Negotiating the Maximum-Security Offender Identity: Experiences From Incarcerated Women

The representation of women classified as maximum-security offenders continues to be a challenge due to paucity of research regarding their experiences. Generally, their stories are masked under the experiences of the other categories of incarcerated women. Drawing from a larger study conducted with incarcerated women in a South African correctional centre in Johannesburg, in this article I provide a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews on the lived experiences of negotiating the maximum-security offender identity by 13 women. The results suggest that the maximum-security offender identity is associated with rejection, dehumanisation, denial of agency, restricted movement, and labelling. The article also highlights the significance of providing agency to incarcerated women in deconstructing stereotypes that represent them as angry and uneducated with no value to society. A more balanced repositioning of their stories emerges as they get an opportunity to construct their own experiences.

[Dental caries in the carceral middle of Dakar]

Oral diseases, mainly tooth decay and periodontal disease, are among the most common conditions in the world. The tooth decay is very prevalent in developing countries and particularly in disadvantaged backgrounds where insecurity and its corollaries prevail. Thus, our study focused on one of these places: the prisons, characterized by deprivation of liberty, monotony, boredom, and the difficult conditions of detention, brief by a total dependence of the detainee. The aim of this study was to determine the DMFT (Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth) in detainees dwelling in prisons in Dakar. This cross sectional study included 754 detainees aged 18 years and more with a stay exceeding more than a year, in one of the four main prisons of the capital city, Dakar. The majority of detainees was males (90%), aged between 18 and 35 years (63%) and was staying at "Camp penal" (65%). The proportion of inmates with at least one tooth cavity was 81.3%, those with teeth sealed was 26.1% and the prisoners with missing teeth reached 70.6%. The highest average DMFT was noted at "Camp penal" (7.3) among men (6.5) and among inmates aged 36 to 45 years (6.1) with a significant difference. The tooth decay is particularly worrying in the prison population, hence the urgency to establish a programme of prevention and care of oral diseases in this environment.

Availability and capacity of substance abuse programs in correctional settings: A classification and regression tree analysis

OBJECTIVE TO BE ADDRESSED: The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural and organizational factors that contribute to the availability and increased capacity for substance abuse treatment programs in correctional settings. We used classification and regression tree statistical procedures to identify how multi-level data can explain the variability in availability and capacity of substance abuse treatment programs in jails and probation/parole offices.

METHODS

The data for this study combined the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices (NCJTP) Survey and the 2000 Census. The NCJTP survey was a nationally representative sample of correctional administrators for jails and probation/parole agencies. The sample size included 295 substance abuse treatment programs that were classified according to the intensity of their services: high, medium, and low. The independent variables included jurisdictional-level structural variables, attributes of the correctional administrators, and program and service delivery characteristics of the correctional agency.

RESULTS

The two most important variables in predicting the availability of all three types of services were stronger working relationships with other organizations and the adoption of a standardized substance abuse screening tool by correctional agencies. For high and medium intensive programs, the capacity increased when an organizational learning strategy was used by administrators and the organization used a substance abuse screening tool. Implications on advancing treatment practices in correctional settings are discussed, including further work to test theories on how to better understand access to intensive treatment services. This study presents the first phase of understanding capacity-related issues regarding treatment programs offered in correctional settings.

Commentary: evolving toward equivalency in correctional mental health care--a view from the maximum security trenches

Developing and implementing community standards of care in correctional mental health and psychiatric practice will facilitate progress toward attaining equivalency in care in prisons and jails. Specialized therapeutic procedures such as application of restraints and seclusion when properly implemented are valuable tools in the treatment of the chronically mentally ill in prisons. The authors share some useful points for working in maximum-security prisons.

Social climate within secure inpatient services for people with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND

The social climate of inpatient facilities is thought to be an important contributor to treatment outcome. However, little research has focused on this construct within secure forensic services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the social climate of two different types of secure units ('low' secure vs. 'medium' secure) contained within the same facility for offenders with ID. Two hypotheses were generated: (1) residents would rate the social climate of the whole facility in a more negative direction than staff, and (2) residents and staff would rate the social climate of the 'low' secure unit in a more positive direction than that of the 'medium' secure unit.

METHOD

Using a 2 (factor 'Participant' = Staff or Resident) x 2 (factor 'Unit' = 'Low' or 'Medium' Secure Unit) between-subjects design, 18 residents and 37 staff members were recruited and completed the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale (CIES), a measure of social climate.

RESULTS

Residents tended to rate the units in a more positive direction than staff on some sub-scales. Participants rated the 'low' secure unit in a more positive direction than the 'medium' secure unit on two sub-scales of the CIES. However, on selected sub-scales there were differences. The findings of this study suggest that the CIES may be a valid instrument for use within forensic services for people with ID, and further suggests that residents and staff have different perceptions of the shared social climate, which may have implications for service development.