Prison Reform

Purpose: One in fourteen children in the United States experiences the incarceration of a parent with whom they have lived. Although prior research has established that witnessing the arrest of a parent is a common occurrence for children of criminal justice-involved parents, child outcomes following such an event are understudied. Little is known about the long-term impacts of witnessing an arrest on children and the extent to which they may vary by child age. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Parent Child Study of mothers and fathers incarcerated in state prison, we examine the witnessing of parental arrest as an acute traumatic event and identify the extent to which this type of trauma predicts externalizing and internalizing symptoms for children during their parents' incarceration and following release...

The food served in Canadian penitentiaries was scrutinized following food service reform where Correctional Service Canada (CSC) created a standardized menu to feed incarcerated male individuals. Food in prison is a complex issue because penitentiaries are responsible for providing adequate nutrition to the prison population, who are vulnerable to poor health outcomes but are often seen as undeserving. This study aimed to analyse the national menu served in Canadian penitentiaries, in order to compare them with Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for male adults and the internal nutritional assessment reported by CSC...

Children in detention in Africa are part of the vulnerable population exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic due to factors such as overcrowding, poor healthcare of inmates, and lousy state of the facilities. The number of children in detention was estimated to be about one million in 2010, and this has further increased threat to global health. The fall in operating criminal justice systems, from the aspect of rehabilitation and reform in Africa, to its being plagued with crisis, overpopulation, and inability to conform to fundamental human rights and health standards...

Although bail reform reduces jail census, whether or not its effects extend to incarcerated individuals with mental illness is unknown. Using a novel high-sensitivity measure of serious mental illness (SMI) from jail-based electronic health records, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis assessing the impact of Illinois bail reform on total jail registrations and the nested subset with SMI ± co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD). Compared with a decline in total jail registrations, admission of individuals with SMI ± SUD showed no decline...

Many jails and prisons in the United States do not have enough mental health professionals (MHPs) to meet the mental health needs of the people incarcerated in these facilities. This article examines strategies used to address MHP shortages in U.S. jails and prisons, including compensation incentives, telemental health services, interdisciplinary health care, flexible work schedules, and training rotations in correctional settings. These measures may help alleviate some of the shortages of MHPs in correctional facilities; however, these shortages will likely persist without broader policy reforms that decrease the size of U...

PURPOSE: Aging and mental illness both represent significant public health challenges for incarcerated people in the USA. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the vulnerabilities of incarcerated people because of the risks of infectious disease transmission in correctional facilities. Focusing on older adults with mental illness, this paper aims to examine efforts to decarcerate US correctional facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these approaches may lead to sustainable reforms beyond the pandemic...

BACKGROUND: High rates of imprisonment in the U.S. have significant health, social, and economic consequences, particularly for marginalized communities. This study examines imprisonment as a contextual driver of receiving prenatal care by evaluating whether early and adequate prenatal care improved after Pennsylvania's criminal sentencing reform reduced prison admissions. METHODS: We linked individual-level birth certificate microdata on births (n = 999,503) in Pennsylvania (2009-2015), to monthly county-level rates of prison admissions...

Ending violence against women-part of the priority theme of the CSW65-is an international human rights issue. We must prevent and combat violence against all women, including those who are incarcerated worldwide. Incarcerated women are among the most marginalized populations; they have suffered numerous victimizations without ever seeing their perpetrators brought to justice. Though most incarcerated women have committed non-violent offenses, they are locked away in prisons, far away from their loved ones, and subject to inhumane conditions...

OBJECTIVES: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of inmates who were infected and died from COVID-19 in Peruvian prisons from April to October 2020. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study with a secondary data source. All the inmates who were infected and died from COVID-19 in Peruvian prisons during the study period were considered. The information was collected through the validated data collection sheet and was analyzed with descriptive statistics applying the SPSS v26 software...

With high rates of blood-borne virus infection in Australian prisons, a needle and syringe program (NSP) stands ready to deliver similar benefits to its community counterpart. Supplying sterile injecting equipment and safe-use guidance in prisons could improve prisoner health outcomes and the safety of the corrections system. Yet, despite the protestations of public health experts and the recommendations of State, national, and international bodies, Australian States and Territories refuse to implement prison-based NSPs, with serious consequences for prisoner health...

AIMS: To explore the experiences of provincially incarcerated mothers in Nova Scotia, Canada; and to make recommendations with respect to improving the experiences of mothers facing criminalization and their children. DESIGN: This qualitative study is rooted in feminist standpoint theory, community-based research methodologies and prison abolition. METHODS: Mothers who were currently or previously incarcerated were recruited by community partners...

BACKGROUND: The United States boasts the largest prison population in the world, conferring significant direct and indirect costs (e.g. lost wages for the incarcerated, increased morbidity/mortality, etc.) to society. Recidivism rates are high for the imprisoned and most interventions to reduce criminality are minimally effective. Thus, in addition to the need for criminal justice reform, there is a need to better understand factors linked to lowered criminal behavior. AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the relationships between the use of classic psychedelic substances (psilocybin, LSD, peyote, and mescaline) and past year arrests for various crimes (i...

BACKGROUND: Among the current proposals for the upcoming reform of forensic addiction treatment according to Sect. 64 of the German Criminal Code (StGB), that of the DGPPN stands out as the most far-reaching. Among other things, it calls for making the ordering of the measure dependent on the consent of the defendant and the regular and voluntary demonstration of the willingness to undergo treatment. Prior to treatment in a forensic addiction facility, those affected should reliably participate in addiction-specific treatment offers in the prison setting...

Problem-solving courts were created as a means of therapeutic jurisprudence. They arose in the context of the post-deinstitutionalization influx of defendants with behavioral and social problems entering the criminal court system. Seeing that typical judicial practices were poor solutions for individuals primarily facing problems such as homelessness, substance use disorders, and mental illness, courts developed specialized dockets as a solution to the problem of not being able to restrict the flow of these individuals into courtrooms...

Pretrial detention reform is keeping people who have been arrested on low-level charges out of jail while they await trial. This reform has implications for people with serious mental illnesses who are overrepresented in the criminal legal system and who can now stay connected to families, employment, community supports, and treatment providers while their cases are processed. However, such reforms may have uniquely negative consequences for those with serious mental illnesses. In this Open Forum, the authors argue that it is critical for mental health professionals to understand what pretrial reform entails and to incorporate planning around clients' criminal legal system involvement into their routine clinical work...

Solitary confinement is a widespread practice in US correctional facilities. Long-standing concerns about the physical and mental health effects of solitary confinement have led to litigation, legislation, and community activism resulting in many prison systems introducing policies or implementing legal mandates to reduce or eliminate its use. Yet little is known about the nature and effectiveness of policies that states have adopted to reduce their use of solitary confinement and exactly how various reforms have actually impacted the lives of people living and working in the prisons where these reforms have taken place...

In 2015, the Office of Diversion and Reentry Division (ODR), an internal department of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, was created to redirect individuals with serious mental illness from the criminal justice system. Part of ODR's mission is to identify individuals currently incarcerated in a Los Angeles County jail who are experiencing a serious mental health disorder and, to the extent practical, provide them with appropriate community-based care with the goals of reducing recidivism and improving health outcomes...

Mental health courts (MHCs) were designed to address the high rates of incarcerated individuals with serious mental illness in the United States by providing mental health treatment and social supports to those facing criminal charges. In the setting of national uprisings and grassroots demands for abolition of the prison industrial complex (PIC), which is the broad construct of economic and sociopolitical drivers of imprisonment, we draw upon the scholarship of community activists to examine the role of MHCs within the PIC...

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade there have been numerous and impassioned calls to reform the practice of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. This article examines the development, implementation, and processes of a restrictive housing reentry program in the Oregon Department of Corrections. It draws on data from official documents, site observations, and interviews with 12 prison officials and 38 prisoners. The Step Up Program (SUP) seeks to improve the living conditions in restrictive housing over business-as-usual, alleviate physiological and psychological harms of solitary confinement, and use rehabilitative programming to increase success upon returning to the general prison population or community...

Early modern states faced numerous challenges in supporting their prisoners of war, not least the problems of remitting them money for their subsistence, which had to pass across hostile borders. Examining how the British state achieved this in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13) shows the limits of modern scholarship on state formation and its focus on administrative reform and domestic resource mobilisation. The projection of power continued to rely on international Huguenot and even Jacobite financial networks, held together by personal trust and private interests, sometimes even while they were working for the enemy...