Search results

Young prisoners are one of the most vulnerable groups in society for mental health problems and ill-being. Therefore, there is a crucial need to understand their physical, psychological and social situations. This study aims to explore young Cambodian prisoners’ experiences and perceptions of mental health and well-being, their determinants and their coping strategies.

Six focus group discussions were carried out in three prisons with a total of 48 young prisoners between the ages of 15 and 24 years (50% women, 50% men). Semi-structured questions guided the discussions, and thematic analysis was applied to analyse the data.

Young prisoners reported multifaceted experiences of mental health and well-being. The majority described adverse mental health experiences, while some revealed better well-being, partly influenced by the socio-economic support from outside the prisons and previous involvement or not in drug abuse. The experience of physical overcrowding without emotional attachment among the fellow prisoners was perceived as the overarching determinant of loneliness and mental health problems, while socio-emotional support and rituals were described as the most important coping mechanisms.

This pioneering study from Cambodia gives young prisoners an opportunity to voice their experiences and perceptions of mental health and well-being in the prison setting. The findings in this study underline the importance of prison authorities tackling overcrowding to promote well-being and reduce mental health problems. Also, the coping mechanisms outlined by the participants should be considered when planning psychosocial interventions.

This rapid evidence assessment (REA) study aims to synthesise what is known about food refusal within male prison populations to aid a better understanding of why this occurs. By looking at the various functions of food refusal for this population, it is hoped that professionals can better support prisoners’ needs in this area.

A rapid review of available data within the published literature was completed. Searches were conducted on two databases (PsychInfo and MedLine), and a total of 328 articles were screened using a three-stage process. This resulted in 13 articles being identified for the final sample, which were reviewed and synthesised into themes by looking for commonalities.

Five themes were identified: “to protest”, “to achieve goals or demands”, “to manage interpersonal difficulties with prison/custodial staff”, “to end life” and “mental health and personality disorder”. The findings appear to suggest that food refusal in this context may be predominantly driven by a need to communicate or gain control.

To help prevent and cease food refusal, it will be beneficial for prison staff to use approaches that support prisoners feeling a sense of fairness, transparency, control and autonomy, as well as problem-solving skills and establishing a sense of purpose and motivation.

This REA confirmed there is a lack of good-quality research into the functions of food refusal among prisoners in the UK. Future research should involve contact with prisoners who have engaged in food refusal to understand motivations firsthand.

The purpose of this paper is to examine lived experiences of opioid agonist treatment (OAT) during and immediately following release from detention in prisons in England and Scotland.

Surveys were completed by serving prisoners in both countries and by those recently released from prison (England only). The survey findings were discussed in focus groups of people with lived experience. The combined findings from the surveys and focus groups were shared with an expert group of prison OAT providers and people with lived experience with the purpose of making recommendations for more accessible and effective OAT in custodial environments and continuity of OAT on release

The quality and accessibility of OAT varied considerably between establishments. It was reported to be harder to access OAT in Scottish prisons. It was often hard for people in prison to get the dosage of OAT they felt they needed and it was generally harder to access buprenorphine than methadone in English prisons. Only Scottish people in prison were aware of long-lasting forms of buprenorphine. People in English prisons had mixed experiences of the help available in prison, with no improvement recorded since a 2016 study. People in Scottish prisons were more likely to rate the help available as poor.

The number of people accessed while actually in prison (73) was reduced by the impact of the pandemic, making it more difficult to access people in prison and because some were resistant to participating on the basis that they had already been consulted for a wide variety of research projects focused on the impact of COVID. The Scottish cohort (a total of 19 individuals comprising 14 survey respondents and five focus group members) is clearly too small a number on which to base robust claims about differences in OAT provision between the English and Scottish prison systems..

The study identifies key barriers to accessing OAT in prisons and suggests key components of more user-friendly approaches.

This study provides an overview of the recent lived experiences of people accessing OAT in prison and on release and offers valuable recommendations on how to make service provision more effective and consistent.

This study provides an overview of the recent lived experiences of people accessing OAT in prison and on release in England and Scotland and offers valuable recommendations on how to make service provision more effective and consistent.

Suicide and suicide-related incidents have increased within women’s prisons in the UK. This paper aims to synthesise the findings of qualitative literature, to gain a deeper understanding of the how women and staff in English prisons experience and explain the causes of their suicidal behaviours.

A systematic search of five electronic databases, namely, MEDLINE, APA Psychological Information Database (Psycinfo), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (with full text – CINAHL), Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection and APA PsycArticles, was completed in January 2023. This study’s search strategy returned 1,714 articles, 7 of which were included for review. To identify relevant themes within the data, Thomas and Harden’s (2008) framework was applied. Quality appraisal was conducted by using Joanna Briggs’ Institute Checklist for Qualitative Research (Joanna Briggs Institute, 2021).

Four themes were determined, which describe the causes of suicidal behaviours in women’s prisons in England; mental health and trauma, lack of support from services and staff, contact with family and self-harm as a coping strategy. Important sub-themes were also identified including the prison environment and poor relationships with staff.

Further qualitative research is needed, however, the findings suggest greater support is required to aid positive mental health, including the provision of trauma informed coping strategies and improved staff training.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first systematic review conducted on the factors contributing to women’s suicide in English prisons using qualitative literature.

In this article, we use the film Bridge of Spies – which depicts the case of U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers – and relevant primary sources, particularly Powers' letters from prison, to provide teachers with a case that can engage students with the complexity of the Cold War. Understanding USA–Russia relations is as important today as ever as we watch the tragedy unfold in Ukraine. Using primary sources to reflect on the Cold War can help secondary students understand the historical context of the war in Ukraine as well as how to evaluate and critique sources of information about the war.

The film and personal letters provide insights often not available or obvious when we focus on the political or military history of an event or time period. The Cold War is frequently defined by the rhetoric of the USA and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) governments – but everyday people and citizens had a wider range of views and experiences. The film and letters bring out the humanity of the Cold War.

This article supports secondary teachers in incorporating film and primary sources as teaching tools to study the Cold War while more broadly thinking about these sources as ways to understand the past. The letters used, including those from U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers, help us understand his time in a Soviet prison as well as the behind-the-scenes work to free him as part of a prisoner exchange.

The U-2 Incident and other events of the Cold War provide important context for understanding the Cold War-like tensions between the USA and Russia today. The distrust between these countries has a long history. However, documents like the film and letters discussed here show that there is much more to the bluster of political leaders and the military chess game. There is an important human element to these events and an impact on individuals who are much more than pawns in international diplomacy.

The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society organizations (CSOs). NGOs engaging in advocacy activities are seen to be among the CSOs affected. Using four NGOs cases from Tanzania, the study contributes to the civic space debate by uncovering how advocacy NGOs become resilient.

The study is anchored in interpretivism and a cross-sectional case study design, following a qualitative approach path. Data were collected through interviews and a documentary review.

Results show that several strategies such as complying, building community back-up, collaboration, strategic litigation, using digital media and changing the scope are applied. However, strategies face obstacles including scope limitations, expected democratic roles, high cost, changes in the scope and being outsmarted by the government, and hence their effectiveness is questionable.

This study focused on advocacy NGOs. More studies can be conducted for other advocacy-related CSOs on how they become resilient.

While NGOs are allowed to exist in the country, their freedom continue to be curtailed. Even the effectiveness of resiliency becomes temporary and depends on the political will of the existing regime.

Tanzania NGOs have to build strong bonds with citizens, expand the scope of strategies and use deliberative democratic principles to educate the government to change laws and tolerate plural political culture. Also, NGOs in other countries with confined civic space can apply the same.

Regarding the retail internal supply chain (SC), both retailers and research are currently focused on reactive food waste reduction options in stores (e.g. discounting or donations). These options reduce waste after a surplus has emerged but do not prevent an emerging surplus in the first place. This paper aims to reveal how retailers can proactively prevent waste along the SC and why the options identified are impactful but, at the same time, often complex to implement.

The authors follow an exploratory approach for a nascent topic to obtain insights into measures taken in practice. Interviews with experts from retail build the main data source.

The authors identify and analyze 21 inbound, warehousing, distribution and store-related options applied in grocery retail. Despite the expected high overall impact on waste, prevention measures in inbound logistics and distribution and warehousing have not been intensively applied to date.

The authors provide a structured approach to mitigate waste within retailers' operations and categorize the types of barriers that need to be addressed.

This research provides a better understanding of prevention options in retail operations, which has not yet been empirically explored. Furthermore, this study conceptualizes prevention and reduction options and reveals implementation patterns.

This chapter explores a pathway towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive future through the implementation of systems innovation, systems leadership and systems change. The author highlights the importance of understanding complex systems and identifies several models that can be employed to drive systems change, including the iceberg model and multi-level perspective. The author stresses the significance of systems leadership and innovation in creating a sustainable and inclusive future. This means that leaders and managers need to shift their mindset from reductionism to systems thinking. Reductionism views complex systems as a collection of separate parts that can be studied independently. In contrast, systems thinking acknowledges the interconnectedness of all parts and how they influence each other. When they embrace systems thinking, leaders and managers can make systems innovation and drive systems change to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth. Achieving a sustainable and inclusive future requires a collective effort from individuals, organizations and governments. It demands a comprehensive understanding of the interdependencies and interactions within complex systems, as well as a willingness to adopt new ways of thinking and leading. This chapter presents a compelling case for adopting systems innovation, systems leadership and systems change as critical components in building a sustainable and inclusive future.

Background: This work is a situation analysis of reported human rights abuses that have characterized the COVID-19 controls and lockdown in some countries of the world. This is as documented by reliable mass media sources, relevant international organizations and human rights non-governmental organizations between January 2020 to April 2020.

Methods: A combined content analysis, critical analysis, and doctrinal method is applied in this study in line with the reproducible research process. It is a secondary-data-based situation analysis study, conducted through a qualitative research approach.

Findings: The findings revealed among other things that: COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews' enforcement by law enforcement officers contravened some people's fundamental human rights within the first month. Security forces employed overt and immoderate forces to implement the orders. The lockdown and curfew enforcements were not significantly respectful of human life and human dignity. The COVID-19 emergency declarations in some countries were discriminatory against minorities and vulnerable groups in some countries.

Research limitations/implications: This report is based on data from investigative journalism and opinions of the United Nations and international human rights organizations, and not on police investigations or reports. The implication of the study is that if social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes were given to the law enforcement officers implementing the COVID-19 lockdowns and or curfews, the human rights and humanitarian rights breaches witnessed would have been avoided or drastically minimized.

Originality: The originality of this review is that it is the first to undertake a situation analysis of the COVID-19 lockdowns and curfews human rights abuses in some countries. The study portrayed the poor level of social marketing orientations and risk communication and community engagement attitudes amongst law enforcement officers, culminating in the frosty police-public relationships.