Finding and Keeping a Job: The Value and Meaning of Employment for Parolees

Finding stable employment has been identified as one of the best predictors of post-release success among prisoners. However, offenders face a number of challenges in securing employment when released from prison. 

This article examines processes that shape the abilities and motivations of parolees to secure gainful employment by examining interview data collected from parolees in Queensland, Australia (n = 50). We explore the role of social networks and commercial employment providers in helping parolees find work, the perceived value of institutional work and training, and the meanings, challenges, and impact of managing the disclosure of one's criminal past to employers. 

Findings highlight that the role and influence of employment on a parolee's reintegration is conditional on his or her supportive social networks, ability to manage stigma, and personal changes in identity, which elevate the importance of work in a parolee's life. 

Our findings also show how employment provides opportunities for offenders to self-construct and articulate new identities.

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By:   Cherney A1, Fitzgerald R2.

• 1University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia a.cherney@uq.edu.au.
• 2University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 

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Do Performance & Image Enhancing Drug Users in Regional Queensland Experience Difficulty Accessing Health Services?

INTRODUCTION AND AIM:

To understand health service access and needs of people who use performance and image enhancing drugs (PIED) in regional Queensland.

DESIGN AND METHODS:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 people (n = 19 men) who reported the use of a range of PIEDs, including anabolic-androgenic steroids, human chorionic gonadotropin, growth hormone, clenbuterol, tamoxifen, insulin and peptides.

RESULTS:

Participants reported accessing a range of services, including needle and syringe programs and pharmacies, for sterile injecting equipment. While PIEDs users attributed some stigma to needle and syringe programs, they were seen as an important service for injecting equipment. Participants reported receiving either positive care from health-care providers, such as general practitioners (GP), or having negative experiences due to the stigma attached with PIED use. Few participants reported disclosing their PIED use to their GP not only because of the concerns that their GP would no longer see them but also because they felt their GP was not knowledgeable about these substances.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:

Participants in the study reported no difficulty in accessing health services based on living in a regional area, with their concern focused more upon how they were viewed and treated by service staff. 

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By:   Dunn M1,2, Henshaw R3, McKay FH1.

• 1School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.
• 2National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
• 3Queensland Health, Brisbane, Australia. 

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Understanding Methamphetamine

Via:  http://www.dovetail.org.au/

Practical Harm Reduction - Overview

Via:  http://www.dovetail.org.au/

Consensual Sex Between Men & Sexual Violence in Australian Prisons

Estimates of the incidence of sexual coercion in men's prisons are notoriously variable and fraught with conceptual and methodological problems. In 2006-2007, we conducted a computer-assisted telephone survey of a random sample of 2,018 male prisoners in New South Wales and Queensland. 

Of 2,626 eligible and available inmates, 76.8% consented and provided full responses. We asked about time in prison, sexual experience, attraction and (homo/bi/heterosexual) identity, attitudes, sexual contact with other inmates, reasons for having sex and practices engaged in, and about sexual coercion, including location and number of perpetrators. Most men (95.1%) identified as heterosexual. 

Of the total sample, 13.5% reported sexual contact with males in their lifetime: 7.8% only outside prison, 2.8% both inside and outside, and 2.7% only inside prison. Later in the interview, 144 men (7.1% of total sample) reported sexual contact with inmates in prison; the majority had few partners and no anal intercourse. Most did so for pleasure, but some for protection, i.e., to avoid assault by someone else. 

Before incarceration, 32.9% feared sexual assault in prison; 6.9% had been sexually threatened in prison and 2.6% had been sexually coerced ("forced or frightened into doing something sexually that [they] did not want"). Some of those coerced reported no same-sex contact. The majority of prisoners were intolerant of male-to-male sexual activity. 

The study achieved a high response rate and asked detailed questions to elicit reports of coercion and sex separately. Both consensual sex and sexual assault are less common than is generally believed.

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By:  Richters J1, Butler T, Schneider K, Yap L, Kirkwood K, Grant L, Richards A, Smith AM, Donovan B.

• 1School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. j.richters@unsw.edu.au 

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Factors Associated with Sexual Coercion in a Representative Sample of Men in Australian Prisons

Very little research has focused on men or prisoners as victims of sexual violence. This study provides the first population-based analysis of factors associated with sexual coercion of men in Australian prisons, and the first to use a computer-assisted telephone interview to collect this information in a prison setting. 

A random sample of men in New South Wales and Queensland prisons were surveyed using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. We asked participants about sexual coercion, defined as being forced or frightened into doing something sexually that was unwanted while in prison. Associations between sexual coercion in prison and sociodemographics, sexual coercion history outside of prison, and prison-related factors were examined. 

Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios in examining factors associated with sexual coercion in prisons. Of 2626 eligible men, 2000 participated. Participants identifying as non-heterosexual and those with a history of sexual coercion outside prison were found to be most at risk. Those in prison for the first time and those who had spent more than 5 years in prison ever were also more likely to report sexual coercion. 

Although prison policies and improving prison officer training may help address immediate safety and health concerns of those at risk, given the sensitivity of the issue and likely under-reporting to correctional staff, community-based organizations and prisoner peer-based groups arguably have a role too in providing both preventive and trauma-focused support.

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By:  Simpson PL1, Reekie J2, Butler TG2, Richters J3, Yap L2, Grant L4, Richards A5, Donovan B2,6.

• 1The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Wallace Wurth Building, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. psimpson@kirby.unsw.edu.au.
• 2The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Wallace Wurth Building, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
• 3School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
• 4Corrective Services New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
• 5Queensland Department of Health, Brisbane, Australia.
• 6Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

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Striking Subgroup Differences in Substance-Related Mortality After Release from Prison

To compare the incidence, timing and risk factors for substance-related death between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ex-prisoners in Queensland, Australia.

Retrospective cohort study.

All adult prisons in the state of Queensland, Australia, linked to deaths registered in Australia.

We obtained records for all adults released from prison in Queensland, Australia from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2007. Among this cohort of 42 015 individuals we observed 82 315 releases from prison and 2158 deaths in the community by the end of 2007, of which 661 were substance-related deaths.

Incarceration data were obtained from Queensland Corrective Services and linked probabilistically with deaths recorded in the Australian National Death Index.

In the first year after release, Indigenous ex-prisoners were more likely to die from alcohol-related causes but less likely to die of drug-related causes than were non-Indigenous ex-prisoners. Among non-Indigenous prisoners only, the risk of substance-related death was significantly higher in the first 4 weeks when compared with the risk after 1 year post-release. Most evaluated risk factors for substance-related death were similar for Indigenous and non-Indigenous ex-prisoners; however, the hazard of death increased with age more for Indigenous ex-prisoners than for non-Indigenous ex-prisoners.

In Australia, patterns of substance-related death in ex-prisoners differ markedly according to Indigenous status. Efforts to prevent substance-related deaths in ex-prisoners should consider heterogeneity in the target population and tailor responses accordingly.

  

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By: Forsyth SJ1, Alati R, Ober C, Williams GM, Kinner SA.

• 1School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  

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Incidence & Predictors of Non-Fatal Drug Overdose After Release from Prison among People Who Inject Drugs in Queensland, Australia

The incidence of reported overdose was highest between 1 and 3 months post-release (37.8 per 100 person-years (PY) among PWID; 24.5/100 PY among all ex-prisoners). In adjusted analyses, the risk of post-release non-fatal overdose was higher for PWID who reported: being unemployed for >6 months before prison, having been removed from family as a child, at least weekly use of benzodiazepines and/or pharmaceutical opiates in the 3 months prior to prison, and ever receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST). Pre-release psychological distress and a lifetime history of mental disorder also predicted overdose, whereas risky alcohol use in the year before prison was protective.

PWID have a high risk of overdose following release from prison. Imprisonment is an opportunity to initiate targeted preventive interventions such as OST, overdose prevention training and peer-delivered naloxone for those with a high risk profile

Via: http://ht.ly/SiRWf 

By: Winter RJ1, Stoové M2, Degenhardt L3, Hellard ME2, Spelman T4, Jenkinson R5, McCarthy DR6, Kinner SA7.

• 1Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Australia; School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia
• 2Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Australia; School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia.
• 3National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia; Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.
• 4Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Australia; School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia; Victorian Infectious Diseases Service, Doherty Institute, Australia.
• 5Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Australia; Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia.
• 6Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Australia.
• 7School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia; Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia; School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Australia.