Search results

This chapter reviews a recent study that explores the perception of adult convicted prisoners and ex-prisoners in Sri Lanka regarding their use of prison libraries. How prison officials, particularly rehabilitation officers and counselors see the presence of a prison library in the rehabilitative process is also examined. This chapter focuses mainly on the perceptions, feelings and emotions associated with using the prison library by Sri Lankan prisoners and ex-prisoners during their incarceration.

Information poverty is often common among prisoners as most are illiterate and are deprived of freedom due to their imprisonment. The role of a prison library in the rehabilitative process is highly commendable. A review of related literature, semi-structured interviews, and life histories with inmates at four closed prisons in Sri Lanka and ex-prisoners and observation on Sri Lankan prison libraries found that prisoners and ex-prisoners see prison libraries as important in meeting their diverse information needs, assisting them to spend their time effectively during incarceration, and to overcome stress while enhancing their well-being by reading. This chapter also stresses the importance of a well-established prison library and the effective delivery of library services for desistance from crime. However, the majority of prison officials do not see the importance of a prison library in the rehabilitative process. Drawbacks and potential of prison libraries and several implications for practice are also elaborated in this chapter. Such implications will be of interest to prison administrators and library professionals.

The landscape of the Probation Service in England and Wales continues to be challenged by issues of priorities, workload, and lack of meaningful relationships between offenders and practitioners. In this climate of uncertainty and ‘transformation’, vulnerable offenders on probation become the ones mostly affected due to management plans and license conditions that do not respond to the variability of their needs. This chapter explores the older individuals on probation and uses the framework of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) to examine the extent to which it may accommodate the needs of this group of offenders in an otherwise risk-based context. This study draws ideas from previous research of the author and aims to develop the existing limited academic attention that older offenders supervised under specialised probation contexts have received. The structure of the chapter remains doctrinal in nature as a response to the need for a more comprehensive and inclusive perception of the risk of reoffending later in life and its implications for bespoke community reintegration strategies. This approach also allows for theorisation of MAPPA’s multi-agency structure and its prospects for the rehabilitation of older offenders. This study finds that as MAPPA only manages violent and sexual offenders, the ‘older MAPPA offender’ becomes a special category for probation that may exhibit a variety of needs and life circumstances. It thereby becomes even more important for these offenders that a constructive working relationship between them and the probation officer is in place. This supports the latter in appreciating what factors lead the individual to offending later in life, and what interventions may be most effective to address their risk of reoffending as well as their needs in the community.

Objectives – Given the multitude of barriers faced by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, we contribute to prior literature through our exploration of the relationship between Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores among a sample of incarcerated individuals (women) in San Bernardino County.

Methods – We performed a secondary data analysis on the original, self-reported data collected in 2011 from 336 female participants serving sentences in the San Bernardino County Jail System. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to examine the association between ACE scores and select covariates.

Result – Higher ACE scores were associated with participants characterized as younger, low income, and unemployed and were significant among incarcerated women whose biological father has been in trouble with the law and those with an incarcerated household member. Additionally, participants with higher ACE scores were raised in more unstable neighborhoods.

Conclusions – The study demonstrates strong evidence that ACE scores are interrelated with individual-level characteristics, family stability, and SDOH, and impact the health outcomes and life experiences of vulnerable populations.

Conceptualizing mental illness too generally as a cause of criminal involvement is not useful for policy or service implications. Such a strategy decontextualizes the experience of people with mental illness from broader incarceration patterns in the U.S. When the reasons people go to jail or return to jail are examined, it becomes clear that the key issues are social difficulties complicated by mental illness — but not caused by mental illness. To inform community mental health practice, future research should account for the broader social context of criminal behavior and interventions should be more carefully integrated into the broader policy context of criminal justice systems.