This paper is based on qualitative data gained from young working-class men with disabilities on the margins of Alternative Provisions (APs), located within a medium sized local authority in England. Young males are disproportionately placed into APs intended for students who have been excluded from school and/or who would otherwise not receive suitable education. Research suggests that most of the students enrolled in alternative forms of schooling achieve poor life outcomes with high rates of prolonged unemployment, homelessness and criminal activity. Supporting these young people has also largely focused on the use of professional interventions, with the value of young disabled men’s friendships receiving little research attention (Johnston & Bradford, 2019). This paper contrasts the young men’s experiences of professional service interventions with the complementary functions of social and psychological capital embedded in their own friendship networks. Our data identifies instances of friendship, offering young men the support necessary to endure problems related to school exclusion, poverty and unemployment as well as to collectively develop effective coping strategies which enhance well-being and agency. There are implications here for how young people facing risks associated with different forms of exclusion can best be supported. We suggest that young people themselves are important agents in providing mutuality and solidarity. The paper also emphasises that the value of friendship networks should be acknowledged by academics investigating school exclusion and be a key part of the work undertaken by professionals and agencies working with marginalised young people.

Craig Johnston & Simon Bradford (2019) Alternative spaces of failure. Disabled ‘bad boys’ in alternative further education provision, Disability & Society, 34:9-10, 1548-1572

‘Older’ prisoners are typically defined as any individual over the age of fifty. Limited literature examining this group of prisoners currently exists, and while there is an agreement and statistical evidence that shows this population is on the rise, outside of their healthcare demands, there has been relatively little academic interest shown. While healthcare is undoubtedly a major consideration to make when working with this group, other concerns like physical environment, purposeful activity and managing relationships cannot be ignored. This paper outlines a PhD research project based at HMP Stafford (a male Category C sex offender prison, where the majority of the population falls within the definition of ‘older’ prisoner) that aims to explore the actual needs of older prisoners rather than the perceived and stereotyped picture the general public and media create of older people in custody. The paper discusses the methodology and challenges faced by the researcher in carrying out such research, in which participants have been invited to share their lived experiences of being an older prisoner by reflecting on their time in custody, challenges they’ve faced and their relationships with those responsible for taking care of them. This lived experience research has then been compared to the understanding that these ‘care-takers’ have of older prisoners, by carrying out interviews both with prison staff who are involved with the day-to-day operation of the establishment and senior management who make regime decisions. The paper will then provide some preliminary findings from the research carried out so far. The conclusions and recommendations drawn from this project will not only be relevant to HMP Stafford, but the prison system in England and Wales as a whole and better support the understanding of, and response to, this particular group of prisoners.

The combination of high prison populations and a high prevalence of mental health issues within such populations entails the likelihood that mental health issues are also likely to be widespread amongst the population of previously imprisoned people now living in the community. Therefore, the intersection of mental health and re-entry, particularly the release and reintegration into the community, seems likely to have wide implications and a far-reaching impact into people’s post-prison lives. However, most research on mental health in criminal justice populations has been undertaken from a medical perspective with a focus on treatment, or from a practitioner perspective with a focus on service delivery and compliance. By conceptualising mental health issues in a way that moves beyond medical diagnoses or a service-focus, this research aims to highlight the importance of acknowledging the complexity of the role of mental health in reintegration post-imprisonment. Based on in-depth qualitative semi-structed interviews with people with experience of imprisonment and mental health distress, I set out provisional findings for understanding how mental health and re-entry interact and how people manage these inter-related challenges in a way that can potentially improve post-prison support and experiences for those who have experienced imprisonment, re-entry, and mental health issues.

People convicted of terrorism are often subject to exceptional punishment with specific legal burdens that do not apply to other offenders. In Australia, this includes a presumption against parole and complex post-release conditions, despite terrorism offenders having relatively low recidivism rates. In this paper we argue that contemporary terrorist offenders are occupying a liminal space between national security and traditionally-defined criminality that has placed them on the fringe of established criminological knowledge about rehabilitation and desistance. We contend that criminological theory can offer insights into the offending and desistance pathways of people convicted of terrorist offences within the broader carceral system and advocate for stronger practices of rehabilitation and desistance, pushing back against the politicisation and dehumanisation that leads to exceptional punishment. Based on the first research interviews conducted with people who have been convicted of terrorist offences in Australia, we detail their experiences of the exceptional legal burden placed upon them and how the exceptional laws that are claimed to mitigate recidivism may in fact create circumstances for reoffending. Notably, one jurisdiction in Australia has implemented a novel intervention program that is demonstrating significant successes in rehabilitation and we will demonstrate how criminological underpinnings can further inform practice with terrorism offenders.