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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) people are overrepresented in Australian prisons, where they experience complex health needs. A model of care was designed to respond to the broad needs of the Aboriginal prisoner population within the nine adult prisons across South Australia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods and findings of the Model of Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prisoner Health and Wellbeing for South Australia.

The project used a qualitative mixed-method approach, including a rapid review of relevant literature, stakeholder consultations and key stakeholder workshop. The project was overseen by a Stakeholder Reference Group, which met monthly to ensure that the specific needs of project partners, stakeholders and Aboriginal communities were appropriately incorporated into the planning and management of the project and to facilitate access to relevant information and key informants.

The model of care for Aboriginal prisoner health and wellbeing is designed to be holistic, person-centred and underpinned by the provision of culturally appropriate care. It recognises that Aboriginal prisoners are members of communities both inside and outside of prison. It notes the unique needs of remanded and sentenced prisoners and differing needs by gender.

Supporting the health and wellbeing of Indigenous prison populations can improve health outcomes, community health and reduce recidivism.

Only one other model of care for Aboriginal prisoner health exists in Australia, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation-initiated in-reach model of care in one prison in one jurisdiction. The South Australian model of care presents principles that are applicable across all jurisdictions and provides a framework that could be adapted to support Indigenous peoples in diverse prison settings.

Imprisonment impacts women’s childbearing and mothering experiences. Using sociological concepts of total institutions, pains of imprisonment and gendered pains of imprisonment, this study aims to explore the childbearing experiences of 18 Filipino incarcerated women.

A qualitative, inductive approach was undertaken to explore imprisoned women’s pregnancy experiences. This research project used reflexive thematic analysis to examine the data from semi-structured interviews with 18 Filipino pregnant prisoners.

The participants’ experiences of childbearing in prison were reflected in three overarching themes: lack of autonomy over pregnancy; reduced capacity to manage discomforts and needs; and coping with prison deprivations. These themes embody women’s experiences of how imprisonment disrupts Filipino women’s childbearing and mothering experiences. Furthermore, the results illustrated how the women navigated the prison regime to address their needs and cope with the pains of imprisonment.

Although there is a small but growing body of research specifically focusing on mothering and imprisonment, little consideration has been given to analyzing Filipino women’s pregnancy experiences in custody. This paper highlights an urgent need to reform correctional policies and practices to address incarcerated women’s distinct needs.

Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) is a therapeutic horticulture programme targeting the high levels of complex health and social care needs in prisons in England. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to unprecedented disruption in prisons in England. This paper examines the experiences of prisoners both during and post-lockdowns in four prisons, to understand the effects of participation in GOOP on health and wellbeing after the disruption of restrictions, and identify implications for developing this programme further.

The paper is based on original qualitative data gathered from in-depth narrative-based interviews and focus groups with prisoners and staff in four English prisons. Audio data was transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis, drawing from a realist-informed lens.

Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: reimagining the GOOP context; increasing empathy between participants; building sense of coherence; reconnecting with nature and a joined-up connection with provider services. The main arguments centre on horticulture in prisons remaining under-utilised as a means of promoting good health and wellbeing, although there is enthusiasm from staff to provide green spaces for the most vulnerable prisoners and develop a range of mechanisms to connect people in prison with nature.

This paper focuses on new knowledge arising from an unprecedented situation in English prisons, from key stakeholders on the frontline of garden activities. Accounts demonstrate the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits of participation in such activities in this challenging environment, which has implications for practice for prisons more widely.

The purpose of this paper is to examine lived experiences of opioid agonist treatment (OAT) during and immediately following release from detention in prisons in England and Scotland.

Surveys were completed by serving prisoners in both countries and by those recently released from prison (England only). The survey findings were discussed in focus groups of people with lived experience. The combined findings from the surveys and focus groups were shared with an expert group of prison OAT providers and people with lived experience with the purpose of making recommendations for more accessible and effective OAT in custodial environments and continuity of OAT on release

The quality and accessibility of OAT varied considerably between establishments. It was reported to be harder to access OAT in Scottish prisons. It was often hard for people in prison to get the dosage of OAT they felt they needed and it was generally harder to access buprenorphine than methadone in English prisons. Only Scottish people in prison were aware of long-lasting forms of buprenorphine. People in English prisons had mixed experiences of the help available in prison, with no improvement recorded since a 2016 study. People in Scottish prisons were more likely to rate the help available as poor.

The number of people accessed while actually in prison (73) was reduced by the impact of the pandemic, making it more difficult to access people in prison and because some were resistant to participating on the basis that they had already been consulted for a wide variety of research projects focused on the impact of COVID. The Scottish cohort (a total of 19 individuals comprising 14 survey respondents and five focus group members) is clearly too small a number on which to base robust claims about differences in OAT provision between the English and Scottish prison systems..

The study identifies key barriers to accessing OAT in prisons and suggests key components of more user-friendly approaches.

This study provides an overview of the recent lived experiences of people accessing OAT in prison and on release and offers valuable recommendations on how to make service provision more effective and consistent.

This study provides an overview of the recent lived experiences of people accessing OAT in prison and on release in England and Scotland and offers valuable recommendations on how to make service provision more effective and consistent.

Women are exposed to vulnerabilities that can lead to drug use or hinder recovery. However, there is a dearth of studies on recovery programs for women. This study aims to add to the literature by examining the feasibility of a women-only aftercare program for recovering users in the Philippines.

The study used a mixed-method design with pre and post-program surveys used to measure changes in participants’ recovery capital. Focused group discussions elicited participants’ context, their reactions, perceived outcomes and suggestions on the program.

Women in the program shared narratives of pain, trauma and abuse before treatment. Participants reported significant improvements in personal, community and family recovery capital dimensions. The program enabled personal growth in the form of new knowledge, skills and self-confidence. The women-only program also provided a safe space for women, to receive support from other women, community members and family. However, the women continue to face continuing challenges related to stigma and discrimination and a lack of livelihood opportunities.

A limitation of the study was its small sample size and the lack of a control group. Another limitation was the variability in treatment received by the women, which could have affected overall outcomes. Future studies using a randomized control trial and longitudinal designs may provide more robust conclusions on the effectiveness of the program.

Given punitive contexts, gender-sensitive and trauma-informed programs and services for women involved in drug use could potentially mitigate the abuse, stigma and vulnerabilities they experience.

This study contributes to the sparse literature on women-only aftercare, particularly in countries that criminalize drug use.

Drug use in prisons remains a public health concern because it is often the place of drug initiation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the drug use in prison in Burkina Faso.

We conducted cross-sectional study in the prison of Ouagadougou. The adult prisoners (male and female) incarcerated for more than one month at the largest prison of Burkina Faso were included in the study. Participants were selected using a systematic random sampling. Data were collected from October 28 to November 26, 2018. The face-to-face interviews were conducted in the prison grounds. Logistic multivariate regression was used to identify factors associated with in prison drug use. All analysis was done using Stata.

A total of 379 prisoners were included in this study. Approximately one-third inmates (32.71%; n = 124) experienced illicit drug in lifetime. Nearly one-third (28.76%; n = 109) of the prisoners were drug users before incarceration and 11.87% (n = 45) used drug inside the prison, of which 33.33% (n = 15) initiated drug use in the prison. Cannabis was the first drug used by the prisoners (71.11%) followed by tramadol (62.22%), diazepam (13.33%) and cocaine (2.22%). Four prisoners (3.63%) had reported Heroin use before incarceration. Cannabis was mainly smoked. Tramadol, diazepam and amphetamines were swallowed or mixed with food. Cocaine is smoked and snorted. Case of injection of cocaine and heroin was reported before incarceration. Main factors independently associated with drug use in prison is drug use before prison and young age of inmates. Indeed, inmates who had reported drug use before prison had 4.01 time {adjusted odd ratio (AOR: 4.01 [95% CI: 1.91–8.41])} higher odds to use drug in prison.

To conduct the interviews in the prison grounds could be a limitation due to social desirability bias. Indeed, the prisoners may understate drug use in prison for the fear of likely additional sentence. Availability of biological tests for drug markers might help addressed this bias. Nevertheless, the findings of this study should help to plan effective drug use prevention and care programs for prisoners.

The actions must include the implementation of a medical and psychological care in continuum of healthcare system in Burkina Faso. This system should include screening at entry and adequate health and psychological care in prison for drug users for an effective control of drugs use in prison.

Most of these drug users in prison have a low level of education and are unemployed. Education activities and training on occupational activities to prepare drug users for a successful social reintegration less dependent on drugs is essential. This study can be a basis to explore more possibilities and find out what is available to help those with substance use disorder, manage these cases in prison and prevent relapse on release.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first study on drug use in prison in Burkina Faso. It indicates that the repressive strategy against drug use seems ineffective because former users continue their consumption inside and also new users are initiated to use drugs in prison.

The prison population is seldom studied and often overlooked in many countries despite their vulnerability to long-term illness. This study aims to explore the factors associated with the non-treatment for long-term illnesses among incarcerated individuals.

This study is a cross-sectional analysis. The authors conducted a secondary data analysis using information collected in the Peruvian census of incarcerated individuals. The study population consisted of incarcerated individuals diagnosed with a long-term illness. To evaluate the factors associated with non-treatment, the authors used a Poisson regression model.

The authors included 12,512 incarcerated individuals (age: 40.9 ± 13.1 years), and 39% of them did not receive treatment for their long-term illness. The authors observed that non-treatment was statistically associated with gender, age, having children, use of the Spanish language, sexual identity, judicial situation, penitentiary location, discrimination inside the penitentiary and health insurance before incarceration. However, only having children (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.11, confidence interval [CI]95% 1.03–1.19), using the Spanish language (PR: 1.15, CI95%: 1.01–1.31), being in a penitentiary not in Lima (PR: 1.11, CI95%: 1.06–1.17) and perceiving discrimination inside the penitentiary (PR: 1.12, CI95% 1.06–1.18) increased the prevalence of non-treatment.

Identifying the factors associated with non-treatment will allow us to implement measures for prioritizing groups and developing strategies for the evaluation, close follow-up of their health and management of comorbidities.

A key aspect of psychologically informed planned environments (PIPEs), are the attachment theory-informed relationships between residents and staff (Bainbridge, 2017). The key-work provision of one-to-one support from officers to residents is one of the main ways through which relationships are formed. The purpose of this paper is to explore prison officers’ experiences of the key-work role within a PIPE in a women’s Prison in England.

Semi-structured interviews explored ten prison officers’ experiences. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Five main themes were identified; “Professional support”, “Negotiating Professional Boundaries”, “A Successful Relationship”, “Rupture and Repair” and “Growth for Everyone”. These themes reflected the framework around keywork; what support officers need to cope with the emotional demands of the role, and how to manage challenging situations and build meaningful key-work relationships.

Limitations include the lack of focus on diversity, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on officer experience and applicability to other PIPE services. Future research could address some of these limitations.

Practical implications highlight the need for consistent supervision, greater consideration of officers’ transition to the role and trauma-informed training.

The research provides an unprecedented account of prison officers’ experiences of the key-work role, adding to the limited literature within PIPEs in the women’s estate. The supportive nature of the key-work relationship was perceived by officers to contribute towards people’s sentence progression and officers’ personal and professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing literature on post-traumatic growth (PTG), particularly in the ways that it relates to grief.

This narrative literature review brings together 125 sources and presents them in a readable way.

There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that PTG can come from grief. This is not always the case, however.

This review presents only a selection of the existing literature – the review is not systematic. However, this allows for a narrative to be crafted, to aid readability.

Suggestions for future research are made throughout, and potential therapeutic applications are mentioned.

This paper discusses stigma, in the form of “disenfranchised grief”. In this, social pressures and expectations affect how a person processes their grief psychologically. While movements to increase discourse and reduce stigma are on the rise, more is needed.

This review guides readers through existing literature, providing a wide overview of the topic of PTG in grief.