Health, well-being, and social indicators among monks, prisoners, and other adult members of an Open University Cohort in Thailand

This study has brought together two seemingly socially extreme population subgroups to compare their health and social well-being. These groups had in common restricted living arrangements and aspirational enrollment. As well, they are part of the population-based Thai Cohort Study (TCS) of 87,134 adult Open University students residing throughout the country. Analysis was restricted to men aged 20–39 years resulting in 711 monks, 195 prisoners and 29,713 other cohort members. For physical health, we have found certain conditions such as tuberculosis or malaria much more common among prisoners, while goiter and liver diseases were more common among monks. This could be due to prison living arrangements for the former and region of residence for the latter. For other social outcomes, lower trust, higher economic stress and lower personal well-being was noted for prisoners compared to other groups. Findings here with regard to spirituality and religion are encouraging with almost no difference reported between prisoners and other cohort members implying that trust-building and other social intervention for prisoners could be activated through prevalent religious beliefs and practices and with continuing support from Thai prison authorities.     

Prisoners on the Fireline: The Application of Ethical Principles and Guidelines to Prison Fire Camps

Our society gives certain rights and protections to those who are punished and incarcerated, deeming them a vulnerable group in need of additional protections because they are under state control. Despite these protections, prisoners are still susceptible to mistreatment and abuse. This paper delves into one area in which prisoners are particularly vulnerable—the use of prison labor to fight wildfires in the western United States. In this paper, I first broadly discuss prison labor, before going into the current ethical principles and guidelines in the field of corrections that address the treatment of prisoners and prison labor. I argue that these principles and guidelines should be augmented to help those in corrections to make decisions about what is ethical; suggesting that how researchers evaluate proposed research projects could serve as a model for decision-making. I then introduce prison fire camps, considering whether they are ethical by research ethics principles, and suggesting how they can be changed to better reflect the values professed by our society.     

Correctional Services and Prison Chaplaincy in Australia: An Exploratory Study

This paper summarizes an exploratory study undertaken to consider the work of Australian chaplaincy personnel ministering to prisoners within correctional facilities. This qualitative research was not concerned with specific correctional institutions per se, but predominantly about the perspectives of chaplains concerning their professional contribution and issues they experienced while trying to provide pastoral care to prisoners. Data from a single-focus group indicated that prison chaplains were striving to fulfill religious and spiritual duties according to national and international standards for the treatment of prisoners. Given various frustrations identified by participants, that either impeded or thwarted their professional role as chaplains, a number of improvements were subsequently identified in order to develop the efficiency and effectiveness of chaplaincy and thus maximize the benefits of pastoral care to prisoners. Implications of this exploratory study relate not only to prison chaplaincy but also to ecclesiastical organizations, correctional facilities, governments and the need of support for further research to be conducted.     

Does content matter? The effect of remorseful tone on length of prison sentence

The expression of remorse by offenders has been found to affect jurors' determination of length of prison sentences. This study explores this phenomenon by contrasting the impact of exercising remorse solely in words or through emotional tone. Remorse consists of guilt, shame and sorrow. This study examines the contribution of each of these emotions to judgements about prison sentences, which is an area seldom explored in the literature. It is shown that regardless of the gender of the offender, participants censured a significantly more severe punishment for the offender who expressed a sense of remorse using words rather than tone. In addition, only shame was a significant predictor of the severity of punishment. These findings are consistent with previous studies and further differentiate the influence of displaying remorse at the content and tonal levels.     

Locked Up,Then Locked Out

SUMMARY

Women prisoners face tremendous psychological, emotional, and physical hardships inside prison. These include isolation, separation from their families and children, lack of medical care and general abuse of their basic human rights. When they are released from prison, women confront institutional as well as psychological barriers to a successful return to their communities     

Understanding community re-entry of former prisoners with mental illness: a conceptual model to guide new research

Criminal justice, mental health, and social service professionals face a myriad of role expectations in working with prisoners with mental illness to facilitate community re-entry. These expectations include those related to law enforcement, social welfare, and administrative efficiency. The challenge for front line workers and the multiple systems that employ them is to integrate all these expectations effectively on behalf of the individual as well as the community. Current models of re-entry for individuals leaving prison with mental illness focus on the management and interaction of service systems. This paper presents a model of prisoner re-entry that incorporates a larger social context, illustrating dynamics related to both individuals with mental illness leaving prison and their interaction with the community setting. This model was generated through an interdisciplinary team effort. It was refined through a focus group process that included advocates, community members and other informants from mental health and criminal justice systems in five states. The model is designed to generate new questions for research that address both individual and community level issues.     

Emotional collectives: How groups shape emotions and emotions shape groups

Group settings are epicentres of emotional activity. Yet, the role of emotions in groups is poorly understood. How do group-level phenomena shape group members’ emotional experience and expression? How are emotional expressions recognised, interpreted and shared in group settings? And how do such expressions influence the emotions, cognitions and behaviours of fellow group members and outside observers? To answer these and other questions, we draw on relevant theoretical perspectives (e.g., intergroup emotions theory, social appraisal theory and emotions as social information theory) and recent empirical findings regarding the role of emotions in groups. We organise our review according to two overarching themes: how groups shape emotions and how emotions shape groups. We show how novel empirical approaches break important new ground in uncovering the role of emotions in groups. Research on emotional collectives is thriving and constitutes a key to understanding the social nature of emotions.     

Creating mother and baby therapy groups in prison: emotional valuation

Mothers in prison are at high risk of depression and other mental health issues and yet access to therapeutic services is limited. This paper describes the development by the author of two prison therapy groups: one for pregnant women, the other for mothers and their babies. Called the ‘Born Inside’ project, both groups are currently held in Bronzefield Prison, Surrey. The theory and principles behind the project are discussed, as well as the processes and practicalities involved in providing the therapy and specialised support to the women and their vulnerable infants. In addition, principles of forensic psychotherapy in relation to this specific prison population are described, and the situational and emotional challenges faced are illustrated through narratives of group members.     

Young people's emotional geographies of citizenship participation: Spatial and relational insights

The inclusion of more ‘active’ citizenship concepts within citizenship curricula has been a pattern noted in many countries in recent years. Yet, rarely are young people's citizenship identities, and how these are shaped by emotional and relational experiences of being citizens in communities, considered in such curricula. In this paper, I explore the citizenship narratives of young people from two New Zealand high schools and examine how emotions formed a significant aspect of their citizenship perceptions and participation. These emotions were constituted in and through relations and non-relations with other young people at school, as well as with members of their local communities at various inter-locking spatial scales. Focusing on emotional geographies of citizenship participation offered insights into how young people were forming their citizenship identities at the intersection of their geographies of gender, race and class, and how these experiences shaped, motivated and sustained citizenship participation. The study highlights the complexity of young people's emotional experiences in relation to their citizenship identities and participation and the need to understand this affectivity in greater depth, especially within policy contexts.     

“He Must Learn What Being a Man is All About”: Negotiating the Male Code at the Louisiana State Penitentiary

Much of what has been written about masculinities inside prisons focuses on the pressure to live up to a hypermasculine ideal that privileges aggression, the concealment of vulnerability, and the victimization of weaker inmates. Believing this approach lacks nuance, I explore how prisoners writing in The Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s prison newsmagazine, conceive of manhood. Incorporating hundreds of men’s voices into this discussion reveals the complexity of these prisoners’ lives as men—their emotional depth, friendships, and struggles to grow, learn, and better themselves—and compels us to reconsider what we think goes on inside prisons.     

Keeping the heart a long way from the brain: The emotional labour of climate scientists

This paper contributes to increased understanding of emotions and climate change through a study of the emotional management strategies employed by a sample of Australian climate scientists. We bring three broad areas of literature into conversation in order to think more productively about climate change and emotion: recent applications of the concept of emotional labour, studies of the role of emotion in science, and feminist perspectives on the performative role of emotions. In response to contextual drivers that include the social norms of science, a strong climate denialist influence and the preservation of self and family, these scientists mobilize a range of behaviours and strategies to manage their emotions around climate change and the future. These include emphasizing dispassion, suppressing painful emotions, using humour and switching off from work. Emotional denial or suppression of the consequences of climate change worked to enable the scientists to persevere in their work. This study suggests that painful emotions (anxiety, fear, loss) around climate change need to be acknowledged and discussed.     

Changing Attitudes Toward Prison Reform: Effects of Similarity to Prisoners on Attraction and Rejection1

Human–rights organizations and prisoner advocacy groups try to create positive attitudes toward liberal prison reform by emphasizing similarities between the public and prisoners. Theories of similarity and attraction, however, suggest that this strategy can backfire. Although it commonly increases liking, similarity can increase rejection when the similar other is stigmatized. An experiment tested the efficacy of appeals to similarity in changing prison reform attitudes. Republicans and Democrats listed aspects of themselves that made them similar to or different from prisoners, and then they completed a measure of prison reform attitudes (Silvia, 2003). Emphasizing similarity between the participant and prisoners did not always cause positive attitudes. After focusing on similarity to prisoners, Democrats reported more liberal prison reform attitudes, and Republicans reported more punitive attitudes. Implications for changing attitudes toward prison reform are discussed.     

I feel our pain: Antecedents and consequences of emotional self-stereotyping

According to Intergroup Emotions Theory people categorized as group members experience the emotions of their ingroup as a consequence of that membership. Four experiments showed that participants converged toward what they believed to be their specific ingroup’s distinct emotional experience when reporting emotions as group members, but not when reporting emotions as individuals. Such self-stereotyping of ingroup emotions occurred for an experimentally fabricated ingroup as well as a range of naturally occurring groups. Demonstrating the roots of this process in categorization, self-stereotyping was increased when motivations to affiliate were amplified and was moderated by ingroup identification. The adoption of ingroup emotions changed participants’ cognitive processing in a predictable way, demonstrating that emotional self-stereotyping involved the experience rather than merely the expression of group-based emotions. Self-stereotyping of ingroup emotions is thus one mechanism by which group-based emotions are shared and can be changed.     

How prisoners and their partners experience the maintenance of their relationship during a prison sentence

Research shows that intimate relationships, and their maintenance via prison visits, have a positive impact on factors associated with prisoner well‐being and reduced likelihood of recidivism. It is therefore in the interest of corrections, government, and wider society to enable prisoners to maintain healthy relationships with their family and intimate partners throughout their prison sentence. Despite this evidence, little is known about how prisoners experience the maintenance of a significant intimate relationship in prison. This study aims to explore heterosexual couples' experiences in maintaining their well‐established intimate relationships, while the male partner is incarcerated. Four main themes were identified: how they experienced “having a special connection” that they were motivated to maintain; “coping with challenges and threats” to that connection; “developing reciprocal behaviours” to meet those challenges; and “maintaining a belief in the future.” Implications for how the relational context of rehabilitation can best be supported is considered.     

The Use of Prayer to Manage Anger: Do Characteristics of the Emotional Experience Matter?

Research has established that individuals use prayer to manage negative emotions, yet little is known about how the characteristics of individuals’ emotional experiences—such as how long the emotions last and the source of emotions—influence the use of this emotion management strategy. Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey emotion module (N = 1114), we evaluate the extent to which the use of prayer to manage anger is associated with: the intensity, source, and duration of negative emotions experienced; reflection on the negative emotion-inducing incident; and perceived appropriateness of emotional reaction. Estimated logistic regression models show that characteristics of emotional experiences (except perceived appropriateness) are significantly associated with the use of prayer to manage anger. The analyses reveal that the appropriateness of using prayer to manage negative emotions varies based on specific aspects of the emotional experience, carrying implications for interventions such as pastoral counseling or anger management programs.     

HIV/AIDS in scottish prisons: Attitudes of staff and prisoners

Abstract

Prison is commonly regarded as a high risk environment for the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Five hundred and fifty-nine prisoners and 591 prison staff sampled from 8 Scottish prisons completed questionnaires concerning attitudes towards various issues of HIVIAIDS. A majority of prisoners and prison staff expressed liberal attitudes with respect to HIV/AIDS. For both staff and prisoners, the most liberal responses were to items dealing with personal and social contact with people with HIVIAIDS. A majority of prisoners and prison staff expressed conservative attitudes in relation to screening of individuals for HIV. With regard to differences between prisoners and prison staff, prisoners were more supportive than prison staff of the provision of free condoms to homosexuals and free condoms and syringes to intravenous drug users, and the provision of free medical care to both groups in the case of AIDS. Among the prisoner sample, intravenous drug users, in comparison to non-users, were found to be more positive in their attitudes toward HIVIAIDS on a wide range of issues. The implications of the study for health psychology are discussed with regard to prisoner and prison staff educational needs and prisoner management.     

Memoirs of a Guard-Researcher: Deconstructing the Games Inmates Play Behind the Prison Walls

Recent media reports have attempted to shed light on correctional officers who end their careers in disgrace for either having sexual relationships with prisoners or for smuggling contraband into correctional facilities. In this article, I take an autoethnographic approach, reflecting on my seven years as a “guard-researcher” and demonstrate through real-life examples how inmates identify the weak links among prison employees, subtly feel them out, and then untiringly persist in establishing these inappropriate relationships. This article shows how seemingly benign gestures of inmates are actually calculated moves taken to gain leverage and exploit their marks, the weak correctional staff members, who fall for these tricks.     

Évaluation des dimensions psychopathiques sur le mode d’adaptation carcérale

IntroductionThe disorders associated with the coping styles of detainees in prisons, including the interaction between individual and the environment, can be approached in two ways. Either as the result of a normal reaction of prisoners with regard to specific components in a pathogenic environment, or resulting from psychopathological determinants inherent to inmates prior to incarceration.ObjectivesThis study aims to measure the impact of components related to personality traits deemed stable and observed among inmates in regards to their modes of adaptations to the prison environment. More specifically, observing the types of adaptation of prisoners, according to their scores on the Hare psychopathy checklist (PCL-R).MethodsThe study is based on a series of interviews conducted on a sample of 26 inmates in three different detention centers located in France.ResultsThe results show a strong relationship between some psychopathic dimensions and characteristics of conduct disorder or disciplinary offenses in prison. High scores in both factor 1 (interpersonal and emotional relationship) and factor 2 (social deviance) strongly correlates with disciplinary problems such as heteroaggressive violence towards staff or other inmates. While a high score of factor 2 only increases the risk of disciplinary problems, such as group violence or involvement in trafficking.ConclusionsThe presence or absence of certain personality traits that characterize psychopathy could determine how an inmate would adapt to the prison environment.     

Neo-tribalism,epistemic cultures,and the emotions of scientific knowledge construction

Maffesoli's (1996) metaphor of the neo-tribe is useful for analyzing the emotions and spatial dynamics of group life. However, the idea of neo-tribes is not explicitly designed for making sense of the work of scientists in laboratories. To supplement Maffesoli and further understand the group dynamics of scientific knowledge construction, we draw from Knorr-Cetina's (1999) concept of epistemic cultures to highlight the ritualistic character of lab science. By showing how Maffesoli and Knorr-Cetina can supplement one another, we create an encounter between the sociology of emotions and the sociology of science to demonstrate the centrality of emotions in laboratory life. In-depth interviews and on-site laboratory observations with physicists, earth scientists, biologists and chemists form the empirical basis of this study. Commenting on the ritualistic nature of scientific lab work, as well as the emotional experiences of scientists, we analyze the role of emotions in scientists' work. We introduce the concept of value-proxemic emotions to account for the role of specific emotions in binding members to the group. We also examine the emotional experience of the creation and maintenance of group and lab boundaries, which we conceptualize as inter- and intra- tribal cooperation and conflict. Our analysis suggests that emotions are a crucial component of knowledge construction and group life in laboratory work.