617 research outputs found
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Privatising public prisons: Penality, law and practice
In October 2011, HM Prison Birmingham was transferred from public to private management, under G4S. This was the first time that an existing operational public prison was privatised in the UK. The move marked the third and most far reaching phase of prison privatisation policy, and was intended both to increase quality of life for prisoners, from a low baseline, and to reduce costs. Prior to 2011, private prisons had all been new-builds. Private contractors had thus far avoided the additional challenges of inheriting a pre-existing workforce and operating in old, often unsuitable, buildings. This article reports on a longitudinal evaluation of the complex process of the transition, and some outcomes for both staff and prisoners. As an experiment in the reorganisation of work and life in a ‘traditional’ public sector prison, the exercise was unprecedented, and has set the agenda for future transformations. The example illustrates the intense, distinctive and rapidly changing nature of penality as it makes itself felt in the lived prison experience, and raises important questions about the changing use of State power. The MQPL, G4S, National Offender Management Servic
Using a prisoner advisory group to develop diversity research in a maximum-security prison
This paper addresses groupwork processes with a group of prisoners advising a research project in a maximum-security prison in England. The research project (Appreciative Inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield. RES-000-22-3441) was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and lasted 9 months. The research explored the experiences of prisoners in diverse minority groupings and the strategies of the prison to accommodate the complex needs of these groups. The Prisoner Advisory Group (PAG) was made up of representatives from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) prisoners; older prisoners (over 60s); Disabled prisoners (with physical disabilities, learning difficulties; and mental health problems); Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender prisoners; and prisoners affiliated to Faith groups. It met regularly during the research. The paper considers the forming norming and performing aspects of establishing an effective participant voice in a prison-based project. It considers the contribution of the PAG to developing a research strategy that engaged prisoners in the research. It reflects on the nature of ‘participative research’ in general and whether such research is possible within a high-security prison environment
Static Gravitational Global Monopoles
Static solutions in spherical symmetry are found for gravitating global
monopoles. Regular solutions lacking a horizon are found for , where is the scale of symmetry breaking. Apparently
regular solutions with a horizon are found for 1/\sqrt{8\pi} \le \eta \alt
\sqrt{3/8\pi}. Though they have a horizon, they are not Schwarzschild. The
solution for is argued to have a horizon at infinity.
The failure to find static solutions for
is consistent with findings that topological inflation begins at .Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
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Staff-prisoner relationships, staff professionalism, and the use of authority in public- and private-sector prisons
Prison privatization has generally been associated with developments in
neoliberal punishment. However, relatively little is known about the
specific impact of privatization on the daily life of prisoners, including
areas that are particularly salient not just to debates about neoliberal
penality, but the wider reconfiguration of public service provision and
frontline work. Drawing on a study of values, practices, and quality of life
in five private‐sector and two public‐sector prisons in England and Wales,
this article seeks to compare and explain three key domains of prison
culture and quality: relationships between frontline staff and prisoners,
levels of staff professionalism (or jailcraft), and prisoners' experience of
state authority. The study identifies some of the characteristic strengths
and weaknesses of the public and private prison sectors, particularly in
relation to staff professionalism and its impact on the prisoner experience.
These findings have relevance beyond the sphere of prisons and
punishment.This is the final version. It was first published by Wiley at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lsi.12093/abstrac
QOBJ modeling: A new approach in discrete event simulation
This paper deals with a new discrete event simulation modeling concept, calledqobj, which comes from two well-known paradigms:objects andqueuing networks. The first provides important conceptual tools for model organization, while the second one allows for nice visualization of models' internal state and processes. Thanks to the integration of these two paradigms, theqobj concept allows the suppression of several dichotomies characterizing current simulation modeling approaches. For instance,qobj allows the description of system elements which are both mobile and able to do processing, and allows the dynamic instantiation of static and mobile elements during simulation. The design of lift group models for an industrial project illustrates the main features of theqobj concep
The Role of Education in AIDS Prevention
The severity of the current AIDS epidemic, combined with the lack of successful biological interventions, necessitates an active educational program as the primary intervention strategy. Health education theories abound, but relatively little definitive application of these theories has been made to the issues involved with HIV transmission: sexual behavior and the sharing of intravenous drug apparatus. Significant behavior changes have occurred in some people, but the consistency of the behavior change may be difficult to sustain. Thus, the authors suggest that health education should be delivered repeatedly in culturally acceptable language and format, by community leaders, and through many different approaches (churches, schools, media, and so on). Finally, because of the limited definitive evidence regarding these approaches with respect to AIDS, considerable resources should be provided to evaluate these strategies and to revise programs on the basis of the evaluations
Critical Collapse of a Complex Scalar Field with Angular Momentum
We report a new critical solution found at the threshold of axisymmetric
gravitational collapse of a complex scalar field with angular momentum. To
carry angular momentum the scalar field cannot be axisymmetric; however, its
azimuthal dependence is defined so that the resulting stress energy tensor and
spacetime metric are axisymmetric. The critical solution found is
non-spherical, discretely self-similar with an echoing exponent of 0.42 (+-
4%), and exhibits a scaling exponent of 0.11 (+- 10%) in near critical
collapse. Our simulations suggest that the solution is universal (within the
imposed symmetry class), modulo a family-dependent constant phase in the
complex plane.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Black Hole Critical Phenomena Without Black Holes
Studying the threshold of black hole formation via numerical evolution has
led to the discovery of fascinating nonlinear phenomena. Power-law mass
scaling, aspects of universality, and self-similarity have now been found for a
large variety of models. However, questions remain. Here I briefly review
critical phenomena, discuss some recent results, and describe a model which
demonstrates similar phenomena without gravity.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; Submission for the proceedings of ICGC 2000 in
the journal Preman
A no-go on strictly stationary spacetimes in four/higher dimensions
We show that strictly stationary spacetimes cannot have non-trivial
configurations of form fields/complex scalar fields and then the spacetime
should be exactly Minkowski or anti-deSitter spacetimes depending on the
presence of negative cosmological constant. That is, self-gravitating complex
scalar fields and form fields cannot exist.Comment: 8 page
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