Inside the Box: Safety, Health, and Isolation in Prison

A large social science research literature examines the effects of prisons on crime and socioeconomic inequality, but the penal institution itself is often a black box overlooked in the analysis of its effects. This paper examines prisons and their role in rehabilitative programs and as venues for violence, health and healthcare, and extreme isolation through solitary confinement. Research shows that incarcerated people are participating less today than in the 1980s in prison programs, and they face high risks of violence, disease, and isolation. Prison conditions suggest the mechanisms that impair adjustment to community life after release provide a more complete account of the costs of incarceration and indicate the performance of prisons as moral institutions that bear a responsibility for humane and decent treatment.

Vankeusaikaisten kuntoutusohjelmien vaikutusarvioinnit ja arvioitavuus

Suomalaisissa vankiloissa on tehty systemaattista ohjelmatoimintaa noin 20 vuoden ajan. Ohjelmatoiminnan tärkeimpänä tavoitteena on edistää rikoksetonta elämäntapaa, ja siten vähentää vapautumisen jälkeistä uusintarikollisuutta. Uusintarikollisuusvaikutusten todentaminen edellyttää vaikutustutkimuksiin perustuvaa tutkimusnäyttöä, jota on vähitellen alkanut kertymään myös Suomesta. Tässä artikkelissa käydään läpi yksittäisten ohjelmien uusintarikollisuusvaikutuksia koskevien kotimaisten arviointitutkimusten keskeiset tulokset, sekä pohditaan ohjelmatoiminnan vaikutusten arvioinnin mahdollisuuksia tilastollisten tutkimusmenetelmien, tutkimusaineistojen ja ohjelmatoiminnan volyymin näkökulmista. Ohjelmatoiminnan vaikutuksista uusintarikollisuuteen Suomessa ei ole toistaiseksi saatu selvää näyttöä. Vaikka ohjelmien vaikutusten tutkimiseen tarvittavat aineistot ovatkin parantuneet 2000-luvulla selvästi, uskottavaa arviointia vaikeuttavat edelleen hyvien tutkimusasetelmien puute sekä yksittäisten ohjelmien pienet osallistujamäärät. Vaikutusarviointien menetelmällisessä laadussa on parantamisen varaa. Koska yksittäisen ohjelman vaikutus uusintarikollisuuteen on saatavilla olevan tutkimustiedon valossa luultavasti aika maltillinen, kovin pienillä tutkimusaineistoilla vaikutuksia ei kannata jatkossa yrittää tilastollisesti tutkia. Pienet vaikutukset eivät kuitenkaan tarkoita sitä, että ohjelmat eivät voisi olla kannattavia ja kustannustehokkaita. Merkittävä osa nykyisestä ohjelmatoiminnasta on osallistujamääriltään niin pienimuotoista, ettei niiden toimivuudesta tai toimimattomuudesta ole helppo saada luotettavaa tietoa. Tämä tilanne haastaa tutkimustietoon perustuvan ohjelmatoiminnan kehittämistä. Sasu Tyni and Mikko Aaltonen: Evaluation research on rehabilitation programs in prison. Rehabilitation programs have been used systematically in Finnish prisons now for two decades. The main aim of these programs is to promote desistance and reduce recidivism after release. Several Finnish evaluations of prison programs have been published during the recent years. In this article, we start by reviewing the key results of these studies and consider the possibilities and limitations of quasi-experimental program evaluation in the light of available register data and the scale of program uptake. So far none of the Finnish evaluations have shown evidence of programs reducing recidivism. Even though the datasets needed for evaluation have improved clearly in the 21st century, credible evaluation of programs’ causal effects is still hampered by lack of strong research designs and low participant rates in most programs. The methodological quality of evaluations should be improved. Given that the available evidence suggests that true effect sizes of programs are likely to be relatively small, large samples are needed to attain enough statistical power to detect effects or their absence. At the same time, even if true effect sizes are small, the programs can still be cost-effective. The low numbers of participants in most prison programs present a challenge to evidence-based program development. Keywords: prison rehabilitation – recidivism – program evaluation – statistical power – causal inference

Effect of Viewing Emotionally Laden Paintings on Attitudes of Male Sex Offenders

Creative arts are overly caricatured as non-essentially flossy and unmerited luxury particularly when executed in a jail setting. However, research suggests that art-based prison programs can significantly bear upon the lives of offenders. In this paper the authors make reference to this connotation in order to investigate the potential for an art-based prison program involving repeated viewing of emotionally laden paintings to influence attitudes towards crime among male sex offenders. Towards this goal the authors used a one group pretest-posttest quasi experimental design to assess the participants’ general attitudes to offending (G scale), anticipation of re-offending (A scale), victim hurt denial(V scale) and evaluation of crime as worthwhile(E scale). Rape and defilement convicts aged 18-45 years from Nairobi West Prison participated in sessions that were facilitated three times a week during the 5 week program. A paired T- Test showed statistically significant improvements between post-test1 and pre-test (t=-3.117, p-value=0.003) and between post-test2 and pre-test (t=-2.161, p-value=0.035). Positive results were found for three attitude measures; G scale, A-scale and E-scale. The findings suggest that participation in art prison programs involving repeated viewing of emotive artwork can be an effective intervention resulting in attitude change among male sex offenders.

Men’s Social Integration after Incarceration: The Role of Organizationally Embedded Prison-Forged Networks

Research shows that social ties and social support are central to former prisoners’ social integration; however, most scholarship focuses on family ties. Beyond family ties, we know little about the composition of former prisoners’ personal networks or how non-family ties may form and influence social integration. This article investigates in detail the personal networks of a group of male former prisoners and documents how they use their social ties during the transition into the community. In addition to family, many men were networked with others with whom they had formed relationships in prison. In contrast to criminological research on criminal peers, this study finds that networks formed through participation in prison programs operated by community-based organizations were prosocial and endured into the men’s release into the community. These organizationally embedded prison-forged networks gave transitioning men access to and impelled activation of forms of social capital in free society. These findings suggest scholars and policymakers should use care in defining what a criminal peer is and that parole policies forbidding parolees from associating with others who have criminal records may in some cases do more harm than good.

Academic Achievement and the Implications for Prison Program Effectiveness and Reentry

The current study examines how academic achievement—measured as verbal and math performance—is associated with prison programming and reentry. We assess how academic achievement might be directly associated with recidivism and whether this occurs indirectly by moderating the effectiveness of in-prison programs. Using a statewide subsample of incarcerated individuals ( N = 13,536), the results illustrated that academic achievement directly and indirectly affected the likelihood of recidivism. Lower academic achievement was associated with a higher likelihood of recidivism immediately upon reentry, but was also linked to greater effectiveness of prison programs aimed at reducing recidivism. The reduction in the likelihood of reincarceration associated with program participation was greater for individuals with lower academic achievement compared with those with higher academic achievement. The results underscore how individual differences can lead to heterogeneous outcomes and emphasize the need to target those individuals most likely to struggle with the practical barriers of reentry.

Dreaming Inside: An evaluation of a creative writing program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in prison

Arts-based prison programs are often viewed as hobbies or as activities that have little impact on prisoner rehabilitation according to conventional understandings of the term. This is despite growing evidence that arts-based programs can assist with learning retention and can improve self-confidence and ways of coping with emotions. Generally, arts practices have been found to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have grown up or live in urban areas with asserting and strengthening their cultural identity, but we know little about the effects of arts-based prison programs on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoner wellbeing. This article focuses on a creative writing program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners at Junee Correctional Centre, New South Wales. The program, Dreaming Inside, has produced seven volumes of poetry and stories. This article combines and reports findings from two evaluations of the program, one using program feedback forms and the other using semi-structured interviews with prisoners who participated in the program. The themes that emerged from both evaluations affirm the program’s efficacy in improving prisoner self-esteem, confidence and wellbeing, and in reigniting and strengthening cultural engagement.

Immobile Theologies, Carceral Affects: Interest and Debt in Faith-Based Prison Programs

This essay examines how the biblically-based theologies deployed in faith-based prison programs are intertwined with carceral technologies and how the emotional/spiritual objectives of the increasingly theologically supported prison industrial complex are bound up with the affective structures and strategies of (racialized) interest and debt. In effect, the essay brings a range of affect theorists into conversation with critics of the prison industrial complex to tease out the interconnected affective, financial, theological, moral, and environmental components of contemporary carceral technologies. Without such analysis, it is argued, prison reform can only ever be a further occluded phase of radical neoliberalism.

The Role of Perceived Legitimacy and Its Effect on Prison Adaptation: A Longitudinal Study on a Chinese Juvenile Prison

Research into offenders’ adaptation to prison environment has been a topic of enduring interest. Recently, perceived legitimacy in corrections has attracted considerable attention and emerged as an important area of research in the prison settings. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors associated with perceived legitimacy in corrections, and document its effect on juvenile offenders’ adaptation to the institutional environment of a Chinese youth prison. Data for the analysis were collected from the lone youth prison located in an autonomous region with more than 47 million persons of varying ethnicity. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings suggest a significant effect for perceived legitimacy on juvenile offender adaptation to prison programs. The final model was able to explain 61% of variation in the outcome variable and identify several prominent contributors to perceived legitimacy. Policy implications were highlighted in the “Discussion and Conclusion” section.