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Following research into the application of Electronic Monitoring (EM), Criminal Justice Order (2016) no. 954 was published, which introduced EM for offenders leaving custody in England and Wales (Ministry of Justice, 2016). EM was later extended to include those subjected to release on temporary licence (ROTL). The purpose of this study is to be the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to evaluate a pilot project using EM during the ROTL process. The outcome allowed for recommendations to be made regarding the continued use of EM within the open prison estate.

This is a qualitative research project involving semi-structured interviews with staff and residents. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis which resulted in exploration of 4 themes and 11 sub-themes and recommendations for future research/practice.

Results demonstrated that both staff and residents evaluated the use of EM as helpful with regard to evidencing compliance with ROTL conditions. In addition, staff also found it helpful for providing additional reassurance to victims and providing evidence for ROTL breaches.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first qualitative evaluation of EM relating to the ROTL process. The evaluation improves understanding of the value of EM for policymakers and the Ministry of Justice, especially in terms of the ROTL process. The recommendations made in this paper evidence the value of EM use in the future.

This evaluation supports continued use of EM and its integration into policy and procedures for residents subject to temporary licence. This paper concluded that consistent and reliable use of EM may contribute to victim reassurance and reduce recidivism of residents during ROTL, subsequently increasing the public’s perception of safety.

Understanding and preventing prison-based violence remains a challenge for both prison professionals and academic researchers. Alongside the rising tide of prison violence, the contemporary researcher views prison violence as a social problem and something that needs to be understood from an ecological viewpoint before violence prevention strategies can be implemented. The purpose of this study was to present an exploratory investigation into the causes of violence within a Category B UK prison, its impact and the factors that contribute to violence prevention.

Adopting an ethnographic, qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six prisoners to gather their individual perspectives on prison violence. Interview transcripts were analysed by the researcher using grounded theory analysis.

Results revealed that participants perceived debt as a catalyst for violence and associated a sense of “loss” with emotional violent outbursts. Furthermore, participants placed responsibility on other prisoners and staff to facilitate violence prevention outcomes by making positive changes (prisoners) and being honest, and moral within the workplace (staff). Emphasis was placed on cultural maintenance factors that appeared to promote, reinforce and maintain a violent cultural environment.

Including the prisoner voice in prison violence research is fundamental to understanding the complexity of the problem. Understanding the cultural environment within which violence occurs strengthens the ecological perspective. Violence prevention strategies identified in this research requires change from prisoners, staff and ultimately the wider prison system if it is to succeed in preventing violence.

Results are discussed considering their implications for future policy and practice in the context of violence prevention.

Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) is a therapeutic horticulture programme targeting the high levels of complex health and social care needs in prisons in England. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to unprecedented disruption in prisons in England. This paper examines the experiences of prisoners both during and post-lockdowns in four prisons, to understand the effects of participation in GOOP on health and wellbeing after the disruption of restrictions, and identify implications for developing this programme further.

The paper is based on original qualitative data gathered from in-depth narrative-based interviews and focus groups with prisoners and staff in four English prisons. Audio data was transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis, drawing from a realist-informed lens.

Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: reimagining the GOOP context; increasing empathy between participants; building sense of coherence; reconnecting with nature and a joined-up connection with provider services. The main arguments centre on horticulture in prisons remaining under-utilised as a means of promoting good health and wellbeing, although there is enthusiasm from staff to provide green spaces for the most vulnerable prisoners and develop a range of mechanisms to connect people in prison with nature.

This paper focuses on new knowledge arising from an unprecedented situation in English prisons, from key stakeholders on the frontline of garden activities. Accounts demonstrate the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits of participation in such activities in this challenging environment, which has implications for practice for prisons more widely.

The Scandinavian penal exceptionalism literature has focused largely on imprisonment but has yet to explore other aspects of the penal field in detail. This chapter provides an overview of the penal field in Norway and how community sanctions and measures have evolved within it. The author uses the work of Wacquant and Bourdieu to argue that there are three important levels within the Norwegian penal field: political, policy and practice. The author also discusses how drivers from the political and policy levels are affecting community-based penal practice. Using McNeill’s dimensions of mass supervision, the author discusses the implications of these changes for three less-explored aspects of punishment in Norway: the serving of short sentences at home on electronic monitoring, supervision of people under 18 and ‘punishment debt’ enforcement.

Whilst a growing body of support exists for the use of prison animal programmes (PAPs), research within UK prisons is sparse. Opportunity to add to this body of literature is also limited due to the practical barriers around safely embedding animals within forensic settings. This study aims to capitalise on an opportunity to explore a visitation model of a prison-based dog programme (PBDP), recently implemented within a UK prison. The intervention requires staff members to volunteer to bring their pets into the prison on a weekly basis and to accompany them as they complete their normal day-to-day prison roles.

Data was collected within a Category B adult prison for males convicted of a sexual offence. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six prisoners who had spent time with the visitation dogs and six staff members who had been part of those interactions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, and three themes were developed that focused specifically on the value of this model of PBDP (staff members bringing their pets into the prison).

Three themes (reconnecting men to their outside lives; legitimising pro-social narrative; and “a safe space for them to open up”) were developed from participants’ lived experience of the intervention and its perceived value.

The potential for a low-level PAP to contribute to a rehabilitative prison culture was supported.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to explore the value of this particular model of PBDP within a UK prison.

The first prison system case in Zimbabwe was notified in July 2020 shortly after State declaration of disaster. A legal-realist assessment was conducted of the Zimbabwean correctional system response to COVID-19 during state disaster measures, with a focus on assessing right to health, infectious disease mitigation and the extent to which minimum state obligations complied with human and health rights standards.

The Zimbabwean correctional system operations during COVID-19 disaster measures are scrutinized using a range of international, African and domestic human rights instruments in relation to the right to health of prisoners. This study focused particularly on standards of care, environmental conditions of detention and right of access to health care.

Systemic poor standards of detention are observed, where prisoners experience power outages, water shortages and a lack of access to clean drinking water and water for ablution purposes, a severe lack of safe space and adequate ventilation, poor quality food and malnutrition and a lack of sufficient supply of food, medicines, clothing and bedding. Whilst access to health care of prisoners in Zimbabwe has greatly improved in recent times, the standard of care was severely stretched during COVID-19 due to lack of government resourcing and reliance on non-governmental organisation and faith-based organisations to support demand for personal protective equipment, disinfection products and medicines.

Prison conditions in Zimbabwe are conducive to chronic ill health and the spread of many transmissible diseases, not limited to COVID-19. The developed legal-realist account considers whether Zimbabwe had a culture of respect for the rule of law pertinent to human and health rights of those detained during COVID-19 disaster measures, and whether minimum standards of care were upheld.

Although special education was built upon the foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the discrimination that many racialized students receiving special education services experience cannot be denied. Many culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students receiving special education services encounter labels that perpetuate racism and ableism and lead to inequitable access to services and resources necessary for more positive postsecondary outcomes. By honoring intersectionality and dismantling the singular identity, educators can become change agents and shift the historic oppressive narrative to create a system of empowerment as these individuals transition from transitional kindergarten to age 21 special education programs (TK-21) schools into adulthood.

This paper serves to test the validity of Chatman’s theory of “Life Lived in the Round” within a modern prison context. In particular, it examines Propositions Five and Six of her theory.

Data regarding the information-seeking practices of Australian adult female and male prisoners from maximum-, medium- and minimum-security facilities was gathered through 106 surveys and 27 semi-structured interviews. Participants’ information-seeking from sources internal and external to the “small world” of the prison was described. The information behaviours of the participants were examined against Chatman’s theory of “Life in the Round” to determine its applicability in the prison context.

The data gathered does not support Chatman’s theory of “Life Lived in the Round”, despite that theory being developed in a prison context. Neither Proposition Five nor Proposition Six of Chatman’s theory can be supported when examined in the light of the current data.

The inability of the data to support Chatman’s theory requires a reassessment of the applicability of the theory, at least to the prison context. As the theory was generated in part from a prison study, the foundational understandings of the theory could be questioned as a result of this current research.

Although Chatman’s theory has been examined against the information behaviours of other “Small World” communities, none of these studies have taken the theory back to the prison context from which the theory was developed. This study is also novel as its findings do not support Chatman’s theory, in contrast to other previously published examinations.

Prisoners’ oral health is an often overseen, yet important aspect of the general health of prisoners. To develop effective measures to improve the situation, it is important to get an overview of existing research. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse existing research on oral health of prisoners and provide a thorough understanding of prisoners’ oral health and related factors.

Due to relatively few scientific papers on prisoners’ oral health, an integrative review was chosen. Integrative reviews allow for the inclusion of diverse methodologies. A literature search was conducted, followed by an assessment of the quality of the studies by using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the studies.

The few studies addressing European prisoners’ oral health in the last 21 years differ in design and methodology. The results from this review indicate that prisoners’ oral health is a complex phenomenon and should be understood from both individual and organisational perspectives. More research is needed to bridge the gap in the literature on prisoners’ oral health.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on European prisoners’ oral health.

Globally millions of children have a parent who is imprisoned. Research suggests that this has an adverse impact on the child and imprisonment of a parent is considered to be an adverse childhood experience (ACE). Parental incarceration will not only affect the child but the entire household and may result in further ACEs such as household dysfunction and parental separation making this group of children particularly vulnerable. This scoping review aims to adopt an international perspective to comprehensively examine the extent range and nature of literature both published and grey relating to parental incarceration and the potential impact on children’s emotional and mental health.

In this scoping review, the five stages identified by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) were used including identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting data, collating, summarising and reporting results. In addition, the included studies were appraised for quality using methodology-specific tools. A critical narrative synthesis was adopted to present findings and discussion.

Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the included studies, eight were retrieved from peer-reviewed journals and one from grey literature searching. Five categories with subcategories were identified affecting children’s mental health: 1) Relationships: parent and incarcerated child relationship; facilitators and barriers to maintaining contact; 2) Family structure; maternal or paternal incarceration; living arrangements during parental incarceration; 3) Children’s emotions: emotional recognition and regulation; resilience; 4) Prison stigma: social stigma; shame and secrecy; 5) Structural disadvantages: poverty; race/ethnicity.

This scoping review has highlighted how the imprisonment of a parent negatively affects their children’s emotional and mental health. Factors negatively impacting children’s emotional and mental health are interrelated and complex. Further research is required, including differences between paternal and maternal incarceration; impact of gender and age of child; poverty as an ACE and prison exacerbating this; and effects of ethnicity and race. An important policy direction is in developing an effective way of capturing the parental status of a prisoner to ensure that the child and family receive needed support.