The resettlement of women offenders: learning the lessons: a research project focusing on the experience of the female offender.

Part of the Cornwall VSF Promoting Change Project. The research was jointly funded by The Lankelly Chase Foundation and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner. Some additional facilitation grants were received from the University of Plymouth

Making good?: A study of how senior penal policy makers narrate policy reversal

This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

In this article, we present some initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of unification by staff in one Probation Service region. Their reaction to unification is explored as well as their hopes and fears regarding the newly unified service. Despite working in what was often presented as an unsettled and fractured environment marked by on-going staff shortages – whilst at the same time having to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – amongst most participants there remained a high level of loyalty to the probation profession (or the idea of probation). However, while many expressed optimism regarding the longer-term prospects for the unified organisation, this was also overlaid with concerns about how unification would play out in the short to medium term. Their enduring sense of commitment and loyalty to their role was also being tested by what some saw as overbearing pressure to manage risk, coupled with the fear of being exposed if people whom they supervised committed a Serious Further Offence

Health trainer-led motivational intervention plus usual care for people under community supervision compared with usual care alone: a study protocol for a parallel-group pilot randomised controlled trial (STRENGTHEN).

INTRODUCTION: People with experience of the criminal justice system typically have worse physical and mental health, lower levels of mental well-being and have less healthy lifestyles than the general population. Health trainers have worked with offenders in the community to provide support for lifestyle change, enhance mental well-being and signpost to appropriate services. There has been no rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of providing such community support. This study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a randomised trial and delivering a health trainer intervention to people receiving community supervision in the UK. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A multicentre, parallel, two-group randomised controlled trial recruiting 120 participants with 1:1 individual allocation to receive support from a health trainer and usual care or usual care alone, with mixed methods process evaluation. Participants receive community supervision from an offender manager in either a Community Rehabilitation Company or the National Probation Service. If they have served a custodial sentence, then they have to have been released for at least 2 months. The supervision period must have at least 7 months left at recruitment. Participants are interested in receiving support to change diet, physical activity, alcohol use and smoking and/or improve mental well-being. The primary outcome is mental well-being with secondary outcomes related to smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and diet. The primary outcome will inform sample size calculations for a definitive trial. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Health and Care Research Wales Ethics Committee (REC reference 16/WA/0171). Dissemination will include publication of the intervention development process and findings for the stated outcomes, parallel process evaluation and economic evaluation in peer-reviewed journals. Results will also be disseminated to stakeholders and trial participants. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: ISRCTN80475744; Pre-results

Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal

This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform

Dietary n-3 and n-6 fatty acids alter avian metabolism: metabolism and abdominal fat deposition

The effects of dietary saturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of the n-3 and n-6 series on weight gain, body composition and substrate oxidation were investigated in broiler chickens. At 3 weeks of age three groups of chickens (n 30; ten birds per group) were fed the fat-enriched experimental diets for 5 weeks. These diets were isonitrogenous, isoenergetic and contained 208 g protein/kg and 80 g edible tallow, fish oil or sunflower oil/kg; the dietary fatty acid profiles were thus dominated by saturated fatty acids, n-3 PUFA or n-6 PUFA respectively. Resting RQ was measured in five birds from each treatment group during weeks 4 and 5 of the experiment. There were no significant differences between treatments in total feed intake or final body mass. Birds fed the PUFA diets had lower RQ and significantly reduced abdominal fat pad weights (

Effects of high-amylose maize starch and butyrylated high-amylose maize starch on azoxymethane-induced intestinal cancer in rats

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of death worldwide. Studies suggest that dietary fibre offers protection perhaps by increasing colonic fermentative production of butyrate. This study examined the importance of butyrate by investigating the effects of resistant starch (RS) and butyrylated-RS on azoxymethane (AOM)-induced CRC in rats. Four groups (n = 30 per group) of Sprague–Dawley rats were fed AIN-93G-based diets containing a standard low-RS maize starch (LAMS), LAMS + 3% tributyrin (LAMST), 10% high-amylose maize starch (HAMS) and 10% butyrylated HAMS (HAMSB) for 4 weeks. Rats were injected once weekly for 2 weeks with 15 mg/kg AOM, maintained on diets for 25 weeks and then killed. Butyrate concentrations in large bowel digesta were higher in rats fed HAMSB than other groups (P < 0.001); levels were similar in HAMS, LAMS and LAMST groups. The proportion of rats developing tumours were lower in HAMS and HAMSB than LAMS (P < 0.05), and the number of tumours per rat were lower in HAMSB than LAMS (P < 0.05). Caecal digesta butyrate pools and concentrations were negatively correlated with tumour size (P < 0.05). Hepatic portal plasma butyrate concentrations were higher (P < 0.001) in the HAMSB compared with other groups and negatively correlated with tumour number per rat (P < 0.009) and total tumour size for each rat (P = 0.05). HAMSB results in higher luminal butyrate than RS alone or tributyrin. This is associated with reduced tumour incidence, number and size in this rat model of CRC supporting the important protective role of butyrate. Interventional strategies designed to maximize luminal butyrate may be of protective benefit in humans

Impact and the reflexive imperative in criminal justice policy, practice and research

This chapter is a substantive editorial introduction to the book, Reflexivity and Criminal Justice: Intersections of Policy, Practice and Research. It develops and argues for an account of reflexivity in criminology beyond the researcher-researched relationship to the field of research itself. Universities are under increasing pressure to document the value of their work, often defined instrumentally in terms of immediate practical and commercial activities. This has led to increasing emphasis on ‘partnerships’ and knowledge exchange with organisations and actors outside of academia. While such relationships may be empowering and supportive of good research and thriving societies, they also raise critical questions about agenda setting and valuation of social science. These questions become especially acute in a discipline such as criminology, with its attention to crime control, surveillance and state punishment, topics which can be co-opted by particular interests. We address the potential and risks of reflexivity in this setting, concluding that it might offer a stance that assists researchers in exposing the complicated dynamics of the conditions of criminal justice research in contemporary times. The content of the chapters comprising the book are summarised and woven into the discussion throughout this introduction

Do herbivorous minnows have “plug-flow reactor” guts? Evidence from digestive enzyme activities, gastrointestinal fermentation, and luminal nutrient concentrations

Few investigations have empirically analyzed fish gut function in the context of chemical reactor models. In this study, digestive enzyme activities, levels of gastrointestinal fermentation products [short chain fatty acids (SCFA)], luminal nutrient concentrations, and the mass of gut contents were measured along the digestive tract in herbivorous and carnivorous minnows to ascertain whether their guts function as “plug-flow reactors” (PFRs). Four of the species, Campostoma anomalum, C. ornatum, C. oligolepis, and C. pauciradii, are members of a monophyletic herbivorous clade, whereas the fifth species, Nocomis micropogon, is a carnivore from an adjacent carnivorous clade. In the context of a PFR model, the activities of amylase, trypsin and lipase, and the concentrations of glucose, protein, and lipid were predicted to decrease moving from the proximal to the distal intestine. I found support for this as these enzyme activities and nutrient concentrations generally decreased moving distally along the intestine of the four Campostoma species. Furthermore, gut content mass and the low SCFA concentrations did not change (increase or decrease) along the gut of any species. Combined with a previous investigation suggesting that species of Campostoma have rapid gut throughput rates, the data presented here generally support Campostoma as having guts that function as PFRs. The carnivorous N. micropogon showed some differences in the measured parameters, which were interpreted in the contexts of intake and retention time to suggest that PFR function breaks down in this carnivorous species

What goes in does not always come out: The impact of the ruminant digestive system of sheep on plant material, and its importance for the interpretation of dung-derived archaeobotanical assemblages

On archaeological sites where livestock dung was a major fuel source, plant material that survives digestion intact may well be preserved in the remnants of dung-fuelled fires. Preserved plant remains which were derived from dung relate to the diet of animals, and thus provide a way of investigating the agro-pastoral economies of the past. In order to improve our understanding of the taphonomic processes to which plant material is exposed to during digestion, we applied archaeobotanical methods to the analysis of dung from sheep fed a known diet of cereal and wild plant material. Two clear patterns emerge from these investigations. First, cereal material (grain or chaff) survives digestion poorly and was rarely found in the dung analysed. Second, large proportions of seeds of various wild species survive digestion in an identifiable form, probably due to their small size and/or protective coating. These findings are crucial for reliable interpretation of dung-derived plant material in archaeological settings