Barriers and enablers to health and social services for older prisoners transitioning to community

Purpose When properly designed and implemented, prison-to-community transition programs targeting older prisoners could potentially save resources, reduce reoffending rates and contribute to improved public protection and safety. However, older prisoners transitioning to community are often neglected and overlooked, and thus, interventions targeted to address their needs are limited. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and enablers to health and social services for older prisoners transitioning to community. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted using focus group discussions with corrections officers, community corrections officers and parole officers (n = 32) in four correctional centres, two community corrections offices (CCOs) and one parole unit in New South Wales (NSW) in 2019. The authors used thematic analysis to analyse the findings. Findings The study identified three main themes relating to barriers and enablers: organisational, social and economic and individual and family and seven sub-themes: planning the transition, communication, assisting prisoners, transition programs, officers’ knowledge and scope of work, social and economic issues and offenders’ conditions Research limitations/implications The processes required to ensure effective prison-to-community transition of older prisoners are not well-developed suggesting the need for more systemic and organised mechanisms. Implications of the barriers and enablers for policy, research and practice are discussed. Originality/value This study identified a composite of barriers and enablers to health and social services for older prisoners in NSW prisons and CCOs.

From Critical Practice to Response

On October 16, 2017, over 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors in 24 independent postsecondary colleges in Ontario, Canada went on strike for the fourth time since they organized in 1971 as members of the Civil Service Association of Ontario and won their first collective agreement the next year. Begun as an apolitical, self-consciously quasi-colonial, and decidedly elitist “professional” body in 1911, the CSAO has transformed itself in name and in nature into an increasingly class-conscious and intermittently militant Ontario Public Service Employees Union with current membership of approximately 180,000 including: clerical staff; community and social service workers; corrections officers; healthcare, transportation, and natural resource workers; as well as college academic and support staff employees. Relations with their employers have become increasingly adversarial and rarely greater than in the college sector. This paper explores this strike.

Detecting anomalies in data on government violence

Can data on government coercion and violence be trusted when the data are generated by state itself? In this paper, we investigate the extent to which data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) regarding the use of force by corrections officers against prison inmates between 2008 and 2017 conform to Benford's Law. Following a growing data forensics literature, we expect misreporting of the use-of-force in California state prisons to cause the observed data to deviate from Benford's distribution. Statistical hypothesis tests and further investigation of CDCR data—which show both temporal and cross-sectional variance in conformity with Benford's Law—are consistent with misreporting of the use-of-force by the CDCR. Our results suggest that data on government coercion generated by the state should be inspected carefully before being used to test hypotheses or make policy.

Prison Communities

This chapter will examine the prison as a community. This enclosed community is a place for the incarceration of criminals tried in the courts. It is also a workplace for corrections officers, and a microcosm of wider society, with work related and prison related relationships developing within the institution's walls. The chapter examines these themes from the perspective of the corrections officer, a perspective not always discussed in penological literature, or understood in wider society. The focus of literature rarely involves discussion on prisons as places of work, or in terms of the individuals for which society invests the care of its incarcerated. The study of the history of imprisonment and prisons and its sociological implications is significant but outside the scope of this work.

An Exploration of Correctional Officer Victimization

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the often-overlooked victimization experienced by correctional staff, specifically corrections officers. Corrections officers are particularly vulnerable to on-the-job victimization as they interact daily with potentially dangerous offenders in often crowded conditions. This chapter examines the types of victimization experienced by corrections officers, the personal characteristics of those victimized, the effect of prison context on correctional officer victimization, and the toll of victimization on COs. Lastly, it provides several policy implications to promote correctional officer safety.

Teaching Prisoners' Rights to Prison Officers to Improve Professional Performance

This chapter is based on the experiences of both authors as part of a multi-disciplinary team of academics who brought changes to the prison system in the Republic of Ireland by leading an academic training program for recruit corrections officers in that country's prison system. The goal was to improve the professional performance of the corrections officers and to increase their understandings of the significance of human rights and prisoner's rights as a key part of their daily work practices. The award-winning recruit prison officer training program was the first of its kind globally.

On the Need to Develop Professional Competences in Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics in Corrections Officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia

The paper substantiates the idea that while performing law enforcement functions correctional institutions face the risks of illegal behavior on the part of those individuals who do not want to embark on the path of reformation. The most effective response to the facts of criminal acts committed by convicts is associated with the implementation of the principle of the inevitability of criminal punishment for such behavior. The speed of such a response is of paramount importance and depends on corrections officers themselves. The response can be effective only if officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN Russia) use the full range of procedural and criminalistic tools at their disposal. Based on the analysis of the criminal procedure status of institutions, bodies and officials of FSIN Russia and the content of their functional responsibilities, we make an attempt to find out whether corrections officers need criminalistic knowledge. We identify the main areas in which corrections officers demand criminalistic knowledge. These include: law enforcement (for direct use in the implementation of criminal procedure powers, as well as for indirect use in the implementation of their main activities aimed at the execution of criminal penalties), education (for training personnel for penal institutions and bodies), and research (for further elaboration on the issues related to the investigation of prison offences). Key words: correctional institutions; criminalistics; convicts; criminal process; prison-related crimes; investigation of crimes; Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia.