Social media use and juvenile incarceration: Perspectives from mental health professionals and staff of juvenile correctional facilities

Social media has become pervasive in the lives of modern adolescents. Although social media may provide individuals with many positive opportunities for communication and learning, social media sites also may provide an outlet for youth conduct problems, such as bullying, harassment, and intentional hostility and aggression toward others. In recent years, more and more research has shown that overuse of social media can lead to negative mental health outcomes( Khine et al., 2020;Andreassen, 2015;Lin et al., 2016). Research also suggests that more childhood conduct disorder symptoms are significantly associated with greater daily social media use during emerging adulthood (Galica, 2017). Yet, the relationship between social media use and adolescent delinquent behavior has remained clear. At the same time, according to a 2016 nationwide study, U.S. law enforcement arrested around 1.3 million adolescents each year (Puzzanchera, 2014). To this end, countless juvenile detention counselors, probation officers, unit counselors and other staff have treated and rehabilitated youths who were criminal offenders in an effort to prevent future crimes. This study aimed to better understand how these professionals considered and potentially addressed social media use in their everyday work with adolescents within the juvenile justice system. This researcher developed a brief survey which explored correctional staff's perspectives on the impact of social media use on the adolescents with whom they worked;and ways in which they could intervene. Data was collected from February 2021 to October 2021, which was longer than expected as it occurred amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample consisted of 28 juvenile correctional facilities staff members (ages 18 or older), primarily mental health counselors, who were currently working with or previously worked with juveniles within the criminal justice system. Participants were acquired through multiple outreach attempts via phone and email to various juvenile correctional facilities throughout California. A majority of participants agreed that social media played a pertinent role in juvenile delinquency where it acted as a facilitator or platform for criminal behavior, and many disclosed a willingness to intervene or had previously attempted to intervene around social media use in some capacity. This included (a) directly communicating with adolescents, (b) communicating with their parents/caregivers about social media use, (c) recommending social media restrictions as a condition of probation, or (d) simply monitoring or limiting social media use in their general recommendations. This study offered a modest preliminary effort to explore and highlight the need to better understand the connection between social media use and juvenile criminal behavior as well as to develop and enhance ways to intervene with respect to this connection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Office of Legal Counsel's Client is the President: Why the Model Rules Demand a Secretive Agency Identify its Boss

This Note argues that the Model Rules of Professional Conduct require the Office of Legal Counsel to identify President Biden as its client. Had the agency done so when Biden first took office, it could have immediately implemented Biden's policy preference: keeping former prisoners home during the coronavirus pandemic.

A Prosecutorial Duty to Seek Non-Custodial Sentencing

Mass incarceration, which caused the sharp increase in the American prison population over the last five decades, explains why America today comprises five percent of the world's population but houses twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. This widespread issue has led to many others, including prison overcrowding. American prisons are dramatically overcrowded, with 2,068,000 prisoners as of 2019. Of the fifty states and the District of Columbia, twelve of them have a prison population that is more than fifty percent Black, even though only 13.4% of the US population is Black. Although many incarcerated people are in jail awaiting trial, the majority are incarcerated because they were sentenced there. Therefore, sentencing reform must be part of the solution. This Note will argue that prosecutors should have a duty to recommend non-custodial sentencing whenever feasible, and to otherwise pursue the lowest prison sentence available, because of 1) current overcrowding in prisons, 2) the impact of current COVID-19 protocols, and 3) the societal impact of incarceration.

Detention in pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, detained persons suffered an increasing number of human rights violations. A World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) report highlighted the abusive practices and legal ways to fight them. People in detention are generally at high risk of infectious diseases. Jails are overcrowded everywhere, hygiene is generally poor, and quarantine is often impossible. Persons with pre-existing medical conditions or pregnancies are especially vulnerable. It thus was no surprise that COVID-19 spread fast in detention facilities. Because of rules meant to contain the disease, infected persons often struggled to get in touch with lawyers and insisted on judicial review. Nonetheless, lawyers did find ways to assist people in jails and improve protection against COVID-19. This article highlights the OMCT report that assessed pandemic-related human rights issues, which were prevalent in many countries, focusing on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It also discusses the legal and advocacy strategies and promising practices to protect people from COVID-19 in detention effectively, challenge ongoing and pandemic-related human rights violations occurring in detention settings, and seek accountability for abusive law enforcement measures.

Education and Rehabilitation of Incarcerated Youth during COVID-19: Views of State-Level Administrators

The present study addresses the complexities of providing education and rehabilitation to incarcerated youth during the COVID-19 crisis. A total of three state-level administrators, one supervisor for juvenile residential services health care, and one medical director of state detention centers from three states completed a survey focusing on the key domains of education, physical safety, mental health support, social support, support for physical health, and information sharing. With each domain, respondents were queried on the adequacy and basis of policies, as well as monitoring of compliance with policies and barriers to compliance. The state officials then each participated in two 45-minute interviews. Results indicate that the survey respondents found policies to be adequate across domains. Interview findings yielded across-state themes of learned capability and collaboration and/or cooperation. Additional results, as well as implications for research and practices, are discussed.

A look at opportunities within correctional facilities in preparation of ex-convicts attaining employment: A qualitative case study

In the United States, only fourteen percent of inmates participated in educational classes, and less than seven percent participated in vocational training as stated by Coop and Bales (2018). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of correctional staff about the vocational training programs Black or Brown ex-convicts may have received or had access to while incarcerated. Limited access to training might have contributed to fewer opportunities for employment upon release. The theories used to frame this study were the General Strain Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Social Control Theory, and Self-Determination Theory. This qualitative case study included one-on-one structured interviews with 15 open-ended questions conducted with ten Florida correctional officers in an online face-to-face platform. Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-step thematic analysis utilizing NVivo was used to analyze the interview transcripts' textual data. Three themes emerged from participants' responses: Correctional officers believed improvement was needed for the employability training offered to the ex-convicts, correctional officers perceived there was a lack of motivation on the part of the convict to become employed, and correctional officers believed there were obstacles or limitations for inmates participating in programs. Participants suggested that there need to be efforts to promote the programs to inmates, address low-program enrollment rates, and improve programs to help inmates become successful in acquiring a job. Correctional officers believed the lack of motivation by inmates to participate in a program may have led to recidivism upon release and lowered the ex-convicts' chances of securing employment. This study would be important to correctional facility administration for designing and implementing inmate programs. Future research studies should include the perspective of ex-convicts and focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted inmates and programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Learning in Second-Chance Schools during COVID-19 Case Study: Legal Framework and Distance Learning Platforms in Greek Prisons

In this research paper we focus on the problems concerning inmates' access to education through Second Chance Schools operating within penitentiaries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A specially encrypted platform has been created through open-source software that can provide distance learning and does not allow access to any part of the internet other than the learning process.

Ethical Considerations and Reimaging State Corrections: Education and Work Partnerships for Offenders Return to Home and Community

This paper describes a mixed method study of 16,000 postings on Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit related to corrections (prison) reforms and a survey of 140 participants in this discourse who expressed a strong interest in reform focused on ethics, education, and work partnerships. The theoretical modeling of "what works," arguably, can facilitate the reform of individual offenders as well as rehabilitation and recidivism-reduction programs. The methodology combined a review of empirical research for years 1990 to 2018 with social media posts by members of the public and a narrative survey of public professionals. The results indicated that work, education, and morality all have significant roles to play in reimagining prison systems so that simply warehousing prisoners and "nothing works" thinking become ideas of the past. The COVID-19 pandemic and social justice concerns about prisoners have created conditions conducive to social media activism aimed at making prisons more humane. Accordingly, corrections professionals, policymakers, and students need solid research on these issues to assess the outcomes of corrections policies for communities.

Paths to Improving Pandemic Preparedness in Jails and Prisons: Perspectives of Incarcerated People and Correctional Staff

People who live and work In carcera! settings are at high risk for COVID-19.1 As of September 30, 2022, at least 622 968 people incarcerated in US prisons and 230168 staff members had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3185 had died.2 Compared with rates among the general population, average COVID-19 case rates in state and federal prisons are five times higher3 and mortality rates are at least double.4,5 Likewise, communities that are near correctional facilities have higher rates of COVID-19.6 Carceral systems, however, have not been fully integrated into public health responses to the pandemic. Few local governments have incorporated jails and prisons into their strategies for COVID-19 response and preparedness.7 The World Health Organization's recent comprehensive framework for COVID-19 response recommends that all countries conduct a substantive equity and inclusion analysis to inform programming, which should rely on "meaningful participation, collaboration, and consultation with subpopulations experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Because of this, it went entirely unenforced because enforcing rules in a carceral setting leads to conflict. Some people said joint vaccination and testing campaigns would facilitate trust in both groups;others said mental health services for correctional staff would foster professionalism in their interactions with incarcerated people.

Social media use and juvenile incarceration: Perspectives from mental health professionals and staff of juvenile correctional facilities

Social media has become pervasive in the lives of modern adolescents. Although social media may provide individuals with many positive opportunities for communication and learning, social media sites also may provide an outlet for youth conduct problems, such as bullying, harassment, and intentional hostility and aggression toward others. In recent years, more and more research has shown that overuse of social media can lead to negative mental health outcomes( Khine et al., 2020;Andreassen, 2015;Lin et al., 2016). Research also suggests that more childhood conduct disorder symptoms are significantly associated with greater daily social media use during emerging adulthood (Galica, 2017). Yet, the relationship between social media use and adolescent delinquent behavior has remained clear. At the same time, according to a 2016 nationwide study, U.S. law enforcement arrested around 1.3 million adolescents each year (Puzzanchera, 2014). To this end, countless juvenile detention counselors, probation officers, unit counselors and other staff have treated and rehabilitated youths who were criminal offenders in an effort to prevent future crimes. This study aimed to better understand how these professionals considered and potentially addressed social media use in their everyday work with adolescents within the juvenile justice system. This researcher developed a brief survey which explored correctional staff's perspectives on the impact of social media use on the adolescents with whom they worked;and ways in which they could intervene. Data was collected from February 2021 to October 2021, which was longer than expected as it occurred amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample consisted of 28 juvenile correctional facilities staff members (ages 18 or older), primarily mental health counselors, who were currently working with or previously worked with juveniles within the criminal justice system. Participants were acquired through multiple outreach attempts via phone and email to various juvenile correctional facilities throughout California. A majority of participants agreed that social media played a pertinent role in juvenile delinquency where it acted as a facilitator or platform for criminal behavior, and many disclosed a willingness to intervene or had previously attempted to intervene around social media use in some capacity. This included (a) directly communicating with adolescents, (b) communicating with their parents/caregivers about social media use, (c) recommending social media restrictions as a condition of probation, or (d) simply monitoring or limiting social media use in their general recommendations. This study offered a modest preliminary effort to explore and highlight the need to better understand the connection between social media use and juvenile criminal behavior as well as to develop and enhance ways to intervene with respect to this connection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Working Toward a Fair and Just Reentry Process

[...]because of the lack of preparation, support, and services, many formerly incarcerated individuals wind up re-incarcerated. According to a BJS review of criminal history data from 34 states, 6 in IO people released from prison in 2012 were rearrested within three years. Correctional facilities serve as congregate care settings, with limited access to appropriate protective equipment and materials to maintain sanitary conditions, limited ability for incarcerated people to adopt public health mitigation measures such as social distancing, and relatively low rates of vaccination. See Craig Haney, The Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for Post-Prison Adjustment (prepared for the From Prison to Home Conf., Jan. 30-31, 2002), https://tinyurl.com/yc335v5v. [...]there is often an inability to maintain a healthy lifestyle, with limited access to nutritious food, time outdoors, or physical activity, and a woeful lack of access to treatment and resources for individuals with chronic physical health, mental health, and substance use issues.

Privatized Justice: Ankle Monitors Are the New Private Prison

"17 The exploding prison population was undeniable-the DOJ reported 240,000 state and federal prisoners nationwide in 1975.18 In 2008, the U.S. prison and jail population peaked at 2.3 million.19 The upward trend has slowed, with just over 2 million at the end of 2019,20 but a March 2020 report estimates 2.3 million people are incarcerated across the United States.21 Unfortunately, even the releases triggered by COVID-19 are already proving to be short-lived-state prison and jail populations are "ticking back up" to prepandemic levels.22 B. Private Prisons Problems of prison overcrowding were widely known in the 1980s, with two-thirds of states under court order to improve conditions that violated the Constitution.23 But as the prison population grew,24 states struggled to balance the need for more facilities and the political pressure to be "tough on crime. The Corporate Duopoly Filling that need in the market, CoreCivic28 and GEO Group29 became the two largest players in the private prison industry. Since its founding in 1983, CoreCivic has become "the nation's largest owner of partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities and one of the largest private prison operators in the United States. "30 CoreCivic reported an annual revenue of $1.9 billion in 2020 and $1.86 billion in 2021,31 operating 113 facilities across 22 states.32 The corporation is also a major contractor in the temporary detention facility business (specifically immigration detention) and holds the longestrunning federal contract in the industry.33 In 2016, CoreCivic was awarded a $1 billion nounparalleled contest bill by the U.S. Administration to build and operate a detention facility for immigrants from Central America.34 In 2019, it was awarded a five-year contract worth $2.1 billion to provide guard services at a private San Diego immigrant detention center.35 GEO Group, considered the second-largest private prison corporation in the United States, was given the first federal government contract for a privately operated prison in 1997.36 Although traditionally showing a smaller profit margin than CoreCivic,37 GEO Group had an annual revenue of $2.35 billion for 2020 and $2.25 billion for 2021-an over $1 billion revenue increase since 2010.38 Worldwide, GEO operates and/or manages "approximately 86,000 beds at 106 secure and community-based facilities . . . and electronic monitoring and supervision services for more than 250,000 individuals. A 2017 study by the Prison Policy Initiative followed the money of mass incarceration-a $182 billion industry.43 While private prisons account for $3.9 billion of that industry, that does not even touch on the number of for-profit interests involved in everything from bail fees to commissary, telephone calls, and video visitation.44 A 2020 report lists over 4,100 corporations that profit from mass incarceration in the United States.45 Central to the success of the private prison industry has been its ability to offer diverse product offerings while maintaining ongoing profit margins.

Tuberculosis: Common Questions and Answers

Approximately 10 million people worldwide were infected with tuberculosis (TB) in 2019, resulting in 1.4 million deaths. In the United States that same year, there were nearly 9,000 reported cases of TB disease and up to 13 million people were living with latent TB infection (LTBI), which is an asymptomatic, noncommunicable infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Without treatment, LTBI will progress to active TB disease in approximately 5% to 10% of affected people. Individuals with symptoms of TB disease warrant testing. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends testing individuals at increased risk of LTBI with an interferon-gamma release assay or tuberculin skin testing. Because the incidence of LTBI in health care professionals is similar to that of the general population, periodic retesting is not recommended. After a positive test result, chest radiography should be performed and, in patients with suspected pulmonary TB disease, sputum collected for diagnosis. Both suspected and confirmed cases of LTBI and TB disease must be reported to local or state health departments. Preferred treatment regimens for LTBI include isoniazid in combination with rifapentine or rifampin, or rifampin alone for a duration of three and four months, respectively. Treatment of drug-susceptible TB disease includes an eight-week intensive phase with four drugs (isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol), followed by a continuation phase lasting 18 weeks or more, with two drugs based on susceptibility testing results. Consultation with a TB expert is necessary if there is suspicion or confirmation of drug-resistant TB. (Am Fam Physician. 2022;106(3):308–315. Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Family Physicians.)

The Theology and Ethics of Vaccination Receptivity among Dutch Muslims

Muslim tradition has given significant attention to plagues and pandemics based on scriptural texts and theological-ethical norms. Yet, the outbreak of COVID-19 evoked varied reactions among Muslims due to enormous innovations in healthcare and media coverage. COVID-19 vaccination strategies demonstrate how Dutch Muslim attitudes are influenced by factors beyond Islamic theology of pandemics. Other reasons may be behind the unwillingness of some Muslims to vaccinate. These could be traced to certain readings and (mis)interpretations of relevant theological texts, shared cultural schemas among like-minded people, fear of vaccination, lack of clarity, online misinformation, language barriers and political mistrust in local authorities and global health measures. These conclusions are backed up by fieldwork research among Dutch Muslim detainees as an example of what might be called a “local vaccination culture.” It demonstrates that the vaccination decisions are pragmatic and less religiously informed. However, the role imams, religious leaders and representative organs play in this process should not be underestimated. As counter-narratives of anti-vaccinations arguments, theological incentives have a significant impact on Muslim attitudes towards restrictive measures and vaccination policies. © Yaser Ellethy & Mohamed Ajouaou.

Effective Online Course Delivery in Correctional Settings: A Pilot

This paper provides an analysis of best practices for the design and delivery of online programming within correctional facilities, ascertained from the evaluation of a pilot course. Utilizing the case study methodology, it was observed that fully online coursework may be delivered within controlled settings. Key considerations for effective design and delivery centered around scheduling regular check-ins with administration from the University and the Correctional Center, conducting technology testing on a set cadence, incorporating synchronous components and evaluating opportunities for the inclusion of course-embedded advising to ensure engagement. Future directions include continued delivery of a Baccalaureate program, the incorporation of micro-credentials to provide targeted training in key areas of relevance and degree continuity planning to support degree completion among recently released individuals.

Strategies by national health systems in the northern hemisphere during first wave of COVID-19: evaluation and the way forward

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of strategies adopted by national health systems across the globe in different 'geographical regions' in the Northern Hemisphere to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Data is included since the first case was reported in November 2019 till mid-April 2020. Sources of information are COVID-19 case repositories, official country websites, university research teams' perspectives, official briefings, and available published research articles to date. We triangulated all data to formulate a comprehensive illustration of COVID-19 situation in each country included. It has been found that the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak experienced in China, Taiwan, and South Korea saw better strategies adopted by leadership to combat COVID-19 pandemic containment as compared to Iran, Italy, and the United States of America. Saudi Arabia has so far been successful in the implementation of containment strategies as there is no large outbreak in major cities or confined areas as prisons. The situation has yet to unfold in India and Pakistan, which exhibit their own weaknesses in policy formulation or implementation in response to health crises. This review provides conclusive evidence that timely travel bans, early detection of COVID-19 spread through exhaustive and reliable testing, and the establishment of a central, fully authorized body to foresee health trends and implement appropriate containment measures are essential to contain the spread of the virus.

Preventing Childhood Vision Loss Through Exploitative Prison Labor: A Call for Action

The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA), a semiautonomous prison labor agency under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, runs two optical laboratories operated by people incarcerated at Valley State Prison and California State Prison, Solano,1 and these laboratories supply ophthalmic lenses to eligible Medicaid recipients, such as this young patient. Documents we obtained through a public records request revealed that our state's public health agency, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), agreed to pay CALPIA up to $37.9 million for the 2021/22 fiscal year for optical services alone. CALPIA wages in prison-based optical shops range between $0.35 and $1.00 per hour,6 up to 55% of which can be deducted by law for restitution and administrative costs, resulting in an effective pay rate as low as $0.16 per hour.7 Courts have routinely rejected legal challenges to these meager wages by concluding that, because the Thirteen Amendment permits the involuntary servitude of incarcerated people, the federal minimum wage law does not apply to prison labor.8 The result is a strange supply chain that is not always transparent or top of mind: medical devices produced by poorly paid imprisoned people are provided to the poorest members of free society, such as the infant who needed sight-saving glasses. Others have called for public health officials, researchers, and physicians to address the sprawling reach of the prison industrial complex.14 Medical providers could use their position of authority to advocate better pay and conditions for incarcerated workers who produce the very devices that providers prescribe.

COVID-19 and the injustice system: Reshaping clinical practice for children and families impacted by hyper-incarceration

This chapter explores the systemic and psychological manifestations of racial and medical trauma symptoms associated with COVID-19 and parental incarceration and lays the groundwork for the implementation of relational-cultural and attachment theory and practice within a clinical community-based setting to treat this population. The overwhelming prevalence of infection of COVID-19 in correctional facilities further heightens the collateral trauma responses of children grieving the loss of their loved ones due to hyper-incarceration. Trauma symptoms exhibited by children and adolescents generally follow a similar symptomatology: depression, anger, aggression, self-isolation, and self-harming behaviors. As with other vulnerable populations impacted by various forms of trauma, children of incarcerated parents will likewise benefit from mental health providers employing attachment theory-based interventions during the global pandemic. Clinicians working with children of incarcerated parents often experience secondary trauma, and in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the term shared trauma is more aptly applied. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Attitude and preventive practices towards COVID-19 disease and the impact of awareness training on knowledge of the disease among correctional officers: [version 2;peer review: 2 approved]

COVID-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern. Efforts at the global and national levels are being made to control its spread. The Nigerian Correctional Service is also proactive in the fight against the disease by organizing COVID-19 awareness training for correctional officers. We conducted a pre- and post-test assessment of COVID-19 knowledge among correctional officers in Enugu State Command to determine the impact of awareness training on their knowledge level. The study also assessed correctional officers’ attitude and preventive practices towards the disease. The mean knowledge score was 19.34 out of 25, and the awareness training significantly improved the participants’ COVID-19 knowledge. We found a significant moderate, positive correlation between knowledge and attitude/practice, and a significantly higher knowledge level among those with higher educational qualifications. Regular hand washing with soap and water (87.9%), wearing face masks (84.4%), and social distancing (83%) were practiced by the majority of the participants. . The majority of the participants (53.2%) received COVID-19 information from multiple sources including the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization

Infectivity rate of COVID-19 following close contact with COVID-19 cases in Quzhou

Objective: To determine the infectivity rate following close contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases in Quzhou from January to September 2020, and to provide reference for pandemic control and prevention.