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The purpose of this study was to expand available knowledge on predictors of male inmate violence by examining a large set of variables offered by the importation, deprivation and threat appraisal and coping theories.

A total of 465 male inmates from five medium-security prisons in Wisconsin completed surveys to report demographics, violence, personality, social stressors and healthy coping behaviors to help manage risk by identifying key factors.

Inmates reported more violence with the “imported” characteristics of younger age, less incarceration, no college experience and personality patterns of impulsiveness, hostility and internal locus of control. More violence was reported by inmates with social stressors experienced from family and correctional staff. Additionally, less violence was reported by inmates with more healthy coping behaviors of exercise and social support, especially from family and other inmates.

One must remain uncertain about whether similar patterns of demographics, personality, social stressors and coping behaviors associated with inmate violence would be found in other US prisons. Future research can determine whether similar predictors of violence are found for women inmates and the consideration of ethnicity should be warranted when examining predictors of inmate violence.

Prison administrators can develop new programs to reduce social stressors and increase healthy coping behaviors found by this study to be significantly associated with reduced violence, exercise and social support from other inmates and family.

This research recommends that educating and training correctional staff for a trauma-informed care approach is an integral part of lessening the effects of “pains of imprisonment” on inmate violence and healing the effects of trauma.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first direct comparison of social stressors from other inmates, correctional staff or family members outside the prison as possible predictors of male inmate violence.

This article reviews the international literature of the last two decades on self‐injurious behaviour in prisons and jails and introduces the risk factors associated with this behaviour. Studies from a variety of countries investigated different samples (e.g. in jails or prisons; female or male inmates). We only chose those studies using a control group of inmates without self‐injurious behaviour. The findings on potential risk factors for self‐injurious behaviour are largely contradictory because of the differences in sample selection and dependent variables (deliberate self‐harm without suicidal intent vs. suicide attempts). We also discuss some methodological problems in predicting self‐injurious behaviour.

The study explores the ways hypermasculine aggression is both communicated and resisted in prisons.

It is based on ethnographic observation conducted at two correctional facilities: a mixed-security prison for young men where the author has facilitated conflict transformation workshops since 2006 and a maximum-security prison for men where she has taught a weekly writing class since 2007.

It found that performances of masculinity among both prisoners and prison guards are frequently structured around symbolic expressions of violence, but that both groups also engage in supportive behaviors that communicate the possibility of nonviolent caring male identity.

The study was limited to two correctional institutions in one state in the United States. Conditions at other correctional facilities may lead to different types of gendered performance. Also, in the tense atmosphere of a prison, neither inmates nor corrections officers express themselves fully in the presence of an outside observer.

The violent masculinities valued and practiced in prisons replicate in communities and institutions beyond the prison walls. Attention to the alternative masculinities practiced in correctional institutions can help scholars challenge the destructive ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and reduce its prevalence; it can influence policy makers to establish more humane conditions and procedures of benefit to individuals, families, and communities.

The study is of value to scholars of gender, culture, and social justice; to policy makers interested in criminal justice reform; and to activists and people of conscience seeking to reduce violence on both sides of the bars.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how digital media technologies can enhance offender rehabilitation in correctional institutions.

A qualitative approach was adopted for this study involving young prisoners who had been incarcerated for at least six months. In total, 16 participants who fulfilled the criteria of listening to at least 30 of the podcasts were eventually selected for face-to-face interview.

This study focuses on how the radio podcast impacted the rehabilitation process of the 16 young inmates. From data collected through the interviews, three major themes emerged from the study, namely, reflective thinking, increased motivation to change and structured routines. The participants highlighted how these factors are essential in moving them towards successful rehabilitation upon their release.

A convenient sample was used as there was a lack of a more diverse sample to better represent the prison population in Singapore. The number of participants who took part in the study were limited and only young inmates. Thus, the outcome of the research may not be directly applicable to the general prison population. Another issue is that media has short-lived effects and does not encourage persistent learning, it would be prudent to explore other options that can complement the radio podcasts.

The study indicated that the use of digital media technology can effectively aid the rehabilitation of offenders in Singapore. It enhanced work efficiency since fewer resources were required as inmates can have podcast access within their cells. The content of the podcasts complements the overall framework of rehabilitation for young inmates when they are serving their sentences in the institutions.

This chapter aims to examine the ways in which gender has featured in Hong Kong’s prison system from its colonial origins to its contemporary form as a politically autonomous region of China. We conclude with a discussion on the reasons for these recent trends of imprisonment.

We draw from the concepts of patriarchy and colonialism to examine how gender has operated and shaped Hong Kong’s prison system. Our analysis is based on historical and contemporary government reports and other documents and secondary data.

Similar to other locales around the world, Hong Kong’s prison system was designed for and by men in its early colonial days, as expected given that most prisoners were male. Although a few prison administrators attempted to provide some programs for women and voiced concern over the conditions of women’s imprisonment to colonial authorities during the latter part of the 1800s, it was not until the 1930s that the first female prison was established. Since then, Hong Kong prison authorities have faced the challenge of a phenomenal and rapid growth in women’s imprisonment, which resulted in a historical reversal of shifting male prisoners to alternate accommodation to make room for their female counterparts.

This study is among the few which have examined how gender operates in the context of imprisonment in a colonial and postcolonial context. This chapter does this by examining how colonial authorities managed competing political debates about the purpose of punishment and cultural understandings of race and difference, and the limited recognition of gender and difference. It also examines how, in postcolonial Hong Kong, authorities have placed gender center stage and the reasons for this in coping and dealing with the growth in women’s imprisonment.

Chlamydia is currently the most frequently notified infectious disease in New South Wales (NSW). Published articles relating to chlamydia prevalence in Australian prison settings are sparse, but studies from the United Kingdom and the United States indicate relatively high chlamydia prevalence among young incarcerated individuals. This article reports on findings from an enhanced chlamydia surveillance programme in NSW prisons between 2005 and 2007. The authors report a relatively low chlamydia prevalence among the general population of NSW prisoners (compared with figures from the United Kingdom and United States), which by the end of 2007 was 4%. The average crude chlamydia notification rate for the NSW prison population during the review period was about four times that of the general NSW community ‐ 716/100,000 during the review period compared with 175/100,000 in the NSW general community. The average crude chlamydia notification rate for Aboriginal prisoners during the review period was 1262/100,000, compared with 1470/100,000 in the general Australian Aboriginal population. The authors grapple with the dilemma of expanding chlamydia screening and treatment services for the sexual health benefits of prison populations with static prison health budgets on one hand, and limited evidence of cost‐effectiveness of such an expensive intervention on the other.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of four different sport programs on various social and subjective health outcomes among prisoners.

Four different sport programs (endurance, strength, dance-like martial arts, soccer) were provided in 2020 and 2021 in a German prison. Participants completed paper-pencil surveys before and after the sport programs (n = 134 observations), including questions about potential social health (enjoyment of physical activity, interpersonal exchange, interpersonal trust, self-efficacy) and subjective health outcomes (health status, health satisfaction, well-being). Further information such as prisoner characteristics were added to the data.

Results of regression analyses show that the endurance program had a significant positive effect on interpersonal trust, while the soccer program had a negative effect. Subjective well-being increased significantly after the strength and the soccer program. The weekly sport hours before imprisonment had a positive association with enjoyment of physical activity and interpersonal exchange while being negatively related to health status and health satisfaction. Furthermore, the number of months of imprisonment before the survey, being a young offender, the prisoners’ body mass index, educational level and migration background were significantly associated with several social and subjective health outcomes.

This study analyzed the effects of different sport programs for prisoners on various social and subjective health outcomes, revealing differences across programs and outcomes. The findings suggest that sport can be a way to enhance prisoners’ social and subjective health, ultimately facilitating their rehabilitation process.

This chapter reconstructs and critically examines the recent history of strip searches in Belgium. About 10 years ago the Belgian parliament adopted its first law on prisoners’ rights. A major part of the Prison Act of 12 January 2005 deals with disciplinary and control measures. Article 108, in particular, has provoked quite some controversy. It introduced a clear distinction between the (more superficial) search of an inmates’ clothes on the one hand, and the (substantially more intrusive) measure of strip searching on the other hand. The main difference between these two measures is that the latter involves forcing prisoners to strip naked. Because of their intrinsic intrusiveness, such strip searches were meant to be exceptional measures: they should only take place following an individual assessment and decision by the prison governor. In practice, however, the prison administration tended to interpret Article 108 somewhat differently and the line between searching an inmate’s clothes on the one hand and strip searching on the other became blurred.

I first discuss the problem of order in prisons and explore how strip searches have been regulated in Europe. I then reconstruct the recent history of the regulation of strip searches in Belgium. In order to make sense of this history, I mobilize some of the ideas of Stanley Cohen’s sociology of denial, in particular, his distinction between literal, implicatory and interpretive denial, and apply these to the history of strip searches in Belgium.

A consistent finding from this chapter is that the Belgian prison administration has – through creative manoeuvres of interpretive denial – been able to circumvent the new barriers that were erected by the Prison Act of 12 January 2005 and, in doing so, it has been able to continue stripping detainees naked without an individualized decision from the prison governor. The approach that I develop throughout this chapter helps us better appreciate the limits of legal reform and top-down (European) regulation of strip searches.

The chapter demonstrates that Stanley Cohen’s work on denial is not only useful for scholars who do research on gross human rights violations but also for interpreting more down-to-earth aspects of criminal justice systems across the globe.

This study aims to provide an overview and quality appraisal of the current scientific evidence concerning the prevalence and characteristics of mental and physical disorders among sentenced female prisoners.

A mixed-methods systematic literature review.

A total of 4 reviews and 39 single studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Mental disorders were the main area of investigation in the majority of single studies, with substance abuse, particularly drug abuse, as the most consistently gender biased disorder, with higher prevalence among women than men in prison. The review identified a lack of updated systematic evidence on the presence of multi-morbidity.

This study provides an up-to-date overview and quality appraisal of the current scientific evidence concerning the prevalence and characteristics of mental and physical disorders among female prisoners.