Inmate

OBJECTIVE: Effects of long-term imprisonment on the vitamin D (vitD) status of prison inmates in Germany have not been systematically assessed so far. Special circumstances in prisons - little sunlight exposure combined with restricted outdoor activities - may lead to vitD deficiency among prisoners. The aim of this study was to assess the vitD status of prisoners and the general population in order to quantify the extent of vitD deficiency in both groups. METHODS: VitD status (25(OH)D in blood serum samples) was assessed in female inmates of a prison in southern Germany between May 2012-June 2013...

Mental health problems are disproportionately prevalent in forensic and correctional settings, and there have been numerous attempts to develop screening tools to evaluate individuals in such contexts. This study investigates the clinical utility of the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS; Morey, 1997), a brief self-report measure of risk for emotional and behavioral dysfunction, in a large mixed-gender offender sample (N = 1,658). The PAS is a 22-item measure derived from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007), a more comprehensive self-report instrument widely used to assess for psychological disturbances among forensic and correctional populations...

BACKGROUND: Non-hospital residential facilities are important reservoirs for MRSA transmission. However, conclusions and public health implications drawn from the many mathematical models depicting nosocomial MRSA transmission may not be applicable to these settings. Therefore, we reviewed the MRSA transmission dynamics studies in defined non-hospital residential facilities to: (1) provide an overview of basic epidemiology which has been addressed; (2) identify future research direction; and (3) improve future model implementation...

Objectives: The oral health services of the prison population are considered more complex than those of the general population. The aim of this study was to examine the oral health status (the DMFT index and OHI index) and to evaluate the relation between the oral health and risk factors of inmates of this population, thus identifying the dental health status of inmates by gender, age, and the duration of their sentence. Materials and Methods: Our study has included a total number of 150 inmates, of both genders, from Lipjan prison house in Kosovo...

SETTING: Hawassa Prison, Southern Region of Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To determine the burden of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) using active case finding among prisoners. DESIGN: In this cross-sectional study, prisoners were screened for TB using a symptom screen. Those with cough of 2 weeks had spot and morning sputum samples collected for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear microscopy and molecular diagnostic testing (Xpert® MTB/RIF). RESULTS: Among 2068 prisoners, 372 (18%) had a positive cough screen...

Vulnerable populations, including homeless persons, high-risk drug and alcohol users, prison inmates and other marginalised populations, contribute a disproportionate burden of tuberculosis (TB) cases in low-incidence settings. Drivers of this disease burden include an increased risk of both TB transmission in congregate settings, and progression from infection to active disease. Late diagnosis and poor treatment completion further propagate the epidemic and fuel the acquisition of drug resistance. These groups are therefore a major priority for TB control programmes in low-incidence settings...

The study aimed at investigating the role of confidence in attachment relationships and marital status as protective factors for incarcerated fathers' self-perceived parental role and in-person contacts with their children. Participants included 150 inmate fathers and 145 nonincarcerated control fathers who provided background sociodemographic information and completed two self-reports, the Attachment Style Questionnaire and the Self-Perception of Parental Role. A two-phased cluster analytic plan allowed us to highlight two profiles of self-perceived parental roles, with incarceration and low confidence in attachment relationships increasing the risk of the less optimal of the two profiles...

Policy Points: While most scholarship regarding the US Public Health Service's STD experiments in Guatemala during the 1940s has focused on the intentional exposure experiments, secondary research was also conducted on biospecimens collected from these subjects. These biospecimen experiments continued after the Guatemala grant ended, and the specimens were used in conjunction with those from the Tuskegee syphilis experiments for ongoing research. We argue there should be a public accounting of whether there are still biospecimens from the Guatemala and Tuskegee experiments held in US government biorepositories today...

The relationship between autism, criminality and psychopathy has gained increased attention in recent years, although research has focused on autism spectrum disorders, and not autistic traits. We measured autistic traits (with the Autism Spectrum Quotient) in a sample of 101 inmates from a high-security prison and compared them to a control group, using a logistic regression model that included age, education, psychopathology, psychopathy and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder as covariates. Prisoners had more autistic traits (OR 1...

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a concept map of psychopathic personality disorder (PPD). The CAPP- Institutional Rating Scale (IRS) is a tool designed to assess CAPP symptoms in institutional settings. The CAPP contains 33 personality traits organized in six domains: attachment, behavioural, cognitive, dominance, emotional and self. Until now, much of the CAPP research has been conducted out of clinical, forensic and correctional settings using self-ratings. In the current study, the psychometric properties and construct validity of the CAPP-IRS were evaluated in a non-convenience sample of 204 Spanish convicts...

Prison populations are disproportionally affected by communicable diseases when compared with the general community because of a complex mix of socioeconomic determinants and environmental factors. Tailored and adequate health care provision in prisons has the potential to reach vulnerable and underserved groups and address their complex needs. We investigated the available evidence on modalities and effectiveness of active case-finding interventions in prisons by searching PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for records on prison and active case finding with no language limit...

Recently, the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide has offered some understanding as to why inmates are at a disproportionately high risk to die by suicide. The present study was designed to investigate how one aspect of the theory, the acquired capability for suicide, may differ between prison inmates with violent offenses versus those without. Data from 343 male prisoners within the Mississippi Department of Corrections were used to examine potential differences between these two groups on scales of the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale...

Little research has examined the link between incarceration and suicide among transgender individuals. Transgender inmates face unique circumstances within the correctional setting that expose them to potentially harmful conditions, including correctional policies that limit access to proper medical care and expose them to threats of harassment and violence. Using data from the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, this article examines the link between incarceration and suicide among transgender individuals by focusing on the link between correctional policies and attempted suicide among transgender individuals who have been incarcerated...

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and identify related risk factors among inmates in Quebec provincial prisons. METHODS: Anonymous cross-sectional data were collected between May 2014 and March 2015 for 1315 men and 250 women who completed a questionnaire and provided oral fluid samples. RESULTS: The global prevalence of HCV infection was 11.9% in male participants and 19.2% in female participants (P = .003)...

The current study examined the factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale (LSRP) in Chinese male inmates (N = 437). The original 2-factor model, the revised 2-factor model, and the 3-factor model were tested through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Additionally, convergent and discriminant validity were examined via correlational and multiple linear regression analyses between LSRP factors and external criterion variables. Results showed that the 3-factor model fit the data better than the 2-factor model...

Introduction: In 2013, the Zambian Correctional Service (ZCS) partnered with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia on the Zambian Prisons Health System Strengthening project, seeking to tackle structural, organisational and cultural weaknesses within the prison health system. We present findings from a nested evaluation of the project impact on high, mid-level and facility-level health governance and health service arrangements in the Zambian Correctional Service. Methods: Mixed methods were used, including document review, indepth interviews with ministry (11) and prison facility (6) officials, focus group discussions (12) with male and female inmates in six of the eleven intervention prisons, and participant observation during project workshops and meetings...

Approximately 20% of the roughly 2.5 million individuals incarcerated in the United States have a serious mental illness (SMI). As a result of their illnesses, these individuals are often more likely to commit a crime, end up incarcerated, and languish in correctional settings without appropriate treatment. The objective of the present study was to investigate how correctional facility personnel reconcile the ethical challenges that arise when housing and treating individuals with SMI. Four focus groups and one group interview were conducted with employees ( n = 24) including nurses, clinicians, correctional officers, administrators, and sergeants at a county jail in Pennsylvania...

Research suggests that prison visitation by volunteers may significantly reduce the risk of recidivism. Community volunteers offer sustained, prosocial support to inmates which may account for these beneficial effects. However, the question of how inmates themselves evaluate volunteer visitation has hardly been studied. This study explores how inmates of Dutch prisons who receive one-on-one volunteer visits experience and value these visits. To that end, semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 inmates across six penitentiaries...

Transgender people experience a disproportionate burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and incarceration. Discrimination, victimization, poverty, and poor mental health drive vulnerability to HIV and related infections, as well as risk of arrest, detention, and incarceration. In this paper, we systematically review published data on HIV, sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis among incarcerated transgender people; describe potential structural determinants of HIV risk and transmission; identify gaps in the literature; and make recommendations for research and interventions to address this neglected population...

There is a need for instruments that can be used in correctional settings to measure changes in aggressive behaviors over a limited time period. This study aimed to validate an instrument (the Prison Adjusted Measure of Aggression, PAMA) that assesses specifically the past month's aggressive behaviors and is adapted for use in correctional facilities. The psychometric properties of the self-rated and interview versions of the PAMA were explored and compared to those of two well-established measures of aggression: The Staff Observation Aggression Scale (SOAS); and the self-rate Aggression Questionnaire-Revised Swedish Version (AQ-RSV)...