The Stains of Imprisonment

Recent decades have seen a widespread effort to imprison more people for sexual violence. The Stains of Imprisonment offers an ethnographic account of one of the worlds that this push has created: an English prison for men convicted of sex offenses. This book examines the ways in which prisons are morally communicative institutions, instilling in prisoners particular ideas about the offenses they have committed—ideas that carry implications for prisoners’ moral character. Investigating the moral messages contained in the prosaic yet power-imbued processes that make up daily life in custody, Ievins finds that the prison she studied communicated a pervasive sense of disgust and shame, marking the men it held as permanently stained. Rather than promoting accountability, this message discouraged prisoners from engaging in serious moral reflection on the harms they had caused. Analyzing these effects, Ievins explores the role that imprisonment plays as a response to sexual harm, and the extent to which it takes us closer to and further from justice. “A highly original and empirically grounded account of what imprisonment communicates and fails to communicate to men convicted of sexual offenses. This book is, by some distance, the best-developed analysis of how men in this position experience and make sense of their punishment.” — FERGUS McNEILL, author of Pervasive Punishment: Making Sense of Mass Supervision “The Stains of Imprisonment gives the reader captivating insight into the world that is prison for men convicted of sex offenses. Ievins deftly weaves together theoretical discussions of feminism and the carceral with the nuanced experiences of the men interviewed. A definite must-read for anyone interested in punishment and prison.” — ROSEMARY RICCIARDELLI, author of Also Serving Time: Canada’s Provincial and Territorial Correctional Officer

Love, Glory and Beauty in Jonathan Edwards and Hans Urs von Balthasar

Christian tradition, rooted in scripture, affirms both that God seeks His own glory, and that God is love. However, these goals appear to be in tension, with seeking one’s own glory seeming self-centred, while love being oriented towards the other. This thesis explores how Jonathan Edwards resolved this tension in The End of Creation. In this work, Edwards draws on scriptural and philosophical arguments to resolve the question using a concept of theosis. This thesis argues that the general structure of Edwards’ resolution is compelling, but there are weak details in the argument. Many of these weaknesses are rooted in one specific weakness: Edwards’ account relies upon a concept of beauty which is too influenced by natural theology to be consistent with classical Protestantism. These problems can be addressed by using the ideas of the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, ironically making Edwards more consistently Protestant. Unlike Edwards, Balthasar develops an understanding of beauty which coheres well with key Protestant loci, notably in its emphasis upon seeing beauty in revelation, perceived through scriptural exegesis and the cross. While Balthasar’s account does allow for a role for natural sources in his account of beauty, it does so in a way which centres on revelation, and thereby coheres well with Protestant thought. The thesis argues that Balthasar’s account of divine beauty (particularly as found in his Christology and his interpretation of the Trinity) contains ideas of love and glory which help to reconstruct Edwards’ ideas. Tension within Edwards’ understanding of love may be improved by using Balthasar’s aesthetic concept of love, centred on the cross of Christ. This concept of love itself contains a concept of union, which helps to improve Edwards’ understanding of theosis. Due to this reconstruction, Edwards’ theology becomes stronger, and more consistent with his own Protestant principles

‘Nobody’s better than you, nobody’s worse than you’: Moral community among prisoners convicted of sexual offences

Sex offenders constitute a significant proportion of the prison population – in England and Wales, almost one in six prisoners has been convicted of a sexual offence – and yet they barely feature in sociological studies of prison life. This article is based on research conducted in a medium security English prison which only accommodated sex offenders. It argues that if we are to understand prisoners’ experiences of imprisonment and identity management, it is necessary to explore their horizontal relationships with other prisoners. Prisoners experienced their convictions as an assault on their moral character, resenting attempts to define them as ‘sex offenders’. Following Sykes, we argue that prisoners attempted to form an accepting and equal moral community in order to mitigate the pain of this moral exclusion and to enable the development of a convivial atmosphere. However, these attempts were limited by imprisonment’s structural limitations on trust and prisoners’ imported negative feelings about sex offenders. This suggests that sex offenders may have more complex feelings towards their own moral exclusion than is suggested by their attempts to resist their own stigmatisation. This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Sage via http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146247451560380

‘Perfectly individualized and constantly visible’? Lateral tightness in a prison holding men convicted of sex offences

Late-modern penal power has been described as ‘tight’. Through the increasing use of indeterminate sentences and psychological assessment, and the growing insistence that prisoners engage in self-government, the prison monitors and seeks to change those it holds. This tight and disciplinarian power is often described as contributing to the increasing fragmentation and atomisation of the prisoner community. However, this article, which is based on research conducted in a English medium-security prison for men convicted of sex offences, argues that tightness can operate through the prisoner community, in a process which it terms ‘lateral regulation’. It shows that prisoners spend a lot of time observing, categorising and policing their peers, in ways which replicate and often uphold the more formal systems of power. However, the relationship between these two systems of power is complex, and prisoners’ collective self-regulation can conflict with and challenge the demands of the penal institution, in a way which reveals some of the weaknesses in the institution’s disciplinary gaze, and indicates the normative motivations underlying this regulation.RG-9778

Prevention the impact of chemicals on the health of workers in fibreglass industry

ArticleMost of the chemicals make our everyday life easier and safer. However, there are a lot of new emerging risks connected with chemicals causing damage to people’s health and environment. The results of the investigation: the chemical exposure index (EI) is between 0.16 to 25.98 (the last determined by the mould spray-up, outside of the protective masks). The air pollution index determined was between 16 to 760%. The ventilation rates for the remove of the volatiles from the workplace air are settled, the possibilities for substitution of hazardous chemicals to less hazardous are presented. When the concentration of a volatile is measured under the protective mask, which has a new filter, the tested substance concentration is lower that under the mask with an old filter, although the differences between these two were rather small. When the volatiles were measured under the protective mask, the concentrations of tested substances met the requirements

‘Tightness’, recognition and penal power

Prison scholarship has tended to focus on the pains and frustrations that result from the use and over-use of penal power. Yet the absence of such power and the subjective benefits of its grip are also worthy of attention. This article begins by drawing on recent literature and research findings to develop the concept of ‘tightness’ beyond its initial formulation. Drawing primarily on data from a study of men convicted of sex offences, it goes on to explain that, in some circumstances, the reach and hold of penal power are not experienced as oppressive and undesirable, and, indeed, may be welcomed. Conversely, institutional inattention and an absence of grip may be experienced as painful. Prisons, then, can be ‘loose’ or ‘lax’ as well as ‘tight’. The article then discusses the different ways in which prisons exercise grip, and, in doing so, recognise or misrecognise the subjectivity of the individual prisoner. It concludes by identifying the connections between this ‘ground-up’ analysis of the relative legitimacy of different forms of penal intervention and recent discussions in penal theory about the proper role of the state in communicating censure and promoting personal repentance and change

Perinatal factors associated with subsequent diabetes mellitus in the child: record linkage study

WSTĘP. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono raport dotyczący związku między czynnikami okołoporodowymi a późniejszą cukrzycą u potomstwa przed ukończeniem 30. roku życia. MATERIAŁ I METODY. Analizie poddano sprzężone szpitalne dane statystyczne, porównując czynniki okołoporodowe u 518 osób przyjętych do szpitala z powodu cukrzycy z takimi samymi czynnikami u 292 845 innych chorych w określonej populacji, w południowej Anglii w latach 1963-1999. WYNIKI. Cukrzyca występowała znacznie częściej u dzieci matek chorych na cukrzycę niż u innych (OR: 6,42; 95% CI: 4,18-9,86). Nie stwierdzono znamiennego związku z masą urodzeniową lub wiekiem ciążowym oddzielnie. Cukrzyca występowała częściej u osób w wyższym kwintylu masy urodzeniowej dla wieku ciążowego w porównaniu z połączonymi najniższymi 4 kwintylami (OR: 1,33; 95% CI: 1,08-1,64), jednak nie stwierdzono zgodnego gradientu rosnącej częstości występowania cukrzycy w najniższych 4 kwintylach. Nie dowiedziono znamiennego związku między cukrzycą a wiekiem matki, liczbą porodów, statusem społecznym, paleniem tytoniu w ciąży, sposobem porodu lub jakimkolwiek innym badanym czynnikiem okołoporodowym. Wszystkie wyniki były podobne, gdy analizę ograniczono do chorych na cukrzycę w wieku poniżej 15 lat. WNIOSKI. Wykazano silny związek między występowaniem cukrzycy u dzieci - głównie, jeśli nie całkowicie, typu 1 - a stwierdzeniem tej choroby u matek. Cukrzyca występowała nieznacznie częściej w najcięższym kwintylu masy urodzeniowej dla wieku ciążowego niż w innych kwintylach. Nie zaobserwowano znamiennego związku między występowaniem cukrzycy a innymi badanymi czynnikami okołoporodowymi.AIMS. To report on associations between perinatal factors and the subsequent development of diabetes mellitus under the age of 30 years in the offspring. METHODS. Analysis of linked hospital statistical records, comparing perinatal factors relating to the birth of 518 people admitted to hospital for diabetes with the same factors in 292 845 others, in a defined population in southern England from 1963 to 1999. RESULTS. Diabetes mellitus was much more common in children of mothers with diabetes than in others (OR: 6.42; 95% CI: 4.18&#8211;9.86). There was no significant association with birthweight or gestational age separately. Diabetes was more common in those in the highest quintile of 'birthweight for gestational age' compared with the lowest four quintiles combined (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.08-1.64), but there was no consistent gradient of increasing frequency of diabetes across the lowest four quintiles. There were no significant associations between diabetes and mothers' age, parity, social class, or smoking during pregnancy, or between babies' mode of delivery or any other perinatal factors investigated. All results were similar when the analysis was confined to diabetes in people aged < 15 years. CONCLUSIONS. We found a strong association between diabetes in the child - mainly, if not entirely type 1 diabetes - and maternal diabetes. Diabetes was slightly more common in the heaviest quintile of birthweight for gestational age than in other quintiles. There were no significant associations between diabetes and the other perinatal factors studied