Scottish Prison Research Articles

Lloyds given £17m contract to run pharmacy services in Scottish prisons

Lloyds given £17m contract to run pharmacy services in Scottish prisons

The information behaviours of maximum security prisoners

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of the information behaviours of prisoners, providing insight into their information needs and information-seeking preferences, and the factors influencing their behaviours; to inform education and rehabilitation programmes.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an in-depth qualitative study. The theoretical framework was provided via Chatman’s (1996) concepts of information poverty. Participants were adult male prisoners in a Scottish maximum security prison, and prison staff. Data collection method was semi-structured interviews.FindingsPrisoners have a broad range of information needs, many sensitive and many unmet. Interpersonal information sources are predominantly used due to a combination of natural preference and restricted access to other information sources. Issues of stigma and trust influence information behaviours. Further issues include restrictive social norms, and disinformation to incite violence. A significant degree of risk is therefore inherent within interpersonal information interactions, fostering self-protective acts of secrecy and deception amongst prisoners. Unmet emotional needs appear particularly problematic.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper highlights the need for further research exploring issues of unmet emotional needs in prisoners; in particular, assistive methods of need recognition and support in the problematic context.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies significant unmet information needs in prisoners that impact upon their ability to cope with incarceration, and prepare for successful release and reintegration.Originality/valueThe paper addresses an understudied group of significant societal concern and advances the understanding of information need in context, providing insight into unmet needs and issues of affect in the incarcerated small world context.

Mental wellbeing in prisoners in Scotland: an analysis of repeat cross-sectional surveys

BackgroundMental ill-health is very common among people in prison. However, although mental wellbeing features high in health and justice policies, it has been little studied in this population. This study aimed to address this gap using a routine survey of people in prison in Scotland. MethodsThe Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) is a validated self-report measure of wellbeing scored from 14 (lowest wellbeing) to 70 (highest wellbeing). Since 2013, WEMWBS has been included in the Scottish Prisoner Survey, a biennial self-completed survey distributed to all people in custody in Scotland in paper format. We analysed data from survey sweeps from 2013, 2015, and 2017, using Student's t test to assess differences in mean WEMWBS score by sex and custodial status (sentenced or on remand) and ANOVA for age group. Comparisons with the population in private households were made using Scottish Health Survey data, stratified by age, sex, and deprivation quintile. FindingsWEMWBS data were available for 3158 of 6895 individuals in 2013 (46% of Scottish prison population), 2892 of 6915 in 2015 (42%), and 2405 of 6837 in 2017 (35%). Mean WEMWBS scores for the total sample were 43·4 in 2013 (SD 12·3), 41·8 (12·0) in 2015, and 41·2 (12·3) in 2017. People on remand had lower mean scores than did people sentenced (38·9 [SD 11·9] vs 44·5 [12·1] in 2013, 38·9 [11·3] vs 42·5 [12·1] in 2015, and 37·4 [12·0] vs 42·2 [12·1] in 2017; all p<0·001). There was little difference by sex except in 2013, when mean scores were higher in male than in female prisoners (43·6 [12·2] vs 41·5 [11·8], p=0·029). In all sweeps, mean scores were significantly lower among people in prison than in their peers of the same age group and sex in the most deprived quintile of the general population, except among those aged 50 years or older. InterpretationThis is the first reported study of mental wellbeing in a national prisoner population to our knowledge. Mental wellbeing among prisoners is significantly lower than in the general population, even after accounting for age, sex, and socioeconomic deprivation, and is particularly low among those on remand. These results contribute to a more holistic understanding of prisoner health and provide a baseline for monitoring changes in wellbeing in response to interventions. FundingThis work was funded through a Chief Scientist Office Clinical Academic Fellowship (CAF/17/11) held by EJT and by the Medical Research Councilgrants MC_UU_12017/13 and MC_UU_12017/15, and Chief Scientist Office grants SPHSU13 and SPHSU15. Information Services Division, NHS National Services Division Scotland employs LG and XG and provided in-kind support.

Rehabilitation doxa and practitioner judgment. An analysis of symbolic violence on health care provision in the Scottish prison system.

This paper presents an analysis of the symbolic conditions which govern health care provision in the Scottish prison system. The paper considers the wider context of Scottish prisons, where health care provision follows a similar structure both in juvenile and adult prisons. Our intention is to provoke a debate about the doxa (Bourdieu, 1977), which underlies decision making in respect of health care in prison, in a political environment where pragmatism, allied to the 'pathologisation' of social policies, health and criminal justice has been a hegemonic force.

The economic consequences of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the Scottish prison system.

BackgroundAttention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is highly prevalent amongst prison inmates and the criminal justice system (CJS) likely bears considerable costs for offenders with ADHD. We aimed to examine the relationship between ADHD and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and quality-adjusted life years (QALY) amongst imprisoned adults; and to estimate the annual expenditure associated with ADHD status in prison.MethodsAn observational study was performed in 2011–2013, at Porterfield Prison, Inverness, United Kingdom (UK). The all male sample included 390 adult prison inmates with capacity to consent and no history of moderate or severe intellectual disability. Participants were interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults 2.0. The Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) was used to measure health status, and to calculate attribute specific HRQoL scores and QALY. Health service utilisation was obtained through inspection of medical prison records. Inmates with ADHD were compared with inmates without ADHD.ResultsInmates with ADHD had significantly lower QALYs, with a clinically significant adjusted difference of 0.13. Psychiatric co-morbidity accounted for the variation of ADHD on the HUI3 emotion domain only. Medical costs for inmates with ADHD were significantly higher; and behaviour-related prison costs were similar to prisoners without ADHD, reflecting a low frequency of recorded critical incidents.ConclusionsADHD may directly contribute to adverse health and quality of life through cognitive and executive function deficits, and co-morbid disorders. The extrapolation of conservative cost estimates suggests that the financial burden of medical and behavior-related prison care for inmates with ADHD in the UK is approximately £11.7 million annually. The reported cost estimates are conservative as there is great variability in recorded critical incidents in prisons. In turn, for some prison establishments the prison care costs associated with prisoners with ADHD may be considerably greater.

Prison Staff and Prisoner Views on a Prison Smoking Ban: Evidence From the Tobacco in Prisons Study.

IntroductionIn jurisdictions permitting prisoner smoking, rates are high (c75%), with smoking embedded in prison culture, leading to secondhand smoke exposures among staff and prisoners and challenges for smoking cessation. Momentum is building to ban smoking in prisons, but research on staff and prisoner views is lacking. We address this gap, providing evidence on staff and prisoner views throughout all Scottish prisons.MethodsData were collected prior to the announcement of a (November 2018) prison smoking ban throughout Scotland. Mixed methods were used: surveys of staff (online, N = 1271, ~27%) and prisoners (questionnaire, N = 2512, ~34%); 17 focus groups and two paired interviews with staff in 14 prisons.ResultsStaff were more positive than prisoners about bans and increased smoking restrictions, although prisoner views were more favorable should e-cigarettes be permitted. Nonsmokers were more positive than smokers. Whilst 74% staff and 22% prisoners agreed bans were a good idea, both groups acknowledged implementation and enforcement challenges. Staff views were influenced by beliefs about: acceptability of the policy in principle and whether/how bans could be achieved. Although some voiced doubts about smoke-free policies, staff likened a ban to other operational challenges. Staff raised concerns around needs for appropriate measures, resources and support, adequate lead-in time, and effective communication prior to a ban.ConclusionWe recommend that regular and open opportunities for dialogue within and between different stakeholder groups are created when preparing for prison smoking bans and that specific measures to address staff and prisoner concerns are incorporated into plans to create and maintain smoke-free environments.ImplicationsTo our knowledge, this study is the first to research staff and prisoner views across a whole prison system prior to implementation of smoke-free policies. The results highlight potential challenges and suggest measures, which might help to maximize the success of bans. Our results are relevant for prison service managers responsible for the forthcoming introduction of a ban in Scottish prisons (November 2018) and for other prison systems and comparable institutions planning smoke-free initiatives. Given that prison smoking bans may be contentious, we recommend creating regular and open opportunities for dialogue between stakeholders when preparing for and maintaining smoke-free environments.

“A prison within a prison”? Examining the enfolding spatialities of care and control in the Barlinnie Special Unit

This paper uses one of Scotland's most controversial experiments in penal reform – the Barlinnie Special Unit – to examine the enfolding nature of care and control in carceral space. Connecting with recent arguments relating to “caring architecture” and using the framework of historical carceral geographies, it showcases the spatial complexities of implementing caring practices alongside reforming tactics. Beginning with a discussion of the care and control nexus within institutional spaces and its historical legacy, it considers the use of small units within the Scottish Prison System. Using the Barlinnie Special Unit as a pivot, the paper opens up the complex spatial arrangements and spatial tactics of experimental prison reform. It first examines the spatial and architectural dimensions of the Special Unit. Second, the paper focuses on issues of routine and inhabitation and the emotional uncertainty this generated for prisoners. Overall, this paper seeks to argue the importance of examining experimental spatial practices in prison reform history to highlight the interwoven spatialities of care and control in every‐day institutional life.

A verisimilitude of pessimism: Scottish prisoner mug-shots, 1883–1927

This paper examines the stigmatisation of identity. Historic prisoner mug shots taken in two Scottish prisons during the late Victorian period constitute a part of archival base of this study from which generalisations to the contemporary world are conjectured. Cultural criminologists propose crime is normatively framed. Mug shots belong with a larger symbolism within a discourse of crime and culture. This article examines the scientific and cultural environs within which a dangerous semiotic of the mug shot image originated. The ‘gaze’ of the mug shot, it is argued, suffers from class stigmata circulating elite Victorian scientific laboratories and drawing-rooms. Criminal anthropology, it is argued, constructed visual sources as tools for reaching certainty, but in this project generated processes of social closure. Morphological deviations from the norm defined the ‘criminal body’.

Pharmacists invited to bid for £8.5m contract to run pharmacy services in Scottish prisons

Pharmacists invited to bid for £8.5m contract to run pharmacy services in Scottish prisons

Lifers over tariff: exploring psychological barriers to progression

PurposeThere are a significant number of life-sentenced prisoners in Scotland who are over tariff (i.e. past their punishment part expiry date) and who appear to have difficulty in making the transition towards community reintegration. The factors involved in their repeated returns to closed conditions are not adequately understood. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue using a qualitative approach in order to understand the experience of life-sentenced prisoners in this position, and the psychological barriers that compromise their progression to less secure conditions and the community.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews were conducted with eight life-sentenced prisoners who met the criteria for the research. All were significantly over tariff and all had multiple failed attempts at progression to less secure conditions. Interviews were recorded and transcripts were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis.FindingsThe analysis produced three identifiable supraordinate themes, each with subordinate themes. The supraordinate themes included: shaming self-identify, perception of the community as daunting, and disempowerment. The ability to generalise the findings outwith the participants of this study are acknowledged.Practical implicationsThis has provided further understanding as to the complexity of the issue, and the ways in which it manifests into behaviour. Initial (albeit tentative) recommendations for intervention and service provision can therefore be identified.Originality/valueThe results are discussed against the implications for service provision in Scottish prisons, and identify the areas for further research that will help to inform the forensic practices in this context.

Voices of Quiet Desistance in UK Prisons: Exploring Emergence of New Identities Under Desistance Constraint

AbstractThe article explores desistance dynamics within prison, and what gang members say about its phenomenology. Qualitative methodology was adopted with research participants in English and Scottish prisons. The findings indicate that desistance‐oriented dispositions develop gradually once gang ties, originating in the street gang, lose the resonance they once exercised on conformity to offending behaviour. This liberation from oppression means not merely that gang members are de facto left to fend for themselves, but also to find a liminal space in which to thrive. It gives them an opportunity to learn and develop prosocial values. Spirituality, a source of personal meaning, supports progression to desistance and fosters distance from the street self. Gang members’ loyalties and conflicts pre‐dating incarceration challenge the potential of prison to break criminogenic ties and foster desistance.

Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABIs) for male remand prisoners: protocol for development of a complex intervention and feasibility study (PRISM-A)

IntroductionIn the UK, a significant proportion of male remand prisoners have alcohol problems. Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABIs) are an effective component of a population-level approach to harmful and hazardous drinking....

Scotland's national naloxone program: The prison experience

Launched in 2011, the Scottish national naloxone program marked an important development in public health policy. Central to its design were strategies to engage prisoners given their elevated risk of drug-related death in the weeks following liberation. Implementation across Scottish prisons has posed particular challenges linked to both operational issues within prison establishments and individual factors affecting staff delivering, and prisoners engaging, with the program. Barriers have been overcome through innovation and partnership working. This commentary has described how the development of the program in prisons has adapted to these challenges to a point where a largely consistent model is in place and where prisoners-on-release are reaping the benefits in terms of reduced opioid-related mortality.

The use and readability of mental health self-help in Scottish prisons

Prisoners are at higher risk of mental health problems than people in the general community. One possible way of optimising mental health care resources in prisons is to offer self-help materials. In order for these to be effective, they must be appropriate for the reading ability of the patient. This study aimed to determine, by way of a survey distributed to Scottish mental health care teams, how self-help resources are being used currently in the Scottish prison system, and to analyse the materials using four different readability tools: FRE, FKGL, SMOG and the Drivel Defence programme. It was found that there is currently widespread provision of self-help to Scottish prisoners; however, only 53% of these materials are suitable for the quoted average prisoner reading age. Mental health practitioners should be aware of this when providing self-help to patients, and consider easy-read options where available.

Morale at 'all-time low' for nurses in Scottish prisons.

There are 'significant concerns' about morale, recruitment and work pressures in the nursing workforce in Scottish prisons, an RCN Scotland report has warned.

Person-centered Health Coaching in a Scottish Prison Population: Findings at Training Completion

Introduction: People in Scottish prisons (PSP) have poorer health than the general population. The promotion of health and wellbeing in prisons is a central aim of Scottish Government policy. Objective: This study was aimed at designing, implementing and evaluating person-centered health coaching (HC) training to improve PSP´s health and related psycho-social skills.Methods: PSP were trained as health coaches, as part of National Health Service (NHS) Scotland’s oral health prison intervention, termed Mouth Matters (MMs). A unit of MM involving HC is named PEPSCOT. Here PSP were trained by a qualified coach over a three-month period to become health coaches; 8, 4 and 4 whole day training took place respectively during the first, second, third month of training. Self-assessment questionnaires and diaries were used before, during and after the HC training to test the extent to which HC works to improve PSP´s health and related psycho-social variables. The outcome measures analyzed in the present study were self-assessed health and behaviors, self-efficacy, self-esteem, depression, and usefulness of the program. Follow-up data will be collected in September 2016 for further assessment of the impact of HC.Results: The baseline data showed that the majority of the participants were from low socio-economic status, and reported a moderate level of health. Data showed later that when compared with baseline levels two of the outcome variables (self-esteem and self-efficacy) improved significantly (p&lt;0.001) at the mid-training point, and that all four outcome variables (also including self-assessed health and depression) improved significantly (at least p&lt;0.05) at the completion of training. Participants’ positive evaluation of the training was significantly correlated with improved health and psychological measures (p&lt;0.05).Conclusions: Health Coaching training represents a new person-centered approach that appears to enhance self-assessed health, mood, self-esteem and self-efficacy among prisoners in Scotland, and also to enable transitions from negative to positive concerning beliefs, values, and self-evaluations. There is however a need for further studies at a larger scale.

Documenting Arts Practitioners’ Practice in Prisons: ‘What Do You Do in There?’

AbstractThis article explores arts practitioners’ methods in leading workshops with prisoners as part of the Inspiring Change pilot, a co‐ordinated pilot programme of arts interventions that took place in five Scottish prisons throughout 2010. Session review forms, which were completed by arts practitioners after each session, were designed to find out what happened in sessions, what worked well with prisoners in these sessions and what did not. Very little has been written on the arts practitioners’ methods and, in particular, the data gathered from session review forms. This article discusses the data gathered and three themes that came out of the arts practitioners’ responses including ‘Response to planned activity’, ‘Response to working in a prison environment’, and ‘Development of skills for participants’. The article concludes that documenting arts practitioners’ practice can contribute to the understanding of the connection and role of the arts in desistance studies.

Anatomy of the Lockerbie bombing: Libya’s role and reactions to al-Megrahi’s release.

Despite its long historical antecedents, terrorism is amongst the growing realities of the national history of contemporary sovereign states. With this emergence, destabilizing influence, and internationalization, terrorism has made the associated security challenge a major diplomatic headache for all key international actors and diplomats. This paper, which adopts a theoretical approach, assesses claims that Ghadafi’s Libya championed state-sponsored terrorism. It reviews the Lockerbie bombing and the conviction of al-Megrahi by the court in Netherland as well as his release from Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. It examines Libya’s use of available diplomatic tools and channels not only to prevent Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi from facing justice but also to attain Ghadafi’s political and economic interests. This article documents the political communication that followed his release and calls for increased diplomatic investigations of the Lockerbie terrorist attack. Finally, the paper beckons on Libya’s new leaders and the leaderships of USA and Scotland to engage in a progressive multilateral strategic cooperation to unravel further facts on the Lockerbie bombing while promoting the current international “war” against terrorism.

Understanding extreme mortality among prisoners: a national cohort study in Scotland using data linkage.

Mortality is known to be extremely high among people who have been imprisoned, but there is limited information about the factors that explain this increased risk. Standard record linkage methods were used to link Scottish prison records and mortality data for all individuals imprisoned in Scotland for the first time between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2007. Among 76 627 individuals there were 4414 deaths (3982 in men). When compared with the general population, the age-standardized mortality rate ratio for those imprisoned was 3.3 (95% CI: 3.2, 3.4) for men and 7.6 (6.9, 8.3) for women. Further adjustment for an area measure of deprivation accounted for part but not all of this excess risk [adjusted rate ratio 2.3 (2.2, 2.4) and 5.7 (5.1, 6.2) for men and women, respectively]. Relative risks were highest for drug and alcohol related causes, suicide and homicide and were markedly higher among women than men. Out of prison deaths were most frequent in the first 2 weeks after release from prison. Mortality rates were lower in those with longer total duration in prison and higher in those with multiple short episodes in prison. People who have been imprisoned in Scotland experience substantial excess mortality from a range of causes that is only partly explained by deprivation. The association of increased mortality with multiple periods in prison and the concentration of deaths in the early period after prison release both have implications for policy and practice.

Project-based learning in Scottish prisons

The article describes the development of a project-based approach to learning in seven Scottish prisons. It argues that the project-based approach is ideally suited to prison education due to its flexibility and ability to enrich the relatively narrow prison curriculum and create meaningful links with wider society, reducing the isolation of prisoners. The approach also empowers staff and encourages interdisciplinary working. The project-based approach is well placed to support and reinforce desistance-based practice in education and fits well with both the new Scottish Prison Service strategy, Unlocking Potential, Transforming Lives and with Scottish Government's education policy, Curriculum for Excellence.