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The purpose of this commentary is to draw upon available literature and practices related to COVID-19 and management of older incarcerated adults in Australia to highlight key matters for better risk management and care of this population during this and future infectious disease pan/epidemics.

The present commentary draws on current policies, practices and literature regarding the health, needs and management of older incarcerated adults in Australia to discuss risk, care and early release for this population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Incarcerated persons experience poorer health and accelerated age-related decline compared to those in the general community. The present situation offers the opportunity to fill knowledge and practice gaps, including policies for staff training, identification of dementia and cognitive decline, assessment of mobility issues, addressing barriers to health-seeking, possibilities of medical or compassionate release, risk assessment and release protocols and post-release needs.

While Australian prisons have acknowledged the vulnerability of older persons, more focused adaptation of COVID-19-related policies to consider adults as young as 45 years are needed. Appropriate ethical identification and management of cases in this population is needed, as is discussion on issues of decarceration and medical release. Re-conceptualisation of incarcerated adults as “citizens in need of care”, rather than as “offenders to be secured”, will be beneficial. Robust, local evidence is needed to assist decision-making.

This is a comprehensive, focused review of relevant evidence, policies and practices for a growing subpopulation of prisoners worldwide with complex needs and particular vulnerability to the COVID-19.

Recent evidence indicates an increasing incidence of occupational violence (OV) towards paramedics. Body-worn cameras (BWC) have been posited as an intervention that may deter perpetrators, leading to a growing number of ambulance services introducing BWCs at a considerable financial cost. This study aims to investigate the impact of BWC on the incidence of OV towards paramedics.

A systematic review was conducted according to the JBI methodology. EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, Cochrane reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, JBI systematic reviews, TROVE and Google Scholar were searched to identify primary research studies reporting on BWCs as an intervention against an outcome of OV incidence. Primary research papers, publicly-accessible government reports, peer-reviewed and grey literature, if published in English, were eligible.

The search identified 152 documents, of which 125 were assessed following the removal of duplicates. Following abstract screening then full-text review, there were no studies available to include in the review.

The introduction of interventions should be supported by evidence and an analysis of associated health economics. There is a need for ambulance services that have implemented BWC initiatives to make evaluation data available publicly for transparent review to inform decision-making elsewhere in the profession.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, these findings represent the first investigation of BWCs as a strategy to reduce the incidence of OV towards paramedics. They highlight the need to apply research frameworks rigorously and transparently to OV reduction initiatives to ensure paramedics are protected by evidence-based strategies.

The proliferation of undergraduate paramedicine programs has led to a surge in demand for work integrated learning (WIL), placing pressure on domestic ambulance service placement capacity. The objective of this study was to establish a baseline understanding of international WIL in paramedicine university programs.

A cross-sectional study design was utilized to gather data from Australasian universities offering undergraduate paramedicine. A telephone survey was used to gather quantitative and qualitative data using a tailored questionnaire.

Of 15 eligible paramedicine programs, seven program leads participated. All offered international WIL, predominantly short-duration format in locations including United Kingdom, USA, Israel, Nepal, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, New Zealand, South Africa, Finland, Canada and Vanuatu. Two distinct models were identified: academic-accompanied, group “study tours” and unaccompanied individual placements. International WIL is common in paramedicine but placement models, rationale and expected learning experiences are diverse.

International WIL is an increasing component of paramedicine and other health discipline degrees, yet the pedagogical rationale for their inclusion and typology is not always clear. This paper provides an insight into the variance in international WIL typology in a single health discipline highlighting the heterogeneity and need for future research linking into the structure, support and assessment of international WIL.

Given that prisoners have significant health needs across most areas, the paucity of prisoner health research, and the difficulties involved in the conduct of research in this setting, there is a need to develop research priorities that align with key stakeholder groups. One such group are those responsible for health service provision in prisons – prison health service directors. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Prison health service directors in each Australian state and territory were invited to participate in a national (deliberative) roundtable where the consensus building nominal group technique was utilized. This involved the identification of research priorities and organizational issues in conducting research with prisoners, and ranking research priorities. A thematic analysis was conducted on organizational issues.

In total, 13 participants attended the roundtable. Participants identified 28 research priorities and 12 organizational issues. Top ranked research priorities were mental health, cognitive and intellectual disability, post-release health maintenance, ageing prisoners, chronic health conditions and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Themes identified from the organizational issues included prisoner access to research participation, health and research literacy of custodial staff, and institutional protectionism in response to research that may discover negative information about the custodial setting.

These findings should inform future efforts to improve research infrastructures to undertake research to improve the health of people in Australian prisons, and help to align researchers’ efforts with those of a key organizational stakeholder.

This is the first paper to determine the research priorities and organizational issues in conducting research in prisons of prison health service directors.

The rise in the incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers is a major public health issue with multiple sequelae for Aboriginal children and the cohesiveness of Aboriginal communities. The purpose of this paper is to review the available literature relating to Australian Aboriginal women prisoners’ experiences of being a mother.

The literature search covered bibliographic databases from criminology, sociology and anthropology, and Australian history. The authors review the literature on: traditional and contemporary Aboriginal mothering roles, values and practices; historical accounts of the impacts of white settlement of Australia and subsequent Aboriginal affairs policies and practices; and women’s and mothers’ experiences of imprisonment.

The review found that the cultural experiences of mothering are unique to Aboriginal mothers and contrasted to non-Aboriginal concepts. The ways that incarceration of Aboriginal mothers disrupts child rearing practices within the cultural kinship system are identified.

Aboriginal women have unique circumstances relevant to the concept of motherhood that need to be understood to develop culturally relevant policy and programs. The burden of disease and cycle of incarceration within Aboriginal families can be addressed by improving health outcomes for incarcerated Aboriginal mothers and female carers.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on Australian Aboriginal women prisoners’ experiences of being a mother.

The credibility of valuation is enhanced by the use of quality and reliable property market data. Nonetheless, the availability of quality and reliable market data remains a problem for valuers in Ghana, as current market data sources are tainted with issues of reliability. The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of establishing property market data banks in Ghana, to help solve the market data problem faced by valuers.

This study adopted a mixed-method approach consisting of the identification and review of literature, interviews with officials from the Lands Valuation Division of the Lands Commission and a questionnaire survey of property valuers.

The study finds that it is possible for property market data banks to be established, and in the absence of facilitating legislation, partnerships among various stakeholders are the best way of achieving this. The study identifies the lack of initiative and the lack of partnerships among the various stakeholders inter alia as the major factors limiting the establishment of property market data banks. The findings imply a need for stakeholders to take initiative to establish a property market data bank aimed at improving the quality and reliability of market data to enhance the valuation practice.

The study asserts the possibility of creating a property market data bank in Ghana, notwithstanding the limiting factors. The findings will provide a basis for relevant institutions and agencies to take cooperative action for the establishment of property market data banks, towards enhancing the valuation practice in Ghana as well as in other developing countries. The study will also prompt research into various tools and mechanisms to be adopted towards the establishment of property market data banks through participatory means.

The paper aims to examine the issue of potential disproportionality and racial profiling in s.163 traffic stops under the Road Traffic Act 1988, in light of recent media attention and referral of cases to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

The paper reviews the law, procedural use and reports of racial profiling in s.163 traffic stops within a context of research which presents a history of disproportionate use of police tactics against ethnic minorities and black people in particular. An international perspective is evaluated as a potential framework for analysing the role of ethnicity in traffic stops in England and Wales.

There is an absence of systematically recorded data on s.163 stops. There are also significant contextual differences between traffic and street stop searches. For these reasons, doubt is cast over the legitimacy of institutionalised racism generalisations and arguments are presented against the extrapolation from street stop searches to s.163 traffic stops.

Implications for future research which take operational procedures and priorities into account, along with the realities of the context in which s.163 stops occur, are discussed. Importantly, the role of ethnicity may only become apparent after a traffic stop has been executed, and hence research is required into how ethnicity may mediate the interaction between police officer and driver.

Implications for the implementation of a national procedural requirement to record s.163 stops and the collection of evidence of racial profiling are highlighted.

This paper highlights practical implications for future policy, leadership and police culture considerations.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of South Africa’s national freight demand model and related logistics cost models, and to illustrate the application of the modelling outputs to inform macrologistics policy.

Spatially and sectorally disaggregated supply and demand data are developed using the input-output (I-O) model of the economy as a platform, augmented by actual data. Supply and demand interaction is translated into freight flows via a gravity model. The logistics costs model is a bottom-up aggregation of logistics-related costs for these freight flows.

South Africa’s logistics costs are higher than in developed countries. Road freight volumes constitute 80 per cent of long-distance corridor freight, while road transport contributes more than 80 per cent to the country’s transport costs. These challenges raise concerns regarding the competitiveness of international trade, as well as the impact of transport externalities. The case studies highlight that domestic logistics costs are the biggest cost contributor to international trade logistics costs and can be reduced through inter alia modal shift. Modal shift can be induced through the internalisation of freight externality costs. Results show that externality cost internalisation can eradicate the societal cost of freight transport in South Africa without increasing macroeconomic freight costs.

Systematic spatially disaggregated commodity-level data are limited. There is however a wealth of supply, demand and freight flow information collected by the public and private sector. Initiatives to create an appreciation of the intrinsic value of such information and to leverage data sources will improve freight demand modelling in emerging economies.

A spatially and sectorally disaggregated national freight demand model, and related logistics costs models, utilising actual and modelled data, balanced via the national I-O model, provides opportunities for increased accuracy of outputs and diverse application possibilities.