Time In Prison Research Articles

Making Gideon Count? Public Defender Resources and Felony Case Outcomes for Black, White, and Latinx Individuals

Although Gideon v. Wainright has provided indigent defendants potentially facing prison time the right to counsel, commentators and scholars have documented that the public defense system is vastly underfunded and currently in crisis. However, research has rarely examined how public defender resources impact case outcomes, and the research that does exist has yet, to my knowledge, examine how these resources impact racial disparities in case outcomes. By merging data from the Census of Public Defender Offices to data from the State Court Processing Statistics, I begin to fill this gap. Results from multivariate regression analyses with state-year fixed effects provide mixed evidence. Regardless of race, higher public defender and support staff caseloads tend to be associated with worse case outcomes. In the case of pretrial detention, I find that high public defender and support staff caseloads exacerbate Black-White disparities. With respect to sentence length, I find evidence that high public defender caseloads exacerbate Latinx-White disparities and some evidence that they mitigate Black-White disparities. In sum, these results provide strong support for the view that the public defender funding crisis harms indigent defendants regardless of race and mixed evidence regarding its impact on racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The Characteristics and Benefits of Disclosing Personal Experiences in Prison: A Study of the Writing Paradigm

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics and benefits of writing about personal experiences in prison. A variation of the classic writing paradigm was proposed to a sample of 93 male inmates in southern Italian prisons. Participants were left to write on any personal experience related to their condition and time in prison in 4 daily sessions. Measures of subjective well-being were collected across the sessions. Transcripts were analyzed through sentiment analysis. Cognitive and executive functioning indices (i.e., general cognitive abilities, working memory capacity, inhibition, and shifting) are included as covariates in our analyses on the evolution of well-being measures. Results showed that participants’ well-being improved across the sessions, independent of the emotional valence of the disclosed experience. This effect was partly modulated by the participant’s measure of working memory capacity. After an initial simplification, narrative productions appeared to increase their length and complexity. Our results support the idea that emotional disclosure in our sample of inmates contributes to social integration. Results encourage the adoption of writing procedures, as they are inexpensive and effective in supporting prisoners’ adjustment to prison life. Supplemental materials are available at https://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/ajp/media/a_study_on_the_writing_paradigm/index.htm

Psychological symptomatology in a prison population: an exploratory study of age, psychopathological history and time in prison.

Objectives Identify psychological symptoms relating to age, psychopathological history and time in prison in women and men incarcerated in a prison.Material and method Cross-sectional study. The sample was made up of 100 inmates, 50 men and 50 women and the symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) was used to assess psychopathological symptoms.Results This study shows that inmates with a psychopathological history prior to entry to prison, younger inmates (18-29 years) and inmates who have been a short time in prison present more psychopathological symptoms.Discussion The results found suggest the implementation of a protocol for psychological care of prisoners in general, but highlights a particular interest in the care of cases with people with a psychopathological history prior to entering prison, in those who are younger and those who have been in prison for a short time.

The Importance of Incorporating Lived Experience in Efforts to Reduce Australian Reincarceration Rates

It is widely acknowledged that ‘good policy’ should be informed by the people it most directly affects. In Australia, the value of drawing on lived experiences in the development and delivery of services has recently been noted in health areas, such as disability and mental health. However, learning from people with lived experiences in the criminal justice sector, such as people who have served time in prison, has received little attention. This article discusses the significance of and challenges related to capturing the voices of people who are currently serving time or have served time in prison. We argue that formalising the perspectives of these individuals into policymaking through co-design processes may be an important method for enhancing program responses to rising incarceration and reincarceration rates.

The optimistic utopia: sacrifice and expectations of political transformation in the Angolan Revolutionary Movement

The optimistic utopia: sacrifice and expectations of political transformation in the Angolan Revolutionary Movement

Less Prison Time Matters: A Roadmap to Reducing the Discriminatory Impact of the Sentencing System Against African Americans and Indigenous Australians

The criminal justice system discriminates against African Americans. There are a number of stages of the criminal justice process. Sentencing is the sharp end of the system because this is where the community acts in its most coercive manner by intentionally inflecting hardships on offenders. African Americans comprise 40% of the incarcerated population, yet only 13% of the population. The overrepresentation of African Americans in prisons is repugnant. Despite this, lawmakers for decades have been unable or unwilling to implement reforms which ameliorate the problem. This is no longer politically or socially tolerable in light of the groundswell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd. The Article proposes a number of principled reforms that will immediately reduce the incarceration levels of African Americans and assist to overcome the systemic biases against this group. One of our key recommendations is for the immediate release from incarceration of all African Americans who have served three-quarters or more of their sentence. This reform builds on the early release concept underpinning the First Step Act, which commenced in December 2018, but applies it specifically to African Americans. A number of other reforms are suggested to redress the wider causes of discrimination against African Americans in the sentencing system, including placing less emphasis on the prior convictions of offenders in the sentencing calculus and improving the educational outcomes of African Americans. Discrimination faced by the most socially and economically groups in society is not limited to the United States. Indigenous Australians are overrepresented in prisons at an even higher rate than African Americans. We argue that the solutions to ameliorating the unfair burdens on African Americans are equally appropriate in the Australian context.

Proliferation of Punishment: The Centrality of Legal Fines and Fees in the Landscape of Contemporary Penology.

Decades of significant crime declines and recent reductions in the number of people confined in prisons and jails in the United States have been accompanied by the emergence of new, and the resurgence of old, forms of punishment. One of these resurgent forms is the assessment of fines, fees, and costs to those who encounter the criminal legal system. Legal financial obligations (LFOs) have become widespread across the United States and are levied for offenses from alleged traffic violations in some states to felony convictions in others. Their emergence has been heralded by some as a less punitive alternative to spending time in prison or jail but recognized by others as uniquely consequential for people without the means to pay. Drawing on data from 254 counties in Texas, this article explores the emergence and enforcement of LFOs in Texas, where LFOs play a particularly prominent role in sanctions for alleged misdemeanor offenses and serve as an important source of revenue. Enforcement of LFOs varies geographically and is related to conservative politics and racial threat. We argue that LFOs are a defining feature of a contemporary punishment regime where racial injustice is fueled by economic inequality.

Éthique de deux libertins incarcérés : Mirabeau et Sade épistoliers

Mirabeau and Sade, who were incarcerated in the Castle of Vincennes in the same period for breaching moral standards, pursued a correspondence filled with ethical reflections from their time in prison. Their epistolary exchanges in jail show their interest in the penal reform initiated by Beccaria and carried out at the end of the eighteenth century. Their letters likewise underscore the incommensurable aspect of institutional power, the failures of the French judicial system, and the strategies used to crush prisoners. They denounce a world of inverted values in which duping the “deleter” becomes legitimate: the inmate becomes a victim of “brigands” and administrative “executioners.”

Factors associated with unfavorable outcome of tuberculosis treatment in people deprived of liberty: a systematic review.

to analyze factors associated with unfavorable outcome of tuberculosis treatment in people deprived of liberty. systematic review, carried out in March 2021 in seven databases, with no delimitation of period of publication. The selection process of publications and data extraction was carried out by two independent reviewers. a total of 1,448 publications was identified and nine were included in the study. Unfavorable outcome was higher among those who were men; had low level of education; were living in a rural area before detention; had longer prison time; received occasional visits; had been transferred between prisons; with no sputum smear microscopy or with a positive result at the diagnosis; with no follow-up sputum smear microscopy, previous history of tuberculosis; having both clinical forms of the disease, HIV/AIDS; alcoholics; smokers; low body weight; and self-administered treatment. Treatment default was associated with young people and death with older people. prison health managers and professionals are expected to establish mechanisms of surveillance and health actions innovation aimed at the population deprived of liberty, making efforts to reduce the unfavorable outcomes of tuberculosis treatment.

Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

Juridical Message in the Shadow of the Carceral: Prison Discipline, Additional Days and the Feasibility of Penal Communication

Juridical and carceral scholarship seldom interact. As a result, the visible and less visible intersections and gaps between the two penal logics and discourses are often overlooked. The paper argues for better understanding of juridical power, and how it may cut through the boundaries of juridical/carceral separation. As a case study, the paper problematises the disciplinary punishment of imposing ‘additional days’ of prison time (AD) for prison rules violations, through the lenses of communicative sentencing theory. The paper argues that AD may undermine the juridical communicative ideal as it may cause penal censure to lose credibility, trivialise the value of prison time, and harm the feasibility of penal communication by disconnecting imprisonment from the offence of conviction. Conclusions for socio-legal and penal theory and policy are discussed.

Correlates of Incarceration of Fathers, Socioeconomic Influences, and Mental Illness

ABSTRACT The United States leads globally in incarceration. Incarceration can disrupt families in both immediate and long-term ways, including finances and mental illness. We examined the relationship between father incarceration during adolescence and the development of mental illness in adulthood as well as the relationship of household assets and debts in relation to the mental illness outcomes. Wave IV data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used with a final analytic sample of 2129 participants. Data were analyzed using MANOVA in Stata 13.1. The findings indicated that biological father incarceration correlates with more adolescent mental illness. Enhanced model residuals were also significant for father incarceration, household assets, and household debts. Incarceration of biological fathers correlates with poorer mental health outcomes. Household assets and debts correlate with changes in adolescent outcomes as well, giving us more target areas for intervention development and testing. Clinically, assessing for adolescent experiences with father incarceration may be useful in supporting improved mental health over the life course. Policy work should give more attention to promotion of health and well-being of adolescents via reduction of the negative experience of fathers serving and/or having served time in prison. More discussion on family-level assets and debts is warranted to promote health and well-being for adolescents and adults.

The potential influence of criminological rationales in considering childhood abuse as mitigating to sentencing

BackgroundU.S. courts currently show no coherent approach with regard to how evidence of childhood abuse is considered in sentencing. Existing state and federal caselaw suggests that courts rarely place significant consideration on evidence of childhood abuse during sentencing, but the reasons why offenders who have been subjected to childhood abuse rarely receive mitigated or alternative sentences remain unknown. Yet literature has suggested it might be because no convincing rationales have been yet developed for the court in contending that penalties of offenders who were subjected to childhood abuse should be mitigated. ObjectiveThis research examines if and how criminological theoretical perspectives linking childhood abuse and later offending (Social Control Theory, Social Learning Theory, General Strain Theory) are persuasive in arguing childhood abuse (neglect, witnessing trauma, sexual abuse, physical abuse) as mitigating to criminal sentencing. ParticipantsA national sample of U.S. adults (N = 521). MethodsA multi-factorial, vignette-based experiment was conducted, utilizing OLS and mediation analyses. ResultsEvidence on childhood abuse, and particularly sexual abuse, reduced support for incapacitation (B = -0.13, p ≤ 0.05) and increased support for rehabilitation (B = 0.16, p ≤ 0.01). Social Control Theory was particularly persuasive in arguing childhood abuse as mitigating to prison time and in relation to support for rehabilitative sentencing (mediated by beliefs regarding what the theory conveys about future dangerousness and reduced responsibility). ConclusionsCriminological theories appear to be persuasive rationales for arguing childhood abuse as mitigating to sentencing contexts involving incapacitation and rehabilitation. Implications for sentencing guidelines and systems are discussed.

The Effects of Time in Prison and Time on Parole on Recidivism

AbstractIn the United States, every year roughly 600,000 people are released from prison, two-thirds of them without having served their full sentence behind bars. Yet little is known about how rel...

A highly rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain emerging in Southern Brazil

Here we described phenotypical, molecular and epidemiological features of a highly rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain emerging in Southern Brazil, that carries an uncommon insertion of 12 nucleotides at the codon 435 in the rpoB gene. Employing a whole-genome sequencing-based study on drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, we identified this emergent strain in 16 (9.19%) from 174 rifampicin-resistant clinical strains, all of them belonging to LAM RD115 sublineage. Nine of these 16 strains were available to minimum inhibitory concentration determination and for all of them was found a high rifampicin-resistance level (≥to 32 mg/L). This high resistance level could be explained by structural changes into the RIF binding site of RNA polymerase caused by the insertions, and consequent low-affinity interaction with rifampicin complex confirmed through protein modeling and molecular docking simulations. Epidemiological investigation showed that most of the individuals (56.25%) infected by the studied strains were prison inmate individuals or that spent some time in prison. The phylogenomic approach revealed that strains carrying on insertion belonged to same genomic cluster, evidencing a communal transmission chain involving inmate individuals and community. We stress the importance of tuberculosis genomic surveillance and introduction of measures to interrupt Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission chain in this region.

Juridical Message in the Shadow of the Carceral: Prison Discipline, Additional Days and the Feasibility of Penal Communication

Juridical and carceral scholarship seldom interact. As a result, the visible and less visible intersections and gaps between the two penal logics and discourses are often overlooked. The paper argues for a better understanding of juridical power, and how it may cut through the boundaries of juridical/carceral separation. As a case study, the paper problematizes the disciplinary punishment of imposing ‘additional days’ of prison time (AD) for prison rules violations through the lenses of retributive-communicative sentencing theory. The paper argues that AD may undermine the juridical communicative ideal as it may cause penal censure to lose credibility, trivialize the value of prison time, and harm the feasibility of penal communication by disconnecting imprisonment from the offence of conviction. Conclusions for socio-legal and penal theory and policy are discussed.

In the eye of the beholder: Meaning and structure of informal status in women's and men's prisons*

AbstractApplying an abductive mixed‐methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest “old head” narratives—where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status—are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal “caregivers” and manipulative “bullies,” however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative” status nominations, with “negative” ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high‐status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed‐methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.

S0287 Incarceration Is Associated With Poor Adherence to Colorectal Cancer Screening in African American Men

INTRODUCTION: In the United States (US), African-American (AA) men are disproportionately affected by colorectal cancer (CRC). They have higher incidence and mortality rates compared to all other groups, and this is in part due to their lower rate of adherence to CRC screening. AA men are also heavily impacted by incarceration in the US, with almost a third expected to spend time in prison in their lifetime. Given the significance of incarceration on the socialization of AA men in the US, it is vital to understand its impact on adherence to CRC screening. We aimed to investigate the association between prior incarceration and adherence to CRC screening in average-risk AA men in the US. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study involving AA men between the ages of 50 and 75 years in an urban center in the US. Those with a personal or family history of CRC were excluded. Surveys were administered to obtain information on demographics, experiences with incarceration, and CRC screening practices. Adherence to screening was defined as having had a colonoscopy within the past 10 years, a flexible sigmoidoscopy within the past 5 years, or a stool-based test within the past year. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between incarceration and adherence to screening. RESULTS: Among the 144 men included in the final analysis, median age was 59 years (interquartile range 8 years), 84% had health insurance coverage (n = 122), and 63% (n = 92) had at least a high school diploma (Table 1). Seventy-four men (51.4%) had been incarcerated in the past, including 52 of them who had been incarcerated two or more different times. Median age at first incarceration was 18 years (interquartile range, 8 years) and the median duration of imprisonment was 48 months (interquartile range, 112 months). Fifty percent of the study population (n = 72) was adherent to CRC screening. After adjusting for age and health insurance coverage, those who had been incarcerated more than once had a significantly lower likelihood of adherence to CRC screening [0 vs ≥2: OR 0.46 (95% CI 0.22–0.97); Ptrend = 0.04] (Table 2). CONCLUSION: Incarceration is associated with lower adherence to CRC screening in AA men. Targeted CRC-related education should be explored for AA men with a history of incarceration, and in the pre-release period for those in prisons. Further studies should assess for modifiable barriers to CRC screening in AA men with a history of incarceration.Table 1.: Characteristics of Study Population, by Adherence to Colorectal Cancer ScreeningTable 2.: Association between Incarceration and Adherence to Colorectal Cancer Screening

Więźniowie na rynku pracy — analiza doświadczeń polskich i zagranicznych

The article discusses the issues related to the employment of prisoners in Poland and in other countries. The author refers to some legal provisions regulating the question of who can undertake an employment while serving time in prison, what requirements must be met by convincts who work while imprisoned. Then, the article discusses particular professions performed by prisoners. An important element of the article is also apresentation of socio-psychological aspects of rendering work while incarcerated. Since one of the reasons for writing this article was the announcement in 2016 of the “Work for prisoners” programme, a significant part of the article is devoted to discussion of this project. An attempt is made to answer the question: Has the governmental programme in question proved successful? Instrumental in answering this question is a comparison of a number of prisoners before the start of the said programme, and while being a part of its operation. The article also includes some examples of influencing prisoners already successfully implemented in other countries.

Emergency department targeted screening for hepatitis C does not improve linkage to care.

BACKGROUNDHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. New treatments for HCV revolutionized management and prompted the world health organization to set the goal of viral elimination by 2030. These developments strengthen the need for HCV screening in order to identify asymptomatic carriers prior to development of chronic liver disease and its complications. Different screening strategies have been attempted, most targeting high-risk populations. Previous studies focusing on patients arriving at emergency departments showed a higher prevalence of HCV compared to the general population.AIMTo identify previously undiagnosed HCV carriers among high risk emergency room attendees and link them to care for anti-viral treatment.METHODSIn this single center prospective study, persons visiting the emergency department in an urban hospital were screened by a risk factor-specific questionnaire. The risk factors screened for were exposure to blood products or organ transplantation before 1992; origins from countries with high prevalence of HCV; intravenous drug use; human immunodeficiency virus carriers; men who have sex with men; those born to HCV-infected mothers; prior prison time; and chronic kidney disease. Those with at least one risk factor were tested for HCV by serum for HCV antibodies, a novel oral test from saliva (OraQuick®) or both.RESULTSFive hundred and forty-one participants had at least one risk factor and were tested for HCV. Eighty four percent of all study participants had only one risk factor. Eighty five percent of participants underwent OraQuick® testing, 34% were tested for serum anti-HCV antibodies, and 25% had both tests. 3.1% of patients (17/541) had a positive result, compared to local population incidence of 1.96%. Of these, 82% were people who inject drugs (current or former), and 64% served time in prison. One patient had a negative HCV-RNA, and two patients died from non-HCV related reasons. On review of past medical records, 12 patients were found to have been previously diagnosed with HCV but were unaware of their carrier state. At 1-year follow-up none of the remaining 14 patients had completed HCV-RNA testing, visited a hepatology clinic or received anti-viral treatment.CONCLUSIONTargeted high-risk screening in the emergency department identified undiagnosed and untreated HCV carriers, but did not improve treatment rates. Other strategies need to be developed to improve linkage to care in high risk populations.