Musical life stories coherence through musicking in the prison setting

Despite the strong relationships evidenced between music and identity little research exists into the significance of music in prisoners’ shifting sense of identity. This article explores musicking as part of the ongoing identity work of prisoners in light of theory on musical performance, narrative and desistance and discusses implications for penal practice and research. Through the presentation of an ethnographic study of music therapy in a low security Norwegian prison we show how participation in music activities afforded congruence between the past, the present and the projected future for participants by way of their unfolding musical life stories. Complementing existing conceptualisations of music as an agent for change, our study suggests that musicking afforded the maintenance of a coherent sense of self for participating prison inmates, whilst offering opportunities for noncoercive personal development. We argue that research into musicking in prison offers fruitful ways of tracing how the complexities inherent in processes of change are enacted in everyday prison life, and that it can advance our knowledge of relationships between culture, penal practice and desistance.

New limits on the right to freedom of expression from Hamzy v Commissioner of Corrective Services

This article examines a 2020 NSW Supreme Court judgment upholding the legality of English-only rules for communications by ‘extreme high risk restricted’ prison inmates. The article focuses on the reasoning regarding claims to human rights to freedom of expression and from racial discrimination. It explains that the decision provides a rare insight into problematic Australian judicial thinking about language choice in expression, the intersection of racial and linguistic discrimination and the characterisation of English as Australia’s ‘official’ or ‘de facto’ national language.

Analysis of emergency healthcare demand in a prison

Objective: To analyze the reasons for seeking emergency medical care amongst prison inmates and their relationship to sociodemographic characteristics. Material and method: An observational, descriptive and retrospective study was carried out. We collected the sociodemographic variables of inmates and their healthcare needs at the referral hospital over nine years. Results: A total of 972 hospital visits were included. The most common healthcare needs, in descending order, were multiple trauma, limb problems and dyspnea. Mondays and Wednesdays were found to be the busiest days (P <0.001). The average stay in cases of hospitalization was 6.1 (SD: 4.3) days; patients with nontraumatic healthcare needs required a longer stay. The majority of the inmates native to Africa, Asia and America received emergency healthcare services due to traumatic injuries; by contrast the most common injuries among Europeans were non-traumatic and unrelated to suicide attempts (P <0.001). European inmates were on average 4.2 years older than Africans and 4.7 years older than American inmates (P <0.001). Discussion: The reasons for seeking emergency care are clearly differentiated according to the inmates’ nationality, one notable outcome was the greater longevity of European internees. These results highlight the importance of understanding healthcare demand within the prison system in order to better address considerations such as prevention, organization and the location of healthcare units.

Analysis of penitentiary, social and legal operators’ perceptions of prison inmates with intellectual disabilities

Objective: To analyze the different perceptions of professionals about the problem of intellectual disability in the prison setting. Material and method: Exploratory-descriptive type. In-depth interviews with legal, social and prison operators of Centro Penitenciario de Zuera (Zaragoza). Results: The narratives of the interviewed subjects point to the aggravating circumstances that a closed social environment can entail for inmates with intellectual disabilities. Communications in the prison administration are written in a technical language that is not understandable for inmates with intellectual deficits. Discusion: There is a need to give more visibility to the case of inmates with intellectual disabilities. Procedures also need to be applied that favour greater cognitive accessibility for this profile of inmates, along with the promotion of awareness raising and training for professionals to enable them to deal with this issue.

Evaluation of the Anti-Candida Activities of Some Plant Extracts on Candida tropicalis and Candida Spp Isolated from Prison Inmates in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Aim: This study aimed at determining the anti-candida activities of Alternanthera braziliana and Curcuma longa on Candida tropicalis and Candida spp isolated from prison inmates in Owerri, Southeast, Nigeria. Study Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Owerri federal prison between March 2020 - June 2021. Methodology: The anti-candida activities of methanolic extracts of Alternanthera braziliana and Curcuma longa on Candida tropicalis and Candida spp were evaluated by the disc diffusion method. The plant extracts were obtained by soxhlet extraction using methanol as solvent. The results were obtained by measuring the inhibition zone diameter in millimeters. Results: In order to ascertain the anti-candida activities of Alternanthera braziliana and Curcuma longa in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, the antimicrobial properties of their extracts were tested by disc diffusion. Of the two plant extracts used methanolic extracts of Curcuma longa had better anti-candida properties than Alternanthera braziliana inhibiting the growth of Candida spp at the concentrations of 200 mg/ml, 100 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml with inhibition zones ranging from 11 mm, 10 mm and 9 mm respectively. Methanolic extracts of Alternanthera brasiliana exhibited no anti-candida activity at different concentrations. Conclusion:The results show that Curcuma longa had better anti-candida activity against Candida spp. and might be promising, at least, in the treatment of Candida spp infections.

Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Anger: Resources and Risk Factors for Italian Prison Inmates

The adjustment of prison inmates is recently becoming a social concern. In the current study we focused on the role of gratitude, interpersonal forgiveness, and anger, which have been widely addressed as likely to influence people’s health and adaptive behaviors, in shaping prison inmates’ psychological wellbeing and criminal attitudes. Participants were 104 male prison inmates aged between 24 and 75 ( Mage = 46.63, SD = 11.38) imprisoned in Northern Italy who were asked to fill in an anonymous self-report questionnaire. Results highlighted that all dimensions considered play an important, albeit different and highly specific, role; Gratitude is a promotional factor that enhances psychological wellbeing, whereas interpersonal forgiveness appears to be a protective factor against the adoption of a criminal attitude as violence or antisocial intent. Finally, anger is a risk factor toward both psychological wellbeing and violent behaviors. Implications of these results and further developments of the study are discussed.