ABSTRACT
Based on a participatory study design, this article describes how a group of family members of people deprived of liberty (PDL) experienced the COVID-19 control measures implemented in Mexico's prisons. We conducted 28 in-depth interviews and analyzed them using ATLAS.ti. We found that the measures implemented in Mexican prisons to avoid the spread of COVID-19 focused mainly on suspension of visitation and PDL confinement. The isolation imposed on PDL impacted their living conditions, making them more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 due to lack of access to essential services, food, and hygiene supplies. Visit restrictions and PDL isolation also impacted PDL relatives' health and socioeconomic conditions. Our findings indicate that the consequences of COVID-19 control actions in Mexican prisons differ according to the gender and jurisdiction of PDL. Women in federal prisons were more isolated, while those in local ones were more deprived of basic supplies. Imprisoned women's isolation has especially severe effects on the mental and physical health of their elderly parents and children. The results show how the measures adopted to control COVID-19 outbreaks in Mexican prisons have exacerbated the preexisting systemic violence experienced by PDL and their families and how they have failed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these settings. These findings provide support for the health-informed penal reform of Mexican prisons.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic had a critical impact on the Thai criminal justice system. The goal of this study is to explore policies and practices of Thailand's Department of Probation as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study surveyed probation officers in Thailand (N = 534) from March to April 2021, focusing on probation practices and case management issues prior- and post- COVID-19. Data reveals that, overall, the frequency of officer-offender contacts remained steady even though the type of contact changed after COVID-19. In-person contact was replaced by remote contact strategies, specifically telephone calls, which increased significantly following the onset of the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
In February 2019, some six years after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed legal aid from a wide range of civil and family matters, the Government released its Post Implementation Review of the impact of LASPO and accompanying action plan. Publication is at a time when governmental policy extolling the virtues of mediation and online dispute resolution has the potential to have a profound effect on family law process. Against this background and having regard to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the family justice system, this paper discusses the findings of the author's qualitative study on the experiences of litigants in person in civil and family courts. It suggests a typology of litigants in person, explains how and where litigants in person in child arrangements proceedings seek advice and the significant access to justice barriers arising from the compulsory requirement to attend a MIAM before commencing proceedings and attending the fact-finding stage without representation. Ultimately, the paper offers fresh evidence of the harsh realities of litigating without representation in the family court, which despite espousing an inquisitorial process, remains adversarial in character.
ABSTRACT
Burnout rates of correctional employees are higher than employees in the general public. The purpose of this study was to identify how occupational factors impact burnout rates among correctional mental health workers. Grounded in the job-demands theoretical model, this study compared burnout rates among mental health staff within county jails and state prisons. Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Occupational factors were measured using the Areas of Work life Survey and Pandemic Experience and Perception Survey. Data was analyzed using IBM SSPS software to address multiple a priori directional research questions. Research questions considered how occupational factors impact burnout of this population. Key results indicated no significant difference in burnout rates among mental health providers, though found "workload" and "control" to be significant predictors of emotional exhaustion in both jails and prisons, and "reward" a significant predictor of personal accomplishment in prisons. "Risk perception" and "work life" were predictors of emotional exhaustion during a global pandemic. Future studies should expand the research on the variable "workload" with burnout and consider utilizing the demographic data collected to identify additional correlations. Implications for positive social change include prevention of burnout in correctional settings resulting in lower staff turnover, improved staff quality of life, and increased quality of treatment. Knowing the factors that contribute to burnout in these populations allows for intervention prior to burnout. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Background: The evidence demonstrates the need to study diversion from police custody. For clarity, police custody diversion is a process where offenders are diverted away from being charged or prosecuted and receive support to diminish the risk of recidivism.Method: The original plan was to conduct a process evaluation of the implementation of Checkpoint Cymru using a mixed methods design. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to achieve the original aims and objectives. A new plan was implemented, and the researcher evaluated the implementation process through the experience of those facilitating, managing, and advising Checkpoint Cymru.Results: The results from the research project indicated Checkpoint Cymru had a positive impact on recidivism and life change from a professional view. However, this was overshadowed by the navigator's frustrations and several organizational issues posing risk to employee wellbeing, the long-term success of the scheme and requiring attention. The wider findings relate most to the impacts of organizational conflict, the importance of effective communication and several take-home lessons for future research.Conclusion: This thesis offers an honest and rare insight to the complexities of conducting research between two major organizations during a global pandemic. It demonstrates how things can go wrong when a partnership is fractured with minimal desire to acknowledge and deal with identified barriers.Limitations: Methodological limitations inhibited the project achieving its initial aims and objectives. However, this was not detrimental to the project. In fact, this gave the researcher more scope to explore professional experience, producing important findings which otherwise may have remained undisclosed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe focus of this study is to examine Indian police officers' punitiveness toward violators of criminal sanctions attached to COVID-19 mitigation laws enacted by the Indian Penal Code. The authors draw from the conceptual frameworks and correlates typically employed in traditional crime and justice research and adapt them to the context of the pandemic. Additionally, the authors examine whether officers' punitive attitudes are related to their belief in self-legitimacy and their job assignment (civilian vs. armed personnel) in a country with inherited colonial policing legacies.Design/methodology/approachData for the study came from 1,323 police officers in a northern state of India.FindingsFindings suggest that officers with vicarious fear of COVID-19 infections (e.g. infection of family members) find the sanctions associated with the new laws harsh. Additionally, officers who subscribe to the classical attributions of offenders feel that the laws are not punitive enough. In contrast, those with deterministic views perceive the sanctions as excessively harsh. Findings also suggest that officers' self-legitimacy, and belief in the authority and responsibility vested in them, is a key predictor of their punitive attitudes. Finally, officers assigned to police lines are more punitive than those designated to patrol/traffic work.Research limitations/implicationsData or prior research on officers' punitive attitudes toward other violations (non-COVID-19 violations) is unavailable for comparison with this study's findings.Originality/valueNo prior research has examined the relationship between police officers' perceptions of self-legitimacy, their belief in the authority vested in them by the state, their belief in their role as police officers and their relationship to their punitive attitudes.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to understand the usefulness of the Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success - Adult Form (BASIS-A) profile scores in the risk assessment of individuals convicted of a sexual criminal offense. Specifically, this study attempted to determine if a correlation existed between an individual's level of social interest and the difference in that individual's level of risk over time as measured by the STABLE-2007 and the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS) dynamic risk assessments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study was adapted to a hybrid of both in-person and virtual participation involving six total participants recruited from a private practice in suburban Illinois. Results of the partial correlation were not significant and deemed inconclusive due to low study participation. The impact of the pandemic on the study's outcome and the study's contribution to practice-oriented research as well as recommendations for future research regarding the BASIS-A, risk assessment, and practice-oriented research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores time and imprisonment: I center the narratives of women, their understanding of the ordering of the clock, and experiences of time while they navigated the criminal justice system. I conducted ethnographic research with currently and formerly incarcerated women in and around upstate New York from February 2018 through February 2022. Discussions were centered around issues they were facing while on the inside and how we as advocates-though limited-could help. Interviews probed for how time was understood, passed, and even resisted inside jails and prisons. Women's time, especially poor women and women of color, are subject to greater levels of punishment, which can be seen through and in public and private spheres. I argue time is structurally and physically weaponized against the incarcerated women and their families. I simultaneously expose how time is used as a means of power and social control in, by, and through the government and the criminal justice system. I thus look at how the management of time is key to statecraft. The weaponization of time is at the discretion of the state and its actors-all of which was exacerbated by the looming COVID-19 pandemic. I also discuss how women negotiated, marked, and understood the time of imprisonment in both jail and prison spaces. Finally, I address how incarcerated people created means to combat these abuses of power-from what Scott (1985) called 'weapons of the weak' to organized and collective forms of resistance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Older incarcerated persons are an especially vulnerable segment of the prison population, with high rates of multimorbidity. This study aims to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older incarcerated persons' mental and physical health. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 157 currently-incarcerated persons age >=50 years who were enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study before the pandemic. Anxiety symptoms (seven-item generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire), depressive symptoms (eight-item patient health questionnaire) and self-rated health (SRH) were assessed during in-person interviews completed before the pandemic and via mailed surveys during the pandemic (August-September 2020). A mediation model evaluated the relationship among anxiety, depression and SRH. Findings: Participants were 96% male, racially diverse (41% White, 41% Black, 18% Hispanic/Other), with average age 56.0(+/-5.8) years. From before to during the pandemic, anxiety symptoms increased (worsened) (from 6.4 +/- 5.7 to 7.8 +/- 6.6;p < 0.001), depressive symptoms increased (worsened) (from 5.5 +/- 6.0 to 8.1 +/- 6.5;p < 0.001) and SRH decreased (worsened) (from 3.0 +/- 0.2 to 2.6 +/- 0.2;p < 0.001). The total effect of worsening anxiety symptoms on worsening SRH (-0.043;p < 0.001) occurs entirely because of worsening depressive symptoms, i.e. the direct effect was statistically non-significant -0.030 (p = 0.068). Practical implications: Older incarcerated persons experienced worsening mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic which was associated with worsening SRH. These findings have implications for health-care costs and services needed to care for this vulnerable group. Originality/value: This is the first study to evaluate change in older incarcerated persons' mental health from before the COVID-19 pandemic to during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
In January 2020, a new state-wide art therapy in prisons program was established to bring art therapy to youth offenders in four prisons to help mitigate obstacles to their education, such as emotional dysregulation, behavioral issues, and cognitive difficulties. Shortly thereafter COVID-19 halted regular programming. In a system where sequestration is already a normative practice, over-isolation occurred. Art therapists developed strategies to continue providing services, including art-based workbooks and written correspondence. Three case vignettes and overall program feedback illustrate the participants' experiences and responses to the programmatic adjustments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Offenders aged 50 and older represent a growing population among the incarcerated. Around 80 % of them struggle with difficulties related to their physical and mental health, as well as their social well-being. These difficulties heavily impacts their social and community reintegration process. The pandemic has given rise to additional and greater challenges. This interpretive descriptive qualitative study aims to comprehend older offenders' experiences related to their incarceration at the time of COVID-19, as well as its perceived influence on their social and community reintegration. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants ranging from 50 to 73 years of age. A thematic analysis was conducted to further understand the aspects modulated by COVID-19 during each key period of the social and community reintegration process, namely, while they were incarcerated and while they were released into the community. The pandemic influenced the social and community reintegration process, and had a larger impact on offenders at the beginning of the pandemic, as compared to a year later. Results highlight the lack of consistency between health measures and social and community reintegration objectives. © 2022 Intellect Ltd Article.
ABSTRACT
Based on interviews with 75 women transitioning from incarceration, our research identifies technology access and skills barriers facing this population and their underlying concerns and motivations in navigating privacy online. Our results suggest precarious housing and financial situations, concerns about ex-partners, mental health issues, and lack of self-efficacy pose challenges for their access to and use of digital technologies and influence their online privacy perspectives. Many participants reported relying primarily on cellphones for various tasks including job applications. Closing public places including libraries amid the COVID-19 pandemic put them at an even greater disadvantage, as many of them depend on computers or Wi-Fi available in those places. Nothing-to-lose attitudes were salient among this group resulting in many not taking precautionary measures online or choosing to go offline. Our research highlights the importance of building academic-community partnerships to provide technology and privacy education tailored for this population's particular needs and desires. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The article presents the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of a sample of Italian adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data were analysed in the light of the two social representations (adolescents as criminals and as victims) that permeated the Italian public debate throughout the outbreak. The findings showed the ability of boys and girls in dealing with the relationships altered by the pandemic constraints and in adapting to different regulations. This demonstrated their competence as social actors, neither criminals nor victims, who were also able to cope with the coronavirus risk in safeguarding their significant others.
ABSTRACT
La proportion de personnes âgées judiciarisées (PAJ) de 50 ans et plus est en constante augmentation dans les établissements carcéraux. Environ 80 % d'entre elles éprouvent des difficultés sur le plan de leur santé physique et de leur bien-être psychologique et social. L'ensemble de ces difficultés complexifie leur processus de réintégration sociocommunautaire. Or, le contexte de pandémie amène des défis supplémentaires. Cette étude qualitative descriptive aborde l'expérience vécue en regard de la COVID-19 de PAJ en incarcération et son influence perçue sur leur réintégration sociocommunautaire. Des entrevues en profondeur semi-dirigées ont été menées auprès de 22 participants âgés de 50 à 73 ans. L'analyse thématique a permis de mieux comprendre les dimensions du processus de réintégration sociocommunautaire ayant été modulées par la COVID-19 à travers deux périodes charnières du processus, soit lors de l'incarcération et lors du retour en communauté. L'influence de la crise sanitaire sur le processus de retour en société a été plus importante à ses débuts qu'un an plus tard. Les résultats mettent en lumière le manque de cohérence entre les mesures sociosanitaires et les objectifs de réintégration sociocommunautaire.Alternate :Offenders aged 50 and older represent a growing population among the incarcerated. Around 80 % of them struggle with difficulties related to their physical and mental health, as well as their social well-being. These difficulties heavily impacts their social and community reintegration process. The pandemic has given rise to additional and greater challenges. This interpretive descriptive qualitative study aims to comprehend older offenders' experiences related to their incarceration at the time of COVID-19, as well as its perceived influence on their social and community reintegration. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants ranging from 50 to 73 years of age. A thematic analysis was conducted to further understand the aspects modulated by COVID-19 during each key period of the social and community reintegration process, namely, while they were incarcerated and while they were released into the community. The pandemic influenced the social and community reintegration process, and had a larger impact on offenders at the beginning of the pandemic, as compared to a year later. Results highlight the lack of consistency between health measures and social and community reintegration objectives.Alternate :La proporción de personas mayores detenidas de 50 años o más de edad está aumentando constantemente en las prisiones. Aproximadamente el 80 % de estas personas tienen dificultades en cuanto a su salud física y su bienestar psicológico y social. Todas estas dificultades hacen más complejo su proceso de reinserción sociocomunitaria. El contexto de la pandemia conlleva retos adicionales. Este estudio cualitativo descriptivo examina la experiencia de los detenidos mayores encarcelados ante el COVID-19 y su influencia percibida en su reintegración socio-comunitaria. Se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad y semiestructuradas a 22 participantes de entre 50 y 73 años. El análisis temático permitió comprender mejor las dimensiones del proceso de reinserción sociocomunitaria que fueron moduladas por el COVID-19 a lo largo de dos periodos cruciales del proceso, esto es, durante el encarcelamiento y durante el retorno a la comunidad. La influencia de la crisis sanitaria en el proceso de reincorporación a la sociedad fue mayor al principio que un año después. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la falta de coherencia entre las medidas sociosanitarias y los objetivos de reinserción sociocomunitaria.
ABSTRACT
Background: The evidence demonstrates the need to study diversion from police custody. For clarity, police custody diversion is a process where offenders are diverted away from being charged or prosecuted and receive support to diminish the risk of recidivism.Method: The original plan was to conduct a process evaluation of the implementation of Checkpoint Cymru using a mixed methods design. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to achieve the original aims and objectives. A new plan was implemented, and the researcher evaluated the implementation process through the experience of those facilitating, managing, and advising Checkpoint Cymru.Results: The results from the research project indicated Checkpoint Cymru had a positive impact on recidivism and life change from a professional view. However, this was overshadowed by the navigator's frustrations and several organizational issues posing risk to employee wellbeing, the long-term success of the scheme and requiring attention. The wider findings relate most to the impacts of organizational conflict, the importance of effective communication and several take-home lessons for future research.Conclusion: This thesis offers an honest and rare insight to the complexities of conducting research between two major organizations during a global pandemic. It demonstrates how things can go wrong when a partnership is fractured with minimal desire to acknowledge and deal with identified barriers.Limitations: Methodological limitations inhibited the project achieving its initial aims and objectives. However, this was not detrimental to the project. In fact, this gave the researcher more scope to explore professional experience, producing important findings which otherwise may have remained undisclosed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores time and imprisonment: I center the narratives of women, their understanding of the ordering of the clock, and experiences of time while they navigated the criminal justice system. I conducted ethnographic research with currently and formerly incarcerated women in and around upstate New York from February 2018 through February 2022. Discussions were centered around issues they were facing while on the inside and how we as advocates-though limited-could help. Interviews probed for how time was understood, passed, and even resisted inside jails and prisons. Women's time, especially poor women and women of color, are subject to greater levels of punishment, which can be seen through and in public and private spheres. I argue time is structurally and physically weaponized against the incarcerated women and their families. I simultaneously expose how time is used as a means of power and social control in, by, and through the government and the criminal justice system. I thus look at how the management of time is key to statecraft. The weaponization of time is at the discretion of the state and its actors-all of which was exacerbated by the looming COVID-19 pandemic. I also discuss how women negotiated, marked, and understood the time of imprisonment in both jail and prison spaces. Finally, I address how incarcerated people created means to combat these abuses of power-from what Scott (1985) called 'weapons of the weak' to organized and collective forms of resistance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Purpose The focus of this study is to examine Indian police officers' punitiveness toward violators of criminal sanctions attached to COVID-19 mitigation laws enacted by the Indian Penal Code. The authors draw from the conceptual frameworks and correlates typically employed in traditional crime and justice research and adapt them to the context of the pandemic. Additionally, the authors examine whether officers' punitive attitudes are related to their belief in self-legitimacy and their job assignment (civilian vs. armed personnel) in a country with inherited colonial policing legacies. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study came from 1,323 police officers in a northern state of India. Findings Findings suggest that officers with vicarious fear of COVID-19 infections (e.g. infection of family members) find the sanctions associated with the new laws harsh. Additionally, officers who subscribe to the classical attributions of offenders feel that the laws are not punitive enough. In contrast, those with deterministic views perceive the sanctions as excessively harsh. Findings also suggest that officers' self-legitimacy, and belief in the authority and responsibility vested in them, is a key predictor of their punitive attitudes. Finally, officers assigned to police lines are more punitive than those designated to patrol/traffic work. Research limitations/implications Data or prior research on officers' punitive attitudes toward other violations (non-COVID-19 violations) is unavailable for comparison with this study's findings. Originality/value No prior research has examined the relationship between police officers' perceptions of self-legitimacy, their belief in the authority vested in them by the state, their belief in their role as police officers and their relationship to their punitive attitudes.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to understand the usefulness of the Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success - Adult Form (BASIS-A) profile scores in the risk assessment of individuals convicted of a sexual criminal offense. Specifically, this study attempted to determine if a correlation existed between an individual's level of social interest and the difference in that individual's level of risk over time as measured by the STABLE-2007 and the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS) dynamic risk assessments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study was adapted to a hybrid of both in-person and virtual participation involving six total participants recruited from a private practice in suburban Illinois. Results of the partial correlation were not significant and deemed inconclusive due to low study participation. The impact of the pandemic on the study's outcome and the study's contribution to practice-oriented research as well as recommendations for future research regarding the BASIS-A, risk assessment, and practice-oriented research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Older incarcerated persons are an especially vulnerable segment of the prison population, with high rates of multimorbidity. This study aims to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older incarcerated persons' mental and physical health. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 157 currently-incarcerated persons age >=50 years who were enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study before the pandemic. Anxiety symptoms (seven-item generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire), depressive symptoms (eight-item patient health questionnaire) and self-rated health (SRH) were assessed during in-person interviews completed before the pandemic and via mailed surveys during the pandemic (August-September 2020). A mediation model evaluated the relationship among anxiety, depression and SRH. Findings: Participants were 96% male, racially diverse (41% White, 41% Black, 18% Hispanic/Other), with average age 56.0(+/-5.8) years. From before to during the pandemic, anxiety symptoms increased (worsened) (from 6.4 +/- 5.7 to 7.8 +/- 6.6;p < 0.001), depressive symptoms increased (worsened) (from 5.5 +/- 6.0 to 8.1 +/- 6.5;p < 0.001) and SRH decreased (worsened) (from 3.0 +/- 0.2 to 2.6 +/- 0.2;p < 0.001). The total effect of worsening anxiety symptoms on worsening SRH (-0.043;p < 0.001) occurs entirely because of worsening depressive symptoms, i.e. the direct effect was statistically non-significant -0.030 (p = 0.068). Practical implications: Older incarcerated persons experienced worsening mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic which was associated with worsening SRH. These findings have implications for health-care costs and services needed to care for this vulnerable group. Originality/value: This is the first study to evaluate change in older incarcerated persons' mental health from before the COVID-19 pandemic to during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Eleven years later, in 2017, #MeToo went viral in response to sexual assault allegations against director Harvey Weinstein.1 Across the world, individuals shared their stories of experiencing gender-based violence and harassment;as of December 2019, the hashtag had more than 24 million impressions.1 Sexual violence is not regularly framed as a social determinant of health, even though the literature linking sexual violence to mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders is abundant.2 The momentum resulting from #MeToo prompted a larger question: could a global social movement potentially play a role in improving mental health outcomes for victims of gender-based violence? In 2018, the South Korean government increased both maximum sentence time and the statute of limitations for sexual harassment and sex crimes involving abuse of power.4 However, some of the discourse surrounding #MeToo in South Korea has received pushback and spurred support for men's rights groups.5 #MeToo AS A FAVORABLE HEALTH EXPOSURE The authors' findings suggest that the #MeToo movement had a beneficial effect on depressive symptoms among female survivors of gender-based violence. Social stigma remains a key driver in normalizing sexual violence, potentially lowering reporting rates;it has also been shown to worsen mental health disorders that result from gender-based violence.8 Encouraging discourse and acknowledging the issue's prevalence could have an impact on both the isolation and lack of support survivors typically experience.