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Impact of family-friendly prison policies on health, justice and child protection outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children: a cohort study protocol.

ABSTRACT: Female imprisonment has numerous health and social sequelae for both women prisoners and their children. Examples of comprehensive family-friendly prison policies that seek to improve the health and social functioning of women prisoners and their children exist but have not been evaluated. This study will determine the impact of exposure to a family-friendly prison environment on health, child protection and justice outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children.A longitudinal retrospective cohort design will be used to compare outcomes for mothers incarcerated at Boronia Pre-release Centre, a women's prison with a dedicated family-friendly environment, and their dependent children, with outcomes for mothers incarcerated at other prisons in Western Australia (that do not offer this environment) and their dependent children. Routinely collected administrative data from 1985 to 2013 will be used to determine child and mother outcomes such as hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, custodial sentences, community service orders and placement in out-of home care. The sample consists of all children born in Western Australia between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 2011 who had a mother in a West Australian prison between 1990 and 2012 and their mothers. Children are included if they were alive and aged less than 18 years at the time of their mother's incarceration. The sample comprises an exposed group of 665 women incarcerated at Boronia and their 1714 dependent children and a non-exposed comparison sample of 2976 women incarcerated at other West Australian prisons and their 7186 dependent children, creating a total study sample of 3641 women and 8900 children.This project received ethics approval from the Western Australian Department of Health Human Research Ethics Committee, the Western Australian Aboriginal Health Ethics Committee and the University of Western Australia Human Research Ethics Committee.

SUBMITTER: Myers H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5634451 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Impact of family-friendly prison policies on health, justice and child protection outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children: a cohort study protocol.

Myers Helen H Segal Leonie L Lopez Derrick D Li Ian W IW Preen David B DB

BMJ open 20170823 8

<h4>Introduction</h4>Female imprisonment has numerous health and social sequelae for both women prisoners and their children. Examples of comprehensive family-friendly prison policies that seek to improve the health and social functioning of women prisoners and their children exist but have not been evaluated. This study will determine the impact of exposure to a family-friendly prison environment on health, child protection and justice outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent child ...[more]

PMID: 28838893

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Project description:BackgroundSubstance misuse, including problematic drug and alcohol use, are significant issues in society that can have multiple detrimental effects. Many people access support for their substance misuse during prison sentences, due to the associations between substance misuse and offending, and the high proportion of the prison population who have drug and alcohol issues. Breaking Free Online Health and Justice is a computer-assisted therapy program that has been developed to support substance-involved offenders to address their substance misuse and associated offending within prison settings.MethodsThis will be a parallel-group randomized controlled trial of 4-week Breaking Free Online Health and Justice program as an adjunct to standard treatment for substance misuse, in comparison to standard treatment only, in a male Category D open prison. Interventional and control groups will be compared in terms of the changes in their scores on multiple measures from baseline to post-treatment assessment at 4-weeks, and then 3- and 6-months follow-up. Participants will be adult male offenders serving sentences in prison in England who have demonstrable difficulties with drugs and/or alcohol for at least the past 12-months. The primary outcome measure will be self-reported substance misuse, with secondary outcomes being standardized psychometric assessments of substance dependence, mental health, biopsychosocial functioning, quality of life and post-release offending. Other secondary measures will include frequency of completion of specific intervention strategies in the program.DiscussionThis study will examine whether Breaking Free Online Health and Justice as an adjunct to standard substance misuse interventions in prisons, improves outcomes for substance-involved offenders receiving interventions in custodial settings. Findings from the study will be used to inform further developments of the program and potential improvements to custodial treatment.Trials registrationISRCTN09846981 .

Project description:BackgroundPrison suicide is a complex phenomenon that may be influenced by individual, clinical, social and environmental factors. In Spain, few studies have explored the relationship with institutional, prison-related variables. The aim of this study is to examine correlates of suicide in a sample of male incarcerated individuals from 5 Spanish penitentiary centers.MethodsThis present study entails a secondary data analysis, using data from the Prevalence of mental disorders in prisons study. This is a cross-sectional multicenter study conducted in 2007-2008 across 5 penitentiary centers in Spain. The Spanish version of the Plutchik suicide risk scale was used to assess the risk of suicide (those scoring ≥ 6 were considered to be at risk of suicide). Sociodemographic, clinical, criminological and prison-related data were collected via face-to face interviews and criminological data were confirmed using penitentiary records.ResultsThe final sample included 707 male incarcerated individuals (mean age 36.79 years ± 9.90 years). Several significant correlates associated with higher risk of suicide were identified including criminological factors (having committed a violent offense, being a recidivist), clinical factors (family history of mental disorders, the presence of mental disorders, having physical conditions, contact with a mental health specialist, medication treatment in the last 12 months), and prison-related determinants (workshop/training course participation) was significantly associated with lower suicide risk.ConclusionsSeveral correlates within a comprehensive range of sociodemographic, criminological, clinical and prison-related variables were identified. This information is primordial for preventing suicide and reducing the existing risk. The findings may contribute to developing effective suicide prevention programs within Spanish prison services. Importantly, future research must continue to investigate the nature of suicidal outcomes among incarcerated individuals.

Project description:ObjectiveWe described development, health and justice system outcomes for children in contact with child protection and public housing.DesignDescriptive analysis of outcomes for children known to child protection who also had contact with public housing drawn from the South Australian (SA) Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform.SettingThe BEBOLD platform holds linked administrative records collected by government agencies for whole-population successive birth cohorts in SA beginning in 1999.ParticipantsThis study included data from birth registrations, perinatal, child protection, public housing, hospital, emergency department, early education and youth justice for all SA children born 1999-2013 and followed until 2016. The base population notified at least once to child protection was n=67 454.Primary outcome measureContact with the public housing system.Secondary outcome measuresHospitalisations and emergency department presentations before age 5, and early education at age 5, and youth justice contact before age 17.ResultsMore than 60% of children with at least one notification to child protection had contact with public housing, and 60.2% of those known to both systems were known to housing first. Children known to both systems experienced more emergency department and hospitalisation contacts, greater developmental vulnerability and were about six times more likely to have youth justice system contact.ConclusionsThere is substantial overlap between involvement with child protection and public housing in SA. Those children are more likely to face a life trajectory characterised by greater contact with the health system, greater early life developmental vulnerability and greater contact with the criminal justice system. Ensuring the highest quality of supportive early life infrastructure for families in public housing may contribute to prevention of contact with child protection and better life trajectories for children.

Dataset Information

Impact of family-friendly prison policies on health, justice and child protection outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children: a cohort study protocol.

Publications

Impact of family-friendly prison policies on health, justice and child protection outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children: a cohort study protocol.

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