Prison Work Research Articles

TRABALHO DO PRESO: O TRIPÉ DO DEVER SOCIAL, CONDIÇÃO DA DIGNIDADE HUMANA E FINALIDADE EDUCATIVA

The purpose of this article is to analyze the feasibility, in Brazil, of re-socializing prisoners through work, objecting to their return to society, as well as analyze the importance of the education actions on prisons that should prepare them for professional life. Furthermore, this article exposes the matter of the productive activities to generate financial support as a means for the inmate to contribute to its own family or, even more, somehow, reimburse the State for the prison costs. Besides that, the prison models adopted worldwide, and their historical evolution, as well as the model used in Brazil, will be presented. Lastly, data about the work of prisoners in Brazilian prisons will be shown, exposing the positives and negatives of the reality of this country; in the same way, this article will analyze projects by private companies and public institutions that aim to reinsert inmates and ex-inmates into society.

The incorporation of women’s empowerment principles (WEPs) as criteria for granting the national social responsibility seal for prison work (RESCUE)

Gender discrimination against women in the labor market remains a global scourge. This situation is even more aggravated in the case of women prisoners or ex-prisoners, who suffer not only from gender bias, but from their involvement with the criminal world. In this context, the present work aimed to propose the incorporation of the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) proposed by the United Nations (UN), as a new criterion for the granting of the National Seal of Social Responsibility for Prison Work (RESCUE). The RESCUE, created in 2017 by the National Penitentiary Department (DEPEN), of the Brazilian State, has the purpose of recognizing the initiatives of public and private institutions that hire people deprived of their liberty or those released from the national prison system. For this purpose, bibliographic and documentary research was carried out on Brazilian doctrine and legislation, as well as on UN documents. It was concluded that there is a need and urgency for the Brazilian State to improve the mechanisms for the inclusion of women in the labor market, especially in the case of those prisoners or those who are discharged from the penitentiary system, being RESCUE an important initiative that can be significantly improved by including WEPs, as one of the criteria for its award.

Developing the Conceptual Foundations for the Science of Penitentiary (Prison) Law — Prison Studies — as an Independent Branch of Russian Criminal Law (Second Half of the XIX — Beginning of the XX Century)

The authors analyze the historical experience of the emergence and development of the science of penitentiary (prison) law — prison studies — as an independent branch of Russian criminal law that was formed in the second half of the 19th — beginning of the 20th centuries. They pay special attention to the institutionalization of the punishment of incarceration whose theoretical foundation was laid by outstanding representatives of Russian pre-revolutionary prison studies. In this historical period, famous legal scholars, practitioners, public figures, political and fiction writers studied problems of the organization and functioning of the Russian prison service, they offered suggestions on its optimization, on improving the effectiveness of its functioning regarding the implementation of the basic principles of punishment for persons who committed illegal actions. It is noted that in the history of Russian criminal law, the institute of punishment was studied by many representatives of legal science and practice who were not only outstanding scholars, but also highly effective organizers of prison work. However even today, in the process of establishing a civilized, humane, international law- and norm-based penitentiary system in Russia, there is an acute lack of complex research which would offer a comprehensive description and characteristic of the contemporary science of penitentiary law that became unofficially known as prison studies in the second half of the 19th — first half of the 20th centuries. Taking into account the historical past of our country, it is evident that a complex approach to researching the fundamental principles of the punishment of incarceration contributes to the further development of Russia legal science, to the objective assessment of the role and place of penitentiary institutions in the system of especially authorized state bodies that possess an exclusive right to counteracting crime. The studied empirical materials allowed the authors to conclude that it is necessary to analyze and widely use this rich historical legacy, which would help contemporary legal research and practice gain new knowledge in a dynamic and consistent way.

Prisons and Mental Health: Violence, Organizational Support, and the Effects of Correctional Work

Correctional workers have a high likelihood of exposure to violence in the workplace. However, empirical literature has largely neglected the mental health consequences of prison work, as well as the institutional factors that might mitigate or exacerbate these effects. To fill this gap, we employ original survey data on thousands of correctional officers to explore the effects of exposure to violence on the job. We find strong associations between violence and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide risk, as well as symptoms of depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety, and sleep disorder. Importantly, we also find a potentially protective role of institutional factors, such as the quality of perceived management and supervision. In line with the perceived organizational support (POS) model, our findings make clear that organizational support can moderate the deleterious effects of prison work.

‘That Doesn’t Leave You’: Psychological Dirt and Taint in Prison Officers’ Occupational Cultures and Identities

Abstract This article examines the conceptualization of prison officers as psychologically ‘dirty’. It defines the novel ‘psychological taint’ and taint management strategies in their occupational cultures. Drawing on ethnographic data, psychological taint’s three sources are identified as the psychological processes necessary to do their job, contamination through association with groups stigmatized as mentally unwell, and the pernicious effects of prison work. The article analyses the relationship between unaddressed anxiety provoked in prison work and the amplified salience of external threat in psychological taint. While advancing studies of occupational cultures and identities, psychological taint offers a constructive lens to analyse occupations across multiple fields. The presented implications address the nature of prison workplaces, punishment and the provision of mental health supports.

Hometown Prison: Whiteness, Safety, and Prison Work in Upstate New York State

ABSTRACTMass incarceration has been shown to be a force of racializations and class inequality in US life, but little literature has focused on the lives of prison guards. Highlighting the lived experiences of prison guards at two state maximum security prisons in Elmira, New York, a small multiracial city in central New York State, this article uses Cedric Robinson's notion of racial capitalism to show how prison expansion unfolds in New York State at the end of the twentieth century. Guard labor includes both the physical work of control and of basic social reproduction and is done by people who are connected to the cultures, histories, and political economies in which they were raised, what Elmirans often call one's “hometown.” I examine prison guards’ narratives of their racial encounters inside and outside the prison, their sense of their racialized selves, and their relationship to what they see as often boring, violent, and stigmatized work. I show how the expansion of the carceral state over the past forty years, the period most often referred to as mass incarceration, maintains Fordism's labor hierarchies in a retooled racialization: as jailer and jailed. [prisons, whiteness, carceral state, racial capitalism, post‐Fordism]

‘Add to cart’: prison-based community service for psychologists in South Africa and the comfort of online shopping

To register as independent practitioners in South Africa, all clinical psychologists must first complete a compulsory year of community service. We report here on an aspect of our reactions to completing this service in prison contexts, where we experienced a mismatch between our clinical training received and the role we were expected to play in the prison. We were placed in a space that felt dangerous, frightening, and for which we felt unprepared. By chance, we learned that each of us who was doing this prison work, each in a different prison, began to use online shopping as a way of coping with this anxiety as a means of virtual escape from our work environment. Common themes of powerlessness, loss of control, loneliness, feeling restricted and the need to escape emerged as motivators behind our online shopping. Online shopping created fantasy spaces where our individuality felt acknowledged, and where we experienced instant gratification through receiving tailored packages. Online shopping provided us with a regressive escape from daily work experience of a prison system dominated by locks, restrictions, and powerlessness and where people, including those providing mental health services are reduced to numbers in a harsh and rigid bureaucratic system. By way of conclusion, we reflect on the potential use of online technologies as a way of escaping more generally, especially under current pandemic conditions. We suggest that though virtual spaces can be helpful, counsellors need to remain mindful of issues pertaining to enactment, projection, and transference.

Finkey Ferenc hatása a kriminálpedagógia fejlődésére

Ferenc Finkey’s scientific achievements and human qualities have made him one of the most prominent personalities in the field of legal sciences and prison affairs. He did not, of course, begin his epoch-making activity in a “vacuum”, so we consider it important to present the antecedents, the penological initiatives of the early 19th century, focusing on youth protection and work in prisons, and we describe the social and political reasons that supported or made it difficult for Finkey’s ideas to emerge. The fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic had tragic consequences for criminal pedagogy trying its wings. We have gathered a bouquet of human and professional reasons why Finkey has distanced himself from the spirituality, events, and aspirations of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in every way. Fortunately for criminal pedagogy, Finkey’s professional career and scientific aspirations were not broken by the proletarian dictatorship and the subsequent ideological retaliation. Finally, we prove the greatness of Ferenc Finkey's theoretical system in criminal pedagogy by using the ideas formulated in his own work Punishment and Pedagogy, which is considered to be the most important one for the topic of our study.

Work in Prisons: The Gender Difference that Intensifies with the Incarceration and Indicates the Lack of Human Dignity

This study deals with gender inequality in the labour market, a situation that becomes worse when we talk about incarcerated women, showing the lack of human dignity in the prision system. Women’s participation in the labour market has increased over the years, but the gender difference is noticeable when we analyze the positions held and the pay gap. In the penitentiary system, situation is reversed, the number of incarcerated women who work is higher compared to men, and however the conditions referring to human dignity when we speak about gender are unconstitutional. The scope of this article is to lead to academic debate the issue of dignity of incarcerated women in labour market, since the prision system aggravates and indicates the gender difference. To archive the research purpose, the methodology used will be bibliographic and documentary, bringing the concept of work,the discussion about acquisition of the right to work for women and the analysis of data from the profile of incarcerated women, access to work and education in the prison environment. With a population of 37.828 women in spaces designed for men it is necessary think about work, as fundamental at re-socializing and at human dignity. Keywords: Women; Prison; Work; Human dignity. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-11-12 Publication date: June 30 th 2021

Coercive Capitalism

Coercive capitalism is development based on the use of force to dispossess either land or labor. Early macrosociologists, both functionalist and conflict-oriented, believed that feudal systems were based on the use of force but that capitalism is based on coercion-free free markets. Wallerstein argued that coercive capitalism exists in the periphery of world systems. We argue that coercion is endemic to all capitalism. Much of the land on which capitalism is based, including all of the Western Hemisphere, was seized from aboriginal populations. Land seizure was common in historic Europe. Forced labor existed until very recently in both bound apprenticeships and prison work crews. Coercion is used extensively in land acquisition for contemporary capitalism. It can take the form of legal sanctions exerted against the defenseless, or the use of paramilitaries and gangsters to exert pressure on the landholding poor.

Scoping review of mental health in prisons through the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectiveTo examine the extent, nature and quality of literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of imprisoned people and prison staff.DesignScoping review.Data sourcesPubMed, Embase, CINAHL,...

Music and Theatre Making In Canadian Prisons

The benefits of engaging in theatre- and music-making have been well proven for various populations. (see Črnčec et al. 2006; Lehmberg and Fung 2010; Salur et al 2017, etc.) These benefits are particularly significant for individuals who have experienced trauma, especially incarcerated individuals. (see Kyprianides and Easterbrook 2020; Reid 2019, etc).
 Music and theatre programs vary in Canada, and are present in many Canadian prisons. In this paper, I examine two programs more closely: the grass roots program Pros and Cons at The Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ontario, which involves a collaboration between volunteer musicians and a group of incarcerated men, and Diane Conrad’s work with a young offender’s facility in Alberta Canada, where she employed devised theatre techniques to create meaningful theatrical pieces within the prison’s walls. Both these programs are working towards a similar goal: preparing the incarcerated individuals to return to society through practicing and rehearsing healthy community and citizenship through collaborative music and theatre. While this is an admirable goal for this work, the conversation surrounding music and theatrical work in prisons has been focused on its rehabilitative aims and properties. In this presentation I will explore the features of both programs, examine the rehabilitation goals and the focus on rehabilitation in the literature on prison-based music and theatre programs, and discuss ways that Transformative Justice and the Abolitionist movement can be supported through these arts-based initiatives.

COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal and Related Factors

Since the global pandemic began in early 2020, COVID-19 has impacted almost every correctional facility in the country. In Pennsylvania, the pandemic response has required significant changes to the operation of correctional facilities and necessitated a reconsideration of the risks and responsibilities for staff. Although the risks of viral infection are not a completely new concern for people working in prisons, the highly transmissible coronavirus and the near-universal nature of the resulting pandemic has potentially changed how health and safety are viewed. To better understand these concerns, the staff of the PADOC was surveyed to allow them to self-report their perceptions of the pandemic response, the need for vaccination, and other relevant areas. This independent report draws on these data to provide insight into the current perspective held by the PADOC staff population regarding vaccination and some of the factors that are associated with that decision. In turn, these descriptive data can be used to inform the development of evidence-based public health and correctional policies during the pandemic.

Domain spillover and job stress: An exploratory study among Nigerian Prison Staff

ABSTRACT Prison work is inherently demanding, stressful, and frustrating. The literature supports that work-family conflict (including time-, strain-, behaviour-, and family-based conflict) occurs among prison staff. The psychological strains emanating from these conflicts affect not only staff members’ work performance, but also their relationships with family and friends. This study sought to fill gaps in the literature in both practical and theoretical ways by exploring the effects of work-family conflict among 120 Nigerian prison staff. Multivariate regression analysis of survey data indicated that strain- and behaviour-based conflict showed significant, positive effects on job stress; however, time- and family-based conflict did not. Overall, the findings of the current study generally support the assertion that work-family conflict is a job stressor associated with prison staff stress and that strain- and behaviour-based conflict are stressors linked to higher job stress among staff in different nations.

Fungsi Lembaga Pemasyarakatan dalam Melaksanakan Pembinaan terhadap Warga Binaan Pemasyarakatan (WBP) (di Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Perempuan Kelas II A Denpasar)

Correctional in its system is useful for preparing convicted people in prisons to integrate normally and be accepted in society again. Merging normally again means restoring the relationship between the convicted or often referred to as Correctional Assistance and the community. The Penitentiary is a place for the Community Assisted to serve their sentence. This study aims to determine the function of prisons in carrying out coaching for Correctional Assistance and to analyze the form and benefits of the guidance program for Correctional Assistance held at Class II-A Denpasar Women's Penitentiary. This research uses normative legal research methods. The data obtained through direct observation in the field. The results showed that in the Guidance Program of the Correctional Institution, especially the location of this research, was held, namely the Class IIA Denpasar Women's Penitentiary, which has collaborated with government agencies, private foundations, and community organizations engaged in the field of women in providing guidance as well as promoting the work of prisoners or residents. Correctional Assistance. In addition, the Class IIA Denpasar Women's Penitentiary held and participated in several exhibitions of the work of the Community Assisted Citizens. This activity aims to introduce the work of the Community Assisted Citizens to the community and make it clear that the Correctional Institution guides or fosters Prisoners to be able to work and be able to contribute to society when they finish serving their sentence.

Social work in confinement: the spatiality of social work in carceral settings

Abstract. Social work in prisons not only works with and for people who are confined; it also constitutes a form of social work that is carried out under conditions of confinement. This article draws on carceral geography to understand the corporeal and spatial aspects of social work in prison settings. Based on insights from two prisons in Switzerland, we argue that understanding carceral social work as a spatial and materially situated practice helps to gain deep insight into the intricate layers of meaning and powerful modes of functioning of prisons and of the people involved. In particular, it shows how the way social work is carried out in prison is supported and strongly structured by the spatiality of the prison itself, allowing for counselling, desk-type social work, rather than for social work that actively initiates and creates spaces for encounters or activities.

Состояние тюремных учреждений и положение арестантов в Тверской губернии в конце XIX – начале XX века

Based on unpublished archival materials, the article analyzes the state of prisons and the situation of prisoners in the Tver province in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Special attention is paid to such means of reforming those in custody as the involvement of prisoners in labor activities and religious and moral education. The subject of the research is the prison institutions of the Tver province and the persons kept in them. The work is based on archival documents stored in the funds of the State Archives of the Tver Region, which are for the first time introduced into scientific turnover. The methodological basis of the research was formed by the principles of historicism and scientific objectiveness, as universal methods of scientific knowledge. The article also uses special historical research methods: historical-typological, historical-comparative, problem-chronological, as well as the method of historical and legal analysis. As a result of the work carried out, the main types of external and internal work that the prisoners were engaged in, the amount of income received from prison work were considered. The role of the Prison Trustees Committee of the Tver Province and its district offices in the activities of the prison institutions of the province is described. The main problems typical for prisons of the Tver province in the late 19th – early 20th centuries are identified. It is concluded that in the period considered, the prison institutions of the Tver province were characterized by a number of problems, which were largely determined by insufficient funding. At the same time, some positive changes that took place in the course of reforming the system were obvious - in a number of prison institutions they managed to organize prison labor, libraries appeared, and general centralization of management took place. However, this was not enough to turn the prisons into correctional institutions. Key words: penitentiary system, Tver province, Tver Prison Trustees Committee of the Tver Province.

Роль М. Н. Галкина-Враского в реформах Главного тюремного управления в 1879–1895 годах

Abstract. The article examines the reforms of the prison work in Russia of the last quarter of the 19th century, carried out by the Main Prison Administration (GTU), the role of M. N. Galkin-Vraskoy in these reforms, in particular, the reasons for the appointment of M. N. Galkin-Vraskoy as the first head of the GTU, the introduction by him of the compulsory labor of prisoners throughout Russia, the reasons and the process of transferring the GTU from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. Key words: M. N. Galkin-Vraskoy, Main Prison Administration (GTU), penitentiary officer.

Socio-legal conditionality for introduction of the institute of probation supervision over convicts on parole into the legislation of Ukraine

The article substantiates a socio-legal conditionality for introduction of the institute of probation supervision over convicts on parole into the legislation of Ukraine. It was found that the need to exert a certain influence (supervisory, educational, etc.) over convicts on parole is not new and is evidenced not only by foreign but also domestic history of criminal and executive law. The analysis of modern foreign approaches has shown that the procedure of parole provides for two interrelated stages: 1) release of a person from a penitentiary institution; 2) establishing supervision over him/her after release. It is noted that the assignment of the function of exercising control over convicts on parole to probation authorities will ensure the implementation of this post-penitentiary area on a professional basis. The substantiation of probation authorities as subjects of supervision over convicts on parole is based on the following provisions of international and Ukrainian legislation: 1) The Law of Ukraine «On Probation» provides for penitentiary probation, which, according to Part 1 of Article 11, means the preparation of persons serving a punishment of restraint of liberty or im-prisonment for a fixed term, to release for employment and accommodation of such persons after release at their chosen place of residence. In view of this, probation authorities work with the persons in respect of whom measures for preparation for parole are carried out; and it will be logical if after the release, in order to consolidate the results of correction and re-socialization, the mentioned authorities will continue to work with the released persons; 2) Paragraph 12 of Recommendation Rec(2003)22 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on conditional release (parole) provides that the preparation for conditional release should be organized in close collaboration with all relevant personnel working in prison and those involved in post-release supervision, and be concluded before the end of the minimum or fixed period. Thus, international legal acts adhere to the position on the unity of the subject involved in the process of preparation of parole and su-pervision over convicts on parole.

Meeting the Physical and Mental Health Needs of Older Offenders: Does Aging in Place Work in Prison?

In many countries, the proportion of older people in prison is growing due to longer sentences, increases in convictions for historical offences, and longevity. Moreover, harsh conditions of confinement coupled with the negative effects of a criminal lifestyle may contribute to 'accelerated aging' in this population. Indeed, many prisoners develop health problems that are more commonly seen among people who are up to ten years older. Correctional institutions are increasingly struggling to meet the complex and expensive healthcare needs of these offenders, especially at end-of-life. Some institutions have taken the position that prisons were never intended to be nursing homes, nor can they be adequately adapted to fulfill this role. As a result, these institutions attempt to place some aging offenders in healthcare institutions within the community, provided that their risk to the public can be adequately managed. Other institutions have argued that the needs of aging offenders can be successfully met behind prison walls and have taken steps to allow prisoners to 'age in place.' After summarizing the research on the physical and mental health needs of aging offenders, this presentation considers the advantages and disadvantages of meeting older offenders' healthcare needs both within and outside the prison setting and provides relevant examples of both. Special attention is paid to the issues of social isolation and loneliness: both may contribute to accelerated aging, and perhaps even the risk for re-offending, raising questions about which correctional settings are most beneficial for minimizing these problems.