This paper explores the political economy of the prison telephone industry, with special emphasis on changes in the industry since the mid-1980s. Contrary to the expectations of competition advocates, the principal outcome of deregulation in the prison telephone sector has been a sharp increase in price, as new market entrants compete for monopoly service contracts on the basis of steadily esca...

IMPORTANCE In 1939, English mathematician, geneticist, and psychiatrist Lionel Sharples Penrose hypothesized that the numbers of psychiatric hospital beds and the sizes of prison populations were inversely related; 75 years later, the question arises as to whether the hypothesis applies to recent developments in South America. OBJECTIVE To explore the possible association of changes in the nu...

Prison populations are considered to be at high risk for tuberculosis infections, and many of the cases encountered have initiated while the individuals were in prison. There are also studies that have estimated the occupational risk of exposure and infection for hospital-based and correctional healthcare workers. To our knowledge, data on the incidence and risk factors associated with tubercul...

The provision of education that is both effective and relevant to the needs of students within prison is challenging on a number of levels. The uniqueness of prison culture with a regime characterised by a focus on security measures such as lock-downs and head counts constrains the possibilities for learning. The absence of a supportive learning environment together with an emphasis on punishme...

This paper tests for a relationship between the size of the population institutionalized in state and county mental hospitals and the size of state prison populations. The analysis exploits inter-state differences in the pace of deinstitutionalization to identify this relationship. While mental hospital populations declined nation-wide, decreases in hospitalization rates vary considerably from ...

This study investigated the differences in loneliness, sexual satisfaction, and quality of life among three groups of prison inmates: inmates in a heterosexual romantic relationship with a fellow prisoner, inmates with a partner outside the prison, and inmates without a partner. In-person interviews with 70 male and 70 female inmates from the Topas Penitentiary (Spain) were conducted. These inm...

OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to determine how testosterone levels, both alone and interacting with age, were associated with criminal behavior and institutional behavior among female prison inmates. METHOD Subjects were 87 female inmates in a maximum security state prison. Criminal behavior was scored from court records. Institutional behavior was scored from prison records and in...

Data on over 7,000 offenders were collected to evaluate the impact of industrial work experience and vocational and apprenticeship training on in-prison and post-release outcomes. Prior research on prison training outcomes failed to find any significant training effects. Related research on the economic conditions faced by ex-offenders has demonstrated the difficult conditions under which these...

Smith addresses three areas of concern in his evaluation of prison health care in Britain: the ethical dilemmas faced by prison doctors, the isolation of these practitioners from the medical mainstream, and the quality of care rendered to prisoners. He concludes that prison doctors, who are employees of the Home Office rather than the National Health Service, are handicapped by the organizati...

BACKGROUND The number of suicides in prison has increased over recent years. This is the first study to describe the clinical care of a national sample of prison suicides. AIMS To describe the clinical and social circumstances of self-inflicted deaths among prisoners. METHOD A national clinical survey based on a 2-year sample of self-inflicted deaths in prisoners. Detailed clinical and soci...