Encountering Death in the Prison; An Exploration of Irish Prison Staff Experiences, Emotions and Engagements With Support.

This thesis examines prison staff experiences of the deaths of prisoners in custody. It explores staff accounts of their encounters with prisoner deaths, their emotional responses to these incidents and their engagement with support in the aftermath of their experiences. This thesis represents the first Irish research focused exclusively on prison staff encounters with prisoner deaths. In so doing, it illuminates Irish prison staff practices, sensibilities and traditions. Despite increasing scholarship on the working lives and traditions of prison staff, and greater awareness arising from a small number of studies of staff experiences of prisoner suicide, there remains little research exploring prison staff encounters with prisoner deaths. This thesis seeks to address this gap by presenting an exploration of Irish prison staff experiences of prisoner deaths in custody. It also builds on existing research by offering the first account of prison staff encounters with prisoner deaths by examining causes of death in addition to that of suicide. A qualitative research design is employed, consisting of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 17 serving and retired Irish prison staff who have experienced a death in custody. This thesis charts the chronology of participants’ encounters with prisoner deaths, analysing their accounts of the emergency response to deaths in custody before moving to consider the immediate and long-term aftermath of these incidents in individual and institutional contexts. The thesis finds that the norms of solidarity and insularity, identified in the extant prison work literature as central tenets of the occupational culture of prison staff, direct staff responses and attitudes in these situations. The findings highlight participants’ perceptions of blame and concerns about a risk of personal liability in shaping their perspectives on prisoner deaths, the prisoner population and the prison authorities. This thesis additionally contends that a death in custody calls upon staff to not only manage the incident, but also their own emotional reactions and vulnerabilities. Shared expectations regarding the management of emotional responses to prisoner deaths promote the necessity of concealing post-incident vulnerabilities inside the prison. The thesis argues that the implications of involvement with a death in custody can often find life beyond the boundaries of the prison walls

The Emotional Labour of Judges in Jury Trials

Judges are required to suppress and manage their own emotions as well as those of other court users and staff in their everyday work. Previous studies have examined the complex emotional labour undertaken by judges, but there is limited research on the emotion management performed by judges in their interactions with jurors. Drawing on a qualitative study of judge-jury relations in criminal trials in Ireland, we illustrate how judges learn and habituate emotional labour practices through informal and indirect processes. Judges describe managing their emotions to demonstrate impartiality and objectivity. Their accounts also underline the importance of balancing presentations of neutrality with empathy, as well as being mindful of the potential emotional toll of jury service on jurors

The emotional labour of judges in jury trials

Judges are required to suppress and manage their own emotions as well as those of other court users and staff in their everyday work. Previous studies have examined the complex emotional labour undertaken by judges, but there is limited research on the emotion management performed by judges in their interactions with jurors. Drawing on a qualitative study of judge–jury relations in criminal trials in Ireland, we illustrate how judges learn and habituate emotional labour practices through informal and indirect processes. Judges described managing their emotions to demonstrate impartiality and objectivity. Their accounts also underline the importance of balancing presentations of neutrality with empathy, as well as being mindful of the potential emotional toll of jury service on jurors

Respect, reform and research: An empirical insight into judge-jury relations

In March 2020, a report entitled ‘Judges and Juries in Ireland: An Empirical Study’ was launched by Chief Justice Clarke at the Criminal Courts of Justice. 1 The report summarises the research findings of a pioneering study conducted between 2017 and 2019, in which 22 judges and 11 barristers with experience of criminal jury trials were interviewed. The purpose of this research was to examine the perspectives, experiences and approaches of judges who preside over criminal trials on indictment, particularly in relation to their interactions with the jurors who determine guilt or innocence in those cases. This article presents selected findings from this study, focusing on judicial perspectives on the contemporary judge-jury relationship. A key contribution of the article is that it addresses an enduring research gap by illuminating how trial judges perceive trial by jury and their own role within i

A Large Organic Aerosol Source in the Free Troposphere Missing from Current Models

Aircraft measurements of organic carbon (OC) aerosol by two independent methods over the NW Pacific during the ACE-Asia campaign reveal unexpectedly high concentrations in the free troposphere (FT). Concentrations average 4 μg sm−3 in the 2–6.5 km column with little vertical gradient. These values are 10–100 times higher than computed with a global chemical transport model (CTM) including a standard 2-product simulation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation based on empirical fits to smog chamber data. The same CTM reproduces the observed vertical profiles of sulfate and elemental carbon aerosols, which indicate sharp decreases from the boundary layer to the FT due to wet scavenging. Our results suggest a large, sustained source of SOA in the FT from oxidation of long-lived volatile organic compounds. We find that this SOA is the dominant component of aerosol mass in the FT, with implications for intercontinental pollution transport and radiative forcing of climate.Earth and Planetary SciencesEngineering and Applied Science