A failed success: the Barlinnie Special Unit.

PURPOSE: This paper aims to explore the reasons for and the subsequent longer-term impact of the closure of the Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU). DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper is both descriptive, providing an overview of the work of the BSU, and conceptual in that it argues that the limits of "prisoner rehabilitation" are observed in the closure of the BSU, which sounds a warning for other penal therapeutic communities and what it means to operate effectively. FINDINGS: The BSU which assisted long-term, difficult and violent prisoners moderate their prison behaviour and then to live non-offending lives, lost the confidence of government ministers and officials, as well as senior prison managers and, seemingly, the public, so closed after being in operation for 21 years. The impact of this has been that the Scottish Prison Service has not introduced, or attempted to introduce, a similar regime for managing and treating violent and disruptive prisoners. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: There are important lessons to be learned from the BSU experience for all who manage and work in specialist, prison therapeutic units or within prison therapeutic regimes. This includes balancing the therapeutic elements of the regime, which may involve engaging in practices which are outside the norm for custodial establishments, with those establishments' security and operational requirements, so as to not to create a disconnect between addressing offending behaviour and maintaining expected standards of wider prison conduct. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: While there have been previous evaluations of the BSU, the longer-term impact has neither been previously considered and nor has the unit's closure been considered from a penal philosophical perspective.

Alcohol Hangover Has Detrimental Impact Upon Both Executive Function and Prospective Memory.

The alcohol hangover (AH) is a state of general malaise following an evening of heavy episodic drinking when the blood alcohol concentration of the person reaches/approaches zero. The aim of the current study was to investigate what impact the AH has upon both executive function (EF) and prospective memory (PM). Previous research has shown that the AH has a detrimental effect upon cognitive abilities, including attention, working memory, and PM. The current study focused upon what impact AH might have upon both EF and related PM in the same cohort, both of which underpin everyday remembering. The current study compared an AH group (AHG) with a non-hangover group (NHG) on both EF and PM measures. Forty-one participants aged 18-29 years were tested; 19 comprised the AHG and 22 of whom made up the NHG (individuals who reported no heavy drinking the day before and did not report any significant hangover symptoms). A Verbal Fluency task measured EF and the Prospective Remembering Video Procedure measured PM. The Acute Hangover Rating Scale measured AH symptoms and severity, and a Digital Breath Analyzer Test measured their blood alcohol concentration (BAC). A Recreational Drug Use Questionnaire measured alcohol and other drug use. Anyone reporting having used an illicit substance across their lifetime (e.g., cannabis, ecstasy) or who smoked heavily were omitted from the study. Two univariate analyses of covariance compared the AHG and NHG groups on Verbal Fluency and Prospective Remembering Video Task scores (controlling for age, total alcohol units consumed per week, and the number of years spent drinking). The AHG recalled significantly fewer items on the Verbal Fluency task [F (1, 36) = 7.42, p < 0.01] and on the Prospective Remembering Video Task NHG [F (1, 36) = 14.9, p < 0.001] when compared with the NHG. Overall, it appeared that a state of AH significantly impaired both EF and PM. Given the importance of EF and PM to everyday remembering, these findings may have farther-reaching implications.

Legal Origin and Social Solidarity: The Continued Relevance of Durkheim to Comparative Institutional Analysis.

By using the classic works of Durkheim as a theoretical platform, this research explores the relationship between legal systems and social solidarity. We found that certain types of civil law system, most notably those of Scandinavia, are associated with higher levels of social capital and better welfare state provision. However, we found the relationship between legal system and societal outcomes is considerably more complex than suggested by currently fashionable economistic legal origin approaches, and more in line with the later writings of Durkheim, and, indeed, the literature on comparative capitalisms. Relative communitarianism was strongly affected by relative development, reflecting the complex relationship between institutions, state capabilities and informal social ties and networks.

Narrative beyond prison gates: contradiction, complexity, and reconciliation.

This article reports on qualitative research with Alan, a former resident of the therapeutic communities at Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Grendon, England, exploring narrative identity beyond therapy. The study emphasises the complexity inherent in the five identities on which Alan draws-the Achiever, the Liminal Man, the Lucky Man, the Puppet, and the Wise Man. We suggest that narrative identities are adapted and reconstructed as they are taken outside of the therapeutic community into a less supportive social environment. This process continues to present challenges for the ex-resident, who may struggle to reconcile the redemptive identities nurtured in therapy with condemnatory ones that have echoes of a criminal past, which may be reignited by personal and social circumstances.