentally ill and differently abled people of Kanchipuram district in Tamilnadu. All the inmates staying in the school during the study period were included as study participants. The socio-demographic profile of the inmates was obtained with the help of caretaker/family members/records maintained by the center while their morbidity profile was explored with the help of specialists from different departments. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 18 and the frequency distributions and percentages were calculated for all the variables. Results: Most of the study participants, 31 (56.4%) were from the 40-60 years age group. Overall, 51 (92.7%) inmates were suffering from some type of mental disorders with/without multiple disabilities while 4 (7.2%) inmates were enrolled in the special school because of their old age. The unwillingness of the family members to take care of the affected person was cited as the most common cause in 32 (58.1%) of the inmates for enrolling in the special school. Conclusion: Most of the inmates of the special school were suffering from mental illnesses with/without multiple disabilities. A definite improvement in the quality of life of inmates has been observed after the extension of healthcare services by the medical college.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Suicide in Federal Prisons: A Fifteen-Year Review

This study reports the findings of a retrospective analysis of psychological autopsies for all completed suicides in the Bureau of Prisons over a 15-year period. This study represents the most comprehensive data available about prison suicide. The data support the effectiveness of a structured suicide prevention program as well as the utility of psychological autopsies as a method of case review and data collection. Through an analysis of the psychological autopsy data, a number of basic demographic variables common to completed suicides were discovered which might be extrapolated to other prison populations. In addition, this methodology allowed high-risk populations to be identified, and a profile of inmates who committed suicide was constructed. Implications for future assessment and intervention strategies are discussed.

Home Away from Home

The major objectives of the study are as follows: map the old age home scenario throughout India, especially the districts of Kerala, and assess the profile of inmates in all old age homes in Kerala. As per the survey, the number of old age homes in Kerala is 134, one-fifth of India's number. Currently, at least 5 old age homes are coming up every year. The number of inmates reported in the survey was 5076 persons, of which 60 percent are females. Surprisingly, the percentage of elderly with one living son residing in old age homes is 48% and the corresponding percentage for one living daughter is 41. The results clearly indicate that even those who have children (male or female) are left alone to fend for themselves; eventually some of them move into old age homes in Kerala.