Ecuador prison crisis threatens to escalate

Significance The attack, which involved drones, illustrates the evolving tactics of crime groups, and follows a string of violent, sometimes coordinated, incidents at prisons this year. These have resulted in the deaths of over 120 inmates. Prison violence comes alongside rising crime and growing concerns over the strengthening of transnational drug cartels. Impacts Lasso will face increasing pressure from international human rights groups to protect prisoners and improve prison conditions. Rising violence and crime will increase concerns among international investors about the security of investments and risks of extortion. Lasso might seek to exploit improved relations with the US and Colombian governments to strengthen international coordination.

# Me Too: Global Progress in Tackling Continued Custodial Violence Against Women: The 10-Year Anniversary of the Bangkok Rules

On any given day, almost 11 million people globally are deprived of their liberty. In 2020, the global female population was estimated to be 741,000, an increase of 105,000 since 2010. In order to investigate progress in the adoption of the Bangkok Rules since 2010, we conducted a legal realist assessment based on a global scoping exercise of empirical research and United Nations (UN) reporting, using detailed MESH terms across university and UN databases. We found evidences in 91 documents which directly relate to violations of the Bangkok Rules in 55 countries. By developing a realist account, we document the precarious situation of incarcerated women and continued evidence of systemic failures to protect them from custodial violence and other gender-sensitive human rights breaches worldwide. Despite prison violence constituting a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, very little research (from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia) has been conducted on custodial violence against women since 2010. Although standards of detention itself is a focus of UN universal periodic review, special procedures (violence against women) and concluding observations by the UN committees, very few explicitly mentioned women, and the implications of violence against them while incarcerated. We highlight three central aspects that hinder the full implementation of the Bangkok Rules; the past decade of a continued invisible nature of women as prisoners in the system; the continued legitimization, normalization, and trivialization of violence under the pretext of security within their daily lives; and the unawareness and disregard of international (Bangkok and others) rules.

Maintaining Innocence

Modern research has been diligent and successful in discovering what causes a wrongful conviction and long-term consequences on the wrongfully convicted person and their family. However, there is one area that remains relatively untouched by research efforts. It is the period between the conviction and the release, the period of incarceration itself. The purpose of this paper is to outline the experiences of wrongfully convicted persons in prison. While each incarceration term is an individualized experience, there are many commonalities within these experiences. This paper will consider the incarceration experience via two lenses: Part I will look at inmate and prison violence, and Part II will explore mental health and segregation. The paper will focus largely on the Canadian perspective, with limited insights from other jurisdictions. Each section will also evaluate: (1) the general prison experience for all incarcerated persons, and (2) the distinct prison experiences of the wrongfully convicted as a result of maintaining their innocence. Because little research exists on the distinct experiences of wrongfully convicted persons in prison, this paper looks to interviews and other sources where wrongfully convicted persons discussed their prison experiences. These sources are few and far between, with many wrongfully convicted persons echoing the words of Thomas Sophonow (wrongfully convicted of the murder of a 16-year-old donut shop employee), “whatever happened in jail [is] nobody’s business.”

A Scoping Review of Family Focussed Interventions to Prevent Prison Violence

Violence is an ongoing concern for many people who live and work in correctional settings and yet relatively little is known about the effects of institutional violence prevention efforts. This paper reports the findings of a scoping review of recent research relevant to understanding the influence of one factor, contact with family, that potentially influences institutional violence in countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand where Indigenous peoples are over-represented in prison settings. A total of 15 different studies were identified that provided consistent evidence of an association between family contact and prison violence. The implications of this work for the development of evidence-based prison violence prevention strategies are discussed.

Psychological intervention with victims of prison violence: a systematic literature review

Introducción: La victimización penitenciaria ha sido el foco de atención de la comunidad científica con estudios que indican una alta prevalencia y efectos negativos en la salud mental y en la reintegración social de los presidiarios. Sin embargo, existe poca información sobre las intervenciones, por lo que es relevante obtener datos confiables sobre estrategias de intervención que busquen mitigar sus consecuencias y ofrecer apoyo a las víctimas. Método: Revisión sistemática (RS) mediante el método PRISMA. La investigación se realizó en 10 bases de datos electrónicas y el proceso de recolección y análisis de datos fue realizado por dos investigadores independientes. Resultados: Se incluyeron cinco publicaciones, tres estudios cuantitativos y dos artículos teóricos, aunque ninguno se centra específicamente en la intervención con personas sometidas a victimización penitenciaria. Esta limitadamente se aborda y analiza teóricamente a lo largo de la discusión. Conclusión: Existen pocas publicaciones sobre intervención con víctimas de victimización penitenciaria y las existentes no enfocan específicamente la intervención acerca de este tipo de victimización. Sin embargo, se obtuvieron pistas importantes para ser incluidas en futuras propuestas de intervención. Existe consenso en cuanto a la necesidad de adoptar modelos de intervención validados empíricamente, refiriéndose a la Terapia Cognitivo Conductual (TCC), específicamente al Tratamiento Informado por Trauma (TIT). Background: Prison victimization has been the focus of attention by the scientific community with studies that indicate a high prevalence and negative effects on mental health and social reintegration of prisoners. However, there is few information on intervention responses, so it is relevant to obtain reliable data about intervention strategies that seeks to mitigate its consequences and provide support to victims. Method: Systematic review (SR) using the PRISMA method. The research was carried out in 10 electronic databases and the data collection and analysis process carried out by two independent researchers. Results: Five publications were included, three quantitative studies and two theoretical articles although none specifically focuses on intervention with individuals subject to prison victimization. This feature is addressed and theoretically analysed throughout the discussion Conclusion: There are few publications on intervention with victims of prison victimization and existing ones do not focus on specific intervention in the context of this type of victimization. However, important guidelines were obtained to be included into future intervention proposals. There is a consensus regarding the need to adopt empirically validated intervention models, referring to the Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), specifically the Trauma-Informed Treatment(TIT).

Games prisoners do not play: against the Hobbes-Zimbardo approach of unmitigated prison violence

I analyze institutions of prison subculture that mitigate potential violent confrontations among inmates, in contrast to Hobbesian-Zimbardo default spontaneous violence. The games that are relatively rarely played in prison are Chicken and other violent confrontation games. Incoming rookie inmates are subject to initiation tests that allocate them into different subcultural groups, which signals their toughness and disincentivizes fighting. Most experienced inmates develop the eristic skills utilizing prison argot, use informal conflict adjudicators, and fake aggression toward rookies. All inmates form defensive coalitions. Finally, when inmates commit self-injuries, they follow well-rehearsed protocols to minimize the damage to their bodies and to maximize the impression made on the authorities. The secret knowledge of the associated rules, tricks, and cons is passed down over generations of prisoners through informal schooling. The material for this study comes from two Polish prisons, where the author spent 5 months as a political prisoner in 1985.