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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:31 pm
Time: 9:31 pm
Results for youth in prison
1 results foundAuthor: Armstrong, Sarah Title: Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People in Custody: Evidence Review Summary: Executive Summary - Introduction - This document presents a review of evidence on mental health and wellbeing of young people in custody, focusing on suicide risk and prevention in custody. It organises evidence into different frames and factors, separating the diverse perspectives through which mental health issues are analysed. These can shape alternative and sometimes contradictory understandings of problems and what to do about them. Comparative context of prison Suicide - Suicide is the leading cause of death of young people in prison in Scotland as well as internationally. - Scotland consistently has a higher prison suicide rate than England and Wales though comparisons are complicated. - Most prison suicide of young people takes place within three months of being detained. Individual/clinical frames and factors - Individual characteristics of suicide risk are well known and include: history of mental health issues including diagnosed disorders, prior suicide attempts and self-harming. - High levels of 'vulnerability' are found among those who have died from self-inflicted causes in prison, but 'vulnerability' is a contested concept on the grounds of being both over and under inclusive and over individualising. - Individual level and clinical frames recognise the contribution of nonindividual factors to prison suicide, but often employ simplistic or limited understandings of other forces, especially institutional factors. Operational, situational and management frames and factors - Situational factors consistently observed in self-inflicted prison deaths include: - being in the early days or weeks of a sentence - being isolated, having recently been in segregated housing - being on remand - having had recent contact with health services - a recent triggering event in one's life or institutional conditions - Screening, identification and risk assessment tools have been subject to criticism both in their design and use. - Information helpful to identifying a person's risk is often available, but sharing and acting on this can be faulty. - Frontline prison and health staff are crucial to managing suicide risk but their own risk of stress and workload is rarely considered. - Translating known situational and operational factors of risk into prevention is not straightforward. Social isolation and relationships frames and factors - Isolation encompasses physical segregation, absence of stimulating activities, and lack of meaningful human contact. - Isolation has profoundly damaging effects on a person's ability to cope in prison with particularly intense and enduring effects on young people.Even short periods of isolation in cell entail negative effects for young people; however, frequent very short periods (an hour or less) was less damaging than less frequent periods (of a day or more), according to one source. - This damage occurs regardless of whether isolation is for disciplinary, protective or regime reasons. - Interactions with staff must be meaningful in order to break down a culture of mistrust and miscommunication. - Family contact and relationships were identified most consistently by young people as helping them cope with the distress of institutionalisation. - Time out of cell for its own sake is not enough, this time needs to be meaningfully occupied with activities which support and allow social development. Institutional and environmental frames and factors - Institutions have particular qualities that put people under pressure to cope and not to disclose difficulties. - They exacerbate, but also cause and are the site of, trauma. - The climate or 'feel' of a prison carries significant impact for all, especially prisoners, but also staff and visitors. - Physical environment and design of prison plays an important role in, but may not be able to entirely transform the culture or overcome the harmful effects of fundamentally disciplinary/security -focused institutions. Rights-based and person-centred frames and factors - Dignity, respect, a sense of care and 'being treated like a person not a number' emerged as dominant concerns of those in custody. - Specific rights to life, freedom from torture, family, privacy, expression and thought create both limits and duties for the state, which have been legally ruled to have been violated in cases of a young person committing suicide in prison. - An untested ground in the UK is the potential for suicide in prison to be declared homicide, where the state seriously fails in its duties of care. - Rights frameworks are unequivocal about prohibiting the use of solitary confinement for juveniles and segregation for those at risk of selfharm or suicide. - Rights frames see vulnerabilities of those in prison as a grounds of limiting, rather than increasing, state involvement, and they frame vulnerabilities in prison as an inequalities issue. - It is important to guard against rights becoming operationalised in overly technical ways focused on narrow ideas of compliance. Conclusions The conclusion distils key findings from the evidence on: distress, wellbeing, suicide prevention risk, and challenges. It identifies some areas of best/better practice. It presents the authors' own synthesis of the strongest messages from the evidence: - Do not isolate young people. - Do not deny access to family, belongings and support, ever. - Maximise time out of cell and availability of stimulating activities and meaningful social relationships. - Empower and support staff in understanding mental health issues, and address and minimise increasing demands placed on them. Details: Glasgow, United Kingdom: University of Glasgow and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, 2019. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 22, 2019 at: https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/publications/mental-health-and-wellbeing-of-young-people-in-custody-evidence-review/ Year: 2019 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SCCJR-Mental-Health-and-Wellbeing-of-Young-People-in-Custody_Evidence-Review.pdf Shelf Number: 155980 Keywords: Corrections Inmates Juvenile Juvenile Justice Mental Health Prison Suicide in Prison Suicide Risk Youth in Prison |