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This paper studies the experiences of asylum seekers in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between mental wellbeing, living conditions, and Australia’s detention policies in light of human rights.

Using grounded theory, data were collected via observations, semi-structured interviews, key-informant interviews, and document analysis. Participants included seven asylum seekers and three professionals working with them.

In light of a human rights framework, this paper reports on the mental distress suffered by asylum seekers in detention, the environments of constraint in which they live, and aspects of detention centre policy that contribute to these environments. The findings highlight a discrepancy between asylum seekers’ experiences under immigration detention policy and Australia’s human rights obligations.

This research indicates human rights violations for asylum seekers in detention in Australia. This research project involved a small number of participants and recommends systemic review of the policy and practices that affect asylum seekers’ mental health including larger numbers of participants. Consideration is made of alternatives to detention as well as improving detention centre conditions. The World Health Organization’s Quality Rights Tool Kit might provide the basis for a framework to review Australia’s immigration detention system with particular focus on the poor mental wellbeing of asylum seekers in detention.

This study links international human rights law and Australian immigration detention policies and practices with daily life experiences of suffering mental distress within environments of constraint and isolation. It identifies asylum seekers as a vulnerable population with respect to human rights and mental wellbeing. Of particular value is the inclusion of asylum seekers themselves in interviews.

A reflexive ethnographic account of the practical and emotional challenges encountered by the researcher during fieldwork is too often separated from the analytical research results, which, as argued by this paper, downplays or even ignores the analytical value of the encountered challenges. Drawing on personal examples from ethnographic research in immigration detention, the purpose of this paper is to show that these challenges have an intrinsic analytical value.

Ethnographic research was carried out in two immigration detention centres in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. Observations, informal conversations with detainees and staff, and semi-structured interviews with detainees were triangulated. Extracts from fieldnotes are presented and discussed to demonstrate the analytical value of the challenges experienced during fieldwork.

Three important challenges are presented: distrust from organisational gatekeepers and research participants, disruptions of the organisational routines, and witnessing and experiencing feelings of powerlessness. The analytical value of these challenges is strongly connected to theoretical and analytical themes that emerged during the research.

Ethnographic researchers are encouraged to explicitly treat the reflexive accounts of practical and emotional challenges as “data in itself” and as such nested within their analytical results.

Many migrants are detained in Europe not because they have committed a crime but because of lack of certainty over their immigration status. Although generally in good physical health on entry to Europe, migrant detainees have complex health needs, often related to mental health. Very little is known about the current health situation and health care needs of migrants when detained in European immigration detention settings. The review aims to synthesize the qualitative literature available on this issue from the perspectives of staff and migrants.

The authors undertook a synthesis of extant qualitative literature on migrant health experience and health situation when detained in European immigration detention settings; retrieved as part of a large-scale scoping review. Included records (n = 4) from Sweden and the UK representing both detainee and staff experiences were charted, synthesised and thematically analysed.

Three themes emerged from the analysis, namely, conditions in immigration detention settings, uncertainties and communication barriers and considerations of migrant detainee health. Conditions were described as inhumane, resembling prison and underpinned by communication difficulties, lack of adequate nutrition and responsive health care.

It is crucial that the experiences underpinning migration are understood to respond to the health needs of migrants, uphold their health rights and to ensure equitable access to health care in immigration detention settings.

There is a dearth of qualitative research in this area because of the difficulty of access to immigration detention settings for migrants. The authors highlight the critical need for further investigation of migrant health needs, so as to inform appropriate staff support and health service responses.

The immigration conundrum to craft policy that ensures border security and safeguards human rights is grave and complex. Individuals fleeing religious persecution made finding refuge part of our heritage since colonial times. This American tradition has enshrined our values to the world. This essay is limited to summarizing the asylum process and recent events through the summer of 2018 which affect it. Policy changes are ongoing. The asylum process is complicated by illegal immigration. The surge in migrants arriving at and/or crossing the border has led to controversial policies over the years. Unlike those who illegally cross the border and remain unknown to law enforcement, everyone who makes an affirmative asylum claim to a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer, or a defensive asylum claim in immigration court, has been thoroughly vetted through identity, criminality, and terrorism background checks. Granting refuge to those fleeing persecution reaffirms the values of a country that is, as Lincoln richly stated, the last best hope of Earth. Comprehensive immigration reform is needed on many immigration issues, two of which are to ensure border security and safeguard the asylum-seeking process.

This personal narrative describes the results of a tragic gun accident involving my young son and his close friend. In this autobiographical narrative, I trace the effects of youthful offender laws on my family and explain how our state's juvenile justice system transformed our family's lives for over three years. In addition, as both a participant and a sociologist observer, I show how race and class have conditioned the accident's outcome. As Griffith and Smith's (2005) work on mothering for schooling illustrates, social class greatly affects the relationship between school and family.

In our case, largely because of my training as a researcher and my husband's background in education and psychology, we were able to make the juvenile justice system work as positively as possible for our son. And, because of my privileged position as an academic, I am now able to make visible the effects of youthful offender laws on one youthful offender and his parents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the results of a community-based program addressing the mental health needs of at-risk youth (n = 196) and their families.

The program served as an alternative to secure detention for youth residing in several rural counties in the southeastern part of the country. Several measures were used to evaluate the program’s effectiveness over a four-year timeframe.

The multifaceted program produced favorable results in reducing delinquent behaviors and improving relationships within their family.

This study demonstrated that using a multifaceted intervention can be beneficial to juveniles in the juvenile justice system and their families. This study set out to provide services and interventions aimed at reducing re-offending, exploring career development and improving overall family functioning.

This study is original work and is not being submitted elsewhere.

The chapter “Books Open Worlds for People Behind Bars” by Gerhard Peschers gives an insight into library services in correctional facilities in Germany on different levels, ranging from local best practice examples (e.g., Berlin, Bremen, Dortmund, and Würzburg) via regional experiences – focusing on longstanding experiences in North Rhine-Westphalia, in particular the outstanding former Münster prison library which was awarded the German national Library Prize “Library of the Year 2007” – and nationwide subjects to grown internationality based on long-term integration into the library community. Fundamental issues include history and the legal basis of prison libraries as well as practical experiences on various levels of responsibility and its diverse scope of tasks, such as collection development, data processing, interior design, events, and cooperation with city libraries.

The outlook provides the state of play and the challenges regarding digitalization for the development of prison libraries.

Finally, the author’s dream of the book tree on the prison wall, which found international resonance, invites you to share the vision of dialog and tolerance across dividing walls.

This study aims to highlight how easy it is for immigrants to break Italian law because of the country’s inadequate cultural and linguistic mediation service. Insufficiencies in this service also have a negative impact on both the psychological and physical health of migrant prisoners. Furthermore, Italian is used in legal disputes and prison, and reference is made to Italian culture, preventing migrants from understanding their position regarding the law.

This report concerns the psychological discomfort of migrant incarcerated individuals within Italian prisons due to national laws in force. Consideration is also given to the negative impact on the physical health of incarcerated migrants.

Best practice should include adequate space for linguistic and cultural mediation in reception centres and prisons. It is considered suitable to combat social exclusion, even in prison.

The report is not research on prisoners, but it focuses on making visible the condition of migrant individuals incarcerated in Italy.

Enforced isolation does not allow immigrants to become a community resource but has negative repercussions in terms of financial, social and well-being costs.

This paper is one of few in limited, national or otherwise scientific output, to contribute to migrant inmate visibility in Italy. Taking action for the well-being of migrant prisoners will not only have a positive impact on a social level but should also help reintegrate these individuals after serving their sentence.

Of all social relations the withdrawal of individual liberty by the State is arguably the most discussed and the least understood. Although there has latterly been an increasing interest in the issue of crime, relatively little attention has been paid to the consequential issue of punishment and especially to its most severe manifestation (in many cultures), imprisonment.