Years Of Incarceration Research Articles

From Life to Life: Transitioning to Freedom After 45 Years of Incarceration- A Single Subject Case Study

From Life to Life: Transitioning to Freedom After 45 Years of Incarceration- A Single Subject Case Study

Under pressure? Performance evaluation of police officers as an incentive to cheat

This paper examines the use of high-powered performance-based incentives for civil servants, focusing on drug-related cases registered by the Russian police. Using an event study approach and bunching analysis, I show that the incentives arising from the performance evaluation system of police officers can significantly influence their behavior. Specifically, I find evidence suggesting that this impact can result in the manipulation of drug quantities seized by the police, moving offenders from below to above the punishment threshold. Further negative consequences of the strong performance-based incentives are inequality in the enforcement of law, prolonged sentences, and increased probability of pretrial detention. Thus, I determine that police officers are more likely to manipulate the drug quantities seized from men. I also find that the manipulation increases the probability of pretrial detention by 9% and adds one more year of incarceration, which is a 67% increase on the average sentence length without manipulation.

Depression among incarcerated persons following the death of a loved one: Does social support mitigate grief?

The death of a loved one generates adverse and potentially damaging consequences for surviving family members and friends. The challenges of bereavement can be especially severe when experienced by incarcerated persons who must cope with and grieve the death while incarcerated. Yet, limited research evaluates bereavement among incarcerated persons and whether factors such as social support buffer against health-related consequences. Using data from the LoneStar Project—a study of 802 incarcerated men in Texas—we examine depressive symptoms among currently incarcerated persons with differential exposure to a loved one’s death (i.e., immediate family, friends, extended family). Importantly, a high rate of death exists among incarcerated persons’ loved ones, with 41% in the sample losing someone on the outside during their final year of incarceration. However, we find that external social support from family and friends and in-prison social cohesion from peers, significantly mitigate the harms of bereavement on depressive symptoms.

Dementia in the incarcerated population: a retrospective study using the South Carolina Alzheimer’s disease registry, USA

PurposeResearch about the prevalence of dementia among older adults in the incarceration system is currently lacking, and further investigation is warranted. Considering the high level of healthcare needs, unique behavioural issues and difficulty to rehabilitate within the system due to its punitive approach and lack of effective rehabilitation programs, further investigation is warranted to characterize and determine the number of incarcerated older adults with dementia. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of individuals with dementia in the prison system while also describing the incarceration, demographic and offence-related characteristics of this unique population.Design/methodology/approachSouth Carolina (SC) Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Registry (1992–2016) and South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) data (Fiscal years 1992–2019) were cross-referenced. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) cases in the corrections system was calculated using South Carolina Alzheimer's Disease (SC AD) SC ADRD Registry and SCDC data. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to determine strength and direction of relationships between year of incarceration and frequency of ADRD cases both prior to and after incarcerations, respectively. Significant differences by age group, race, gender and dementia type were determined using a two-tailed pooled t-test and Bonferroni approach where appropriate. Count data for types of crimes committed are also presented.FindingsThe linkage showed that there were 2,171 individuals within the SC AD Registry who have been in the corrections system, about 1% of those in the Registry. Of these individuals, 1,930 cases were diagnosed with ADRD after incarceration and 241 prior to incarceration. In 2016, 317 individuals with ADRD were incarcerated. For ages 55 and above in South Carolina, the prevalence of ADRD is 6.7% in the general, non-incarcerated population compared to 14.4% in the incarcerated population. Additional results showed that those diagnosed with ADRD between 55 and 65 years of age had a significantly lower mean age at first incarceration (34.6 years of age) than those diagnosed between 66 and 74 years of age (55.9 years of age), indicating that those incarcerated earlier in life had an earlier dementia diagnosis. Additionally, African Americans had a significantly lower mean age at first incarceration (43.4 years of age) than Whites (46.2 years of age) and females had significantly lower mean age at first incarceration (42.9 years of age) than males (45 years of age). When investigating trends, results showed a significant positive linear association between year and frequency of ADRD diagnoses (p-value < 0.05) for those with ADRD diagnosis prior to incarceration and a significant decreasing linear association (p-value < 0.0001) in the number of individuals with an ADRD diagnosis after corrections. Findings also showed that a large percentage of older adults with ADRD in prison did not commit a violence offence.Originality/valueThis study links a population-based Alzheimer’s disease registry and state-wide corrections data to estimate the prevalence of individuals with dementia in the prison system. This linkage presents an opportunity to fill in significant gaps and contribute to the body of literature on dementia among people in prison in the USA.

Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, an Oral History by David P. Cline

Reviewed by: Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, an Oral History by David P. Cline Steve Estes Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, an Oral History. By David P. Cline. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. xvi, 387. $32.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-6453-8.) “I got out of the military and came back to Mississippi to restore the power and the glory to my bloodline,” one Korean War–era Black veteran told an interviewer in 2006; “I came to Mississippi to conduct a war against white [End Page 180] supremacy” (pp. 333–34). That veteran was James Meredith, the activist who desegregated the University of Mississippi in 1962 and launched his one-man March Against Fear in 1966. In Meredith’s telling, he would not have had the confidence and courage to face white supremacy if not for his time in the military. David P. Cline includes Meredith’s interview in the new book Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, an Oral History. While many scholars acknowledge the impact of World War II and the Korean War on the civil rights movement, none have offered as comprehensive an account of Black service during the Korean conflict and Black veterans’ perspectives on civil rights as Cline has here. The introduction to Twice Forgotten provides context for the oral history interviews with a detailed chronology of Black military service before Korea and the process that led President Harry S. Truman to order the desegregation of the armed forces in 1948. Historians know that desegregation of the military was an uneven process, but this book lets the veterans themselves tell that story. Interviews with political luminaries like Congressmen Charles B. Rangel and John Conyers Jr. stand alongside the stories of many more everyday folks. Black veterans from every branch of the military and every region of the country explain the impact that leaving a segregated society to fight in an increasingly desegregated military had on their political views and the rest of their lives. “When we first traveled from Houston to Los Angeles by train and we had to eat together [with white soldiers], it was kind of frightful,” a former corporal in the U.S. Army told Cline. “One of the cooks there, he used to say, ‘Go on man, go on and sit down, you’re in the army now, don’t act like you’re different’” (p. 47). In contrast to this soldier’s experience, veterans who had grown up outside the South described the comparable shock of experiencing legal segregation for the first time while traveling to southern bases or serving in segregated units that persisted in some divisions until nearly the end of the Korean conflict. The most gripping sections of Twice Forgotten relay the harrowing details of battles waged by Black combat veterans and years of incarceration endured by Black prisoners of war. Cline steps aside and allows veterans’ voices to rise to the fore in these chapters. He intervenes more directly in chapter 7, “From the Service to the Streets: Korean War Veterans and Social Change,” which uses activists’ memoirs and other sources to draw connections between military service and civil rights that were not covered in as many of the interviews included in the book. Cline’s sources from Black newspapers, the Truman Presidential Library, and other archives provide necessary context for the oral histories. Cline conducted many of the interviews for American RadioWorks in support of a documentary on the Korean War, and others were conducted by a range of oral historians under the auspices of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This book could have benefited from more thorough explanations of how these interviews were conducted, how they were chosen, and how the historical context of their collection (many were recorded in the early 2000s) might have affected their content. Still, this comprehensive account of Black service in Korea makes an invaluable contribution to American military historiography and scholarship on the civil rights movement. [End Page 181] Steve Estes Sonoma State University Copyright © 2023 The Southern Historical Association

Gene expression profiling identifies candidate biomarkers for new latent tuberculosis infections. A cohort study.

To determine the gene expression profile in individuals with new latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), and to compare them with people with active tuberculosis (TB) and those exposed to TB but not infected. A prospective cohort study. Recruitment and follow-up were conducted between September 2016 to December 2018. Gene expression and data processing and analysis from April 2019 to April 2021. Two male Colombian prisons. 15 new tuberculin skin test (TST) converters (negative TST at baseline that became positive during follow-up), 11 people that continued with a negative TST after two years of follow-up, and 10 people with pulmonary ATB. Gene expression profile using RNA sequencing from PBMC samples. The differential expression was assessed using the DESeq2 package in Bioconductor. Genes with |logFC| >1.0 and an adjusted p-value < 0.1 were differentially expressed. We analyzed the differences in the enrichment of KEGG pathways in each group using InterMiner. The gene expression was affected by the time of incarceration. We identified group-specific differentially expressed genes between the groups: 289 genes in people with a new LTBI and short incarceration (less than three months of incarceration), 117 in those with LTBI and long incarceration (one or more years of incarceration), 26 in ATB, and 276 in the exposed but non-infected individuals. Four pathways encompassed the largest number of down and up-regulated genes among individuals with LTBI and short incarceration: cytokine signaling, signal transduction, neutrophil degranulation, and innate immune system. In individuals with LTBI and long incarceration, the only enriched pathway within up-regulated genes was Emi1 phosphorylation. Recent infection with MTB is associated with an identifiable RNA pattern related to innate immune system pathways that can be used to prioritize LTBI treatment for those at greatest risk for developing active TB.

Twenty Years of Incarceration in the Garden State: Reflecting on the Barriers and Facilitators in the Desistance Process

Twenty Years of Incarceration in the Garden State: Reflecting on the Barriers and Facilitators in the Desistance Process

Environmental factors associated with the time to tuberculosis diagnosis in prisoners in São Paulo, Brazil

Environmental conditions play an important role in the high incidence of tuberculosis in prisons. We estimated the effect of environmental factors, including measurements based on cell dimensions, on the time to tuberculosis diagnosis in prison population of Brazil. This is a retrospective cohort of 2,257 prisoners diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2014 and 2015. We collected environmental data from 105 prisons and linked with routine tuberculosis surveillance and prison data. We estimated tuberculosis-free survival time with Cox risk models, guided by a validated directed acyclic graph. The median disease-free time was 1.71 years (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.64-1.78). Each 50% increase in occupancy-rate, increased the tuberculosis speed incidence by 16% (95% CI 8%-25%) in the first 2 years, and 9% (95% CI 3%-16%) up to 5 years. An increase in the cell area per person (ln[m2/person]) reduced the hazard of tuberculosis by 13% (95% CI 3%-23%) for up to 2, and 12% (95% CI 3%-21%) for up to 5 years. Most tuberculosis cases were diagnosed within 2 years of incarceration. Prison overcrowding and physical space per person in the cell were associated with the tuberculosis-free disease time. Interventions to reduce overcrowding or increase physical space are crucial to prevent tuberculosis in prisons.

Pungent Sound: Analyzing the Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Law in the Pacific Northwest

Violations of environmental law involving significant harm or culpable conduct may require the application of criminal enforcement tools to punish offenders and deter future offences. Yet, we know very little about how this enforcement apparatus has operated historically in the Pacific Northwest. We undertake content analysis of all 2,588 environmental criminal prosecutions resulting from EPA criminal investigations from 1983-2019. We select and analyze all 230 prosecutions adjudicated in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, with the goals of understanding charging and sentencing patterns, as well as drawing out the broader themes that define such prosecutions over the last 37 years. We find that over $125 million in monetary penalties were assessed to defendants , as was some 753 years of probation, 139 years of incarceration, and over 10,000 hours of community service. Forty-three percent of prosecutions focused on water pollution, 18% hazardous waste, 10% air pollution, and 24% on state-level offences. We conclude with suggestions for bolstering the criminal enforcement apparatus in the name of strengthening the substance of environmental laws in the region, including greater resources, public salience, and community policing.

Incidence and Risk Factors Associated with Latent Tuberculosis Infection and Pulmonary Tuberculosis among People Deprived of Liberty in Colombian Prisons.

People deprived of liberty (PDL) are at high risk of acquiring Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (latent tuberculosis infection [LTBI]) and progressing to active tuberculosis (TB). We sought to determine the incidence rates and factors associated with LTBI and active TB in Colombian prisons. Using information of four cohort studies, we included 240 PDL with two-step tuberculin skin test (TST) negative and followed them to evaluate TST conversion, as well as, 2,134 PDL that were investigated to rule out active TB (1,305 among people with lower respiratory symptoms of any duration, and 829 among people without respiratory symptoms and screened for LTBI). Latent tuberculosis infection incidence rate was 2,402.88 cases per 100,000 person-months (95% CI 1,364.62-4,231.10) in PDL with short incarceration at baseline, and 419.66 cases per 100,000 person-months (95% CI 225.80-779.95) in individuals with long incarceration at baseline (who were enrolled for the follow after at least 1 year of incarceration). The TB incidence rate among PDL with lower respiratory symptoms was 146.53 cases/100,000 person-months, and among PDL without respiratory symptoms screened for LTBI the incidence rate was 19.49 cases/100,000 person-months. History of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccination decreased the risk of acquiring LTBI among PDL who were recently incarcerated. Female sex, smoked drugs, and current cigarette smoking were associated with an increased risk of developing active TB. This study shows that PDL have high risk for LTBI and active TB. It is important to perform LTBI testing at admission to prison, as well as regular follow-up to control TB in prisons.

Evaporating Into Thin Air: The Prosecution of Air Pollution Crimes During the Trump Administration

Antagonistic to environmental regulation, the Trump Administration sought to significantly roll back federal clean air law enforcement. Yet, we know very little about the impact of the Administration on air pollution criminal enforcement. Through content analysis of all EPA criminal investigations leading to prosecution, we analyze patterns in charging and sentencing and draw out the broader themes in air pollution prosecutions during this period. Our results show a sizable drop in prosecutions compared to the Obama Administration. Although prosecutors managed to pursue serious crimes involving significant harm and criminal conduct and secure over $2.9 billion in monetary penalties, roughly 160 years of probation, and 146 years of incarceration at sentencing, many of these penalties result from a few prosecutions. Our conclusions focus on forward-facing solutions for the Biden Administration to make good on campaign promises to reduce environmental injustice through enhanced environmental criminal enforcement, community policing and engagement, and recognition of environmental justice communities as crime victims.

How Does Incarceration Affect Reoffending? Estimating the Dose-Response Function

We study the causal effect of incarceration on reoffending using discontinuities in North Carolina’s sentencing guidelines. A regression discontinuity analysis shows that 1 year of incarceration causes a reduction in the likelihood of being reincarcerated within 3, 5, and 8 years from sentencing by 44%, 29%, and 21%, respectively. To parse the potentially heterogeneous dose response relationship underlying these effects, we develop an econometric model of prison sentences and recidivism. We find that incarceration has meaningful reoffending-reducing average effects that diminish in incarceration length. As a result, budget-neutral reductions in sentence length combined with increases in incarceration rates can decrease recidivism.

Predictors of Violence Reported by Female and Male Inmates in Wisconsin State Prisons

The present study compared predictors of violence as suggested by the importation and deprivation models and the newly utilized threat appraisal and coping models. Participants included 290 female and 472 male inmates in Wisconsin state prisons who completed anonymous surveys to report seven characteristics they import to prison and to report three social stressors experienced during the deprivation and powerlessness of the prison experience. Multiple regression revealed that for both female and male inmates, violence was associated with the imported characteristics of younger age and impulsivity and with in-prison stressors from correctional staff and family. Years of incarceration was a significant predictor of violence only for males. As suggested from past research, the personality pattern of hostility was associated with violence, particularly in male inmates, and internal locus of control was associated with violence, particularly in female inmates.

Family Visitation Patterns during Incarceration in Denmark

While qualitative evidence has highlighted psychological benefits of visitation during incarceration, and quantitative evidence has linked visitation to better post-release outcomes for inmates, we know little about heterogeneity in visitation patterns and the factors shaping them. Using Danish administrative data on inmates incarcerated at least a year between 2004 and 2014 ( N = 5,441), we first examine average frequency and duration of family visits across the first year of incarceration and then describe five distinct visitation patterns using latent class analysis. Finally, we investigate what predicts visitation patterns.The findings highlight that (a) there is substantial heterogeneity in the patterns of family visitation and (b) both individual-level and institution-level factors partially predict this heterogeneity. Parenthood, high pre-incarceration income, and long sentences were associated with high levels of visitation and being placed far from home and transferred between facilities were associated with a higher risk of receiving low or decreasing levels of visitation.

Evolução temporal de exames bioquímicos em mulheres privadas de liberdade

Objetivo: Investigar a evolução de parâmetros bioquímicos em mulheres privadas de liberdade. Métodos: Estudo observacional, prospectivo, envolvendo a totalidade da população feminina encarcerada em regime fechado de Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. Foram comparados exames bioquímicos (glicemia de jejum, colesterol total, triglicerídeos, LDL-c, HDL-c, não-HDL-c), realizados nos anos de 2012 (n=180) e 2015 (n=89), por meio dos testes de Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon e Qui-quadrado. Resultados: Verificou-se elevada prevalência de HDL-c baixo, de Não HDL-c elevado e de hipertrigliceridemia isolada em ambos os anos do estudo. Após três anos de encarceramento, a coorte de detentas apresentou elevação nas concentrações da glicemia de jejum (62,2mg/dL para 87,9mg/dL, p&lt;0,001), colesterol total (163,3mg/dL para 184,9mg/dL, p=0,007), não-HDL-c (120,8mg/dL para 138,2mg/dL, p=0,023), triglicerídeos (96,7mg/dL para 150,2mg/dL, p=0,024) e HDL-c (42,5mg/dL para 46,7mg/dL, p=0,012). Conclusão: Durante o encarceramento, ocorreram importantes alterações bioquímicas que podem favorecer o desenvolvimento e agravamento de doenças crônicas não transmissíveis, evidenciando a necessidade de intensificar as ações de saúde no ambiente prisional.

Citizen in Exception: Omar Khadr and the Performative Gap in the Law

In May 2015, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr was released from the Bowden Institution in Alberta. Khadr’s return to society followed 14 years of incarceration for an act that he may not have committed, which may not have been a crime, which took place while he was technically a child, and which was judged by a military tribunal that has questionable status in Canadian law. This article argues that Khadr’s long imprisonment was a political decision by US and Canadian authorities that required them to use performativity to suspend the law, depriving Khadr of his rights under American law, the Canadian Charter, and various protocols of international law. This use of performance to undermine law exposes a performative gap in the law: a space in the law that allows it to be moved and shaped by performative acts. Through these acts, Khadr became effectively stateless for a period in time: a citizen-in-exception. Building from Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception, this paper draws out the role played by performativity in the suspension of law by law. Importantly, the process that led to Khadr’s situation was racially charged from beginning to end. His situation is one manifestation of the way that Muslims have been “cast out” of Western law, as Sherene Razack puts it, since 9/11.

Symptoms and Underlying Factors of Depression among Inmates in Bonga Town Correctional Center, Kaffa Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia

The main objective of this study was to examine symptoms and underlying factors of depression among inmates of Bonga Town correctional center. The institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed and through systematic sampling, 327 inmates from February to March 2017 were considered for this study. Data was collected by using a standardized self-reported questionnaire. Stepwise regression was conducted to identify associated factors. Mann Whitney U test was used to determine gender difference on symptoms of depression. The finding of this study revealed symptoms of depression (change in appetite, change in sleep pattern, loss of energy, self-dislike) prevail among inmates of Bonga Town correctional center. The level of depression was moderate 52.29%. Pessimism (r=.120, P=.030), self-dislike (r=.136, P=.014) and crying (r=.142, p=.010) were symptoms of depression associated with inmates years of incarceration. Socio-demographic factors, environmental factors were to as well as psychosocial factors were associated with depression. There was a significant gender difference in each symptom of depression; i.e female inmates suffered more than male inmates in each symptom of. Bonga correctional center communities should work cooperatively with Bonga G/Tsadik Shawo hospital to help inmates who were at risk.

Under Pressure? Performance Evaluation of Police Officers as an Incentive to Cheat: Evidence from Drug Crimes in Russia

This paper provides an empirical analysis of possible manipulations of amounts of seized drugs, based on a unique dataset that contains full information on drug crimes in Russia reported during 2013-2014. First, using a standard bunching estimator, I investigate the incentives for police officers to manipulate and find that the motivation most likely arises from the officers’ performance evaluation system. Second, applying a novel bunching technique, I determine that police officers are more likely to manipulate the drug amounts seized from repeat offenders. The overall effect of manipulation is an additional year of incarceration, and this is not dependent on a guilty plea.

Comparing GBMI and non-GBMI Female Prisoners in Michigan.

The guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) verdict was first adopted in Michigan in part to provide treatment for offenders suffering from mental illness. Currently, little is known of its impact among women prisoners. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to explore if GBMI women (n = 30) spent more time on acute and residential treatment program (RTP) units in prison and/or had a higher number of violence tickets, compared with matched guilty mentally ill prisoners (non-GBMI, n = 30). The secondary aim was to characterize Axis I and Axis II disorders in GBMI female prisoners. Finally, we analyzed the data to find which Axis I and II disorders, if any, were significantly associated with violence tickets in the first year of incarceration and time in acute and RTP settings. Results showed there were no significant differences in time on acute units or the number of violence tickets between groups. Across both groups, those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder had a higher number of violence tickets in the first year of prison (p < .001). The results supported the arbitrariness of the GBMI verdict in the female population and advocated for Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) programs in prisons.

Does Incarceration Increase Crime?

This paper studies the causal effect of incarceration on reoffending using discontinuities in state sentencing guidelines and two decades of administrative records from North Carolina. A regression discontinuity analysis shows that one year of incarceration reduces the likelihood of committing new assault, property, and drug offenses within three years of conviction by 38%, 24%, and 20%, respectively. Incarceration sentences temporarily incapacitate offenders by removing them from society but can also influence post-release criminal behavior. To parse the non-linear and heterogeneous effects of these channels, we develop an econometric model of sentencing length and recidivism. Our model allows for Roy-style selection into sentencing on the basis of latent criminality. We propose a two-step control function estimator of the model parameters and show that our estimates accurately reproduce the reduced form effects of the sentencing discontinuities we study. Our parameter estimates indicate that incarceration has modest crime-reducing behavioral effects that are diminishing in incarceration length. A cost-benefit analysis suggests, however, that the benefit of reducing crime by lengthening sentences (through both incapacitation and behavioral channels) is outweighed by the large fiscal costs of incarceration.