Search results

Imprisoned mothers are at increased risk for poor psychological health and psychological distress when separated from their children, so staff need to be highly skilled to support the women. However, there is a paucity of research focusing on staff experiences around sensitive issues such as mother–child separation. This study aims to understand the challenges faced by staff and how these might be addressed.

This qualitative interview study explored the views and experiences of 24 prison-based staff in England working with female prisoners separated from their infants.

Staff emphasised the challenges of working with separated mothers, specifically the emotional impact of this work, and the impact of the wider criminal justice system on their sense of agency.

A focus on the experience of separation highlights the broader problem of incarcerating women in general. Reducing the number of mother–child separations would mitigate the impact on both women and staff.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the needs and motivations of incarcerated men who self-harm with no apparent suicidal intent. These have received little attention in research and policy, despite men accounting for a high and increasing proportion of self-harm in prisons.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 adult male prisoners with a recent history or thoughts of non-suicidal self-harm. The interviews were analysed drawing on principles of thematic analysis and discourse analysis.

Against a backdrop of early traumatic experiences and more recent adverse events (including prison-related ones), self-harm was described by many as a desperate – but meaningful – coping strategy; both a means of releasing tension, sadness and frustration, and of being heard in an unresponsive system.

These findings echo those of research conducted with women (including women prisoners) who self-harm, but challenge some of the more negative ways in which non-suicidal male prisoner self-harm has been portrayed in the (scant) previous literature. As well as pointing to the need for greater awareness of the complex needs of men in prisons, they underscore the importance of (also) exploring – and perhaps addressing – the issue of self-harm separately from suicide, and of striving to make prisons, as well as prisoners, “healthier” and better able to cope with pressure.

Peer and professional support are important for women in prison to help them tackle a range of issues including self-harm. To date, research has not explored in any depth how women experience peer support provided in prison to help them manage their self-harm including peer support provided through the Listeners Scheme. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This was a case study in one women’s prison employing mixed, qualitative methods. These included a questionnaire distributed to women and staff, a focus group with prison listeners, semi-structured interviews with women who self-harmed and semi-structured interviews with prison staff, together with a series of observations in the prison site.

While women in prison welcomed both professional and peer support their support preferences were influenced by how serious women considered their self-harm to be and the degree to which they regarded their relationships with staff as trusting and/or supportive. The therapeutic community (TC) that operated in the prison facilitated different relationships between women who self-harmed in prison and staff, than have hitherto been reported in the research literature. These relationships described by women and staff as “more open” allowed women to seek staff support when managing their self-harm behaviours. Women sought peer support from listeners in addition to staff support particularly at times when staff were unavailable for example at evenings and weekends.

The case study design was conducted in one women’s prison which operated a TC. The principles of the TC that operated in the prison are supported by the wider literature on TCs as conducive to good mental health. Findings are thus relevant for establishments with TCs .

Women opted for support from staff for helping them to manage their severe self-harm, over and above the peer support available through the prison Listener Scheme. This finding contrasts with previous research that suggests women trying to manage their self-harm in prison prioritise support from their peers because staff are often found to harbour unhelpful attitudes to women’s self-harm that makes seeking support difficult.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the characteristics of dual-harm behaviour in prison in comparison with sole self-harm or assault behaviour in prison, with an analysis of the distinguishing features.

Official data on in-prison incidents, demographic and offending information were analysed for 326 prisoners in two prisons in England.

Proportions of up to 42 per cent of offenders who assault others in prison will also engage in self-harm and vice versa. Dual-harm prisoners will engage in a broader and greater frequency of prison incidents than either sole group; with dual-harm prisoners reflecting greater proportions of damage to property and fire-setting. There were no differences in their time in prison or presence of serious violent current conviction, however, an index offence of drug supply was less likely in the dual-harm group, with minor violence slightly more likely in longer sentence prisoners. There was no difference for the dual-harm prisoners whether the first incident was self-harm or violence, with mean duration from sole to dual harm of less than three months.

In-prison behaviour can assist in the identification of prisoners at dual risk of harm. Greater inclusion of in-prison behaviour and awareness of dual harm in research methodologies may assist in improving risk management. A wider use of joint risk assessment and single case management approach is suggested for prisoners with dual-harm profile.

This is the first study on dual-harm behaviour in UK prisons and to evaluate their wider prison behaviour and offending characteristics.