MNS Disorders in Guyana's Jails, 1825 to the present day

该项目将研究圭亚那监狱系统中一个关键但完全被忽视的方面，这肯定会导致暴力和不稳定：囚犯和与他们共事的人中的MNS障碍的定义、程度、经历和治疗。英国和圭亚那的一个团队将从经济和社会史和犯罪学角度共同创建新的学术视角，并利用这些视角编制与政策相关的材料，内容涉及囚犯和狱警的心理健康、认知障碍、成瘾和药物滥用。这项研究将与该项目的合作伙伴--圭亚那监狱管理局分享，该机构渴望变革，并正在寻求在前所未有的刑事危机期间实现囚犯福利、健康和教育方面的变革。该项目不仅将在这一领域树立一种新的跨学科工作方式，而且将对囚犯和狱警的福祉和教育以及囚犯的改过自新产生影响。该项目的视角是历史、社会和文化。它涵盖了从1825年英国人在乔治敦开设了殖民地的第一座监狱到圭亚那1966年独立后的今天。它植根于这样一种假设，即今天监狱中存在的MNS障碍可以追溯到英国殖民时期，而且它们不能与该国作为雇用和控制土著人民(美洲印第安人)、奴役非洲人和契约印度劳工的糖业殖民地的历史割裂开来。帝国制造了特殊形式的创伤，塑造了人口和宗教习俗，并建立了人口控制模式，包括通过制度化。我们试图通过将新的历史工作与关于圭亚那独立以来的新的犯罪学研究联系起来，使这一历史积极地成为变革进程的一部分。我们尤其感兴趣的是评估和评价对圭亚那监狱中土著、非洲和亚洲裔多族裔和多宗教人口中患有MNS障碍的人的不同定义和管理制度。圭亚那资源严重短缺；就国内生产总值而言，它是南半球第二贫穷的国家(仅次于海地)。继该国最大的监狱在2017年的一次监狱骚乱中被摧毁后，圭亚那的监狱系统面临的挑战在加勒比地区是前所未有的。这一项目既紧迫又及时。研究小组将对殖民时代和1966年后的档案和记录进行研究，并对监狱工作人员、监狱附近社区和囚犯家属进行重点小组、讲习班和访谈。该项目旨在加强学术界、实践者和公众对监狱背景下的MNS障碍的了解；在学者、实践者和政策制定者之间建立牢固的关系；并鼓励关键行为者之间的行为改变。它的影响将是加强监狱安全，改善刑事司法行政，尊重囚犯的福祉、权利和平等，同时保护公众免受被视为“危险”的人的伤害。

This project will research a critical but entirely neglected aspect of the prison system in Guyana, which certainly contributes to violence and instability: the definition, extent, experience and treatment of MNS disorders among inmates and the people who work with them. A UK-Guyana team will co-create new academic perspectives from Economic and Social History and Criminology, and use them to produce policy-relevant materials on mental health, cognitive impairment, addiction and substance abuse among prisoners and prison officers. The research will be shared with the project's partner, the Guyana Prison Service, which has an appetite for change and is seeking to effect transformations in prisoner well-being, health and education, during a time of unprecedented penal crisis. The project will not only model a new interdisciplinary way of working in this field, it will impact on prisoner and officer well-being and education, and on the rehabilitation of inmates. The project's perspective is historical, social and cultural. It covers the period from 1825, when the British opened the colony's first jail in Georgetown, to the present day, following Guyana's independence in 1966. It is rooted in the hypothesis that the existence of MNS disorders in jails today can be traced back to the British colonial period, and that they cannot be disconnected from the country's history as a sugar colony that employed and controlled indigenous people (Amerindians), enslaved Africans and indentured Indian labourers. Empire created particular forms of trauma, shaped demography and religious practice, and instituted patterns of population control including through institutionalisation. We seek to render this history actively part of the process of change, by connecting new historical work to new criminological research on Guyana since independence. We are especially interested in assessing and evaluating different definitions and management regimes for people afflicted with MNS disorders in Guyana's jails, among the colony/ country's multi-ethnic and multi-religious population of indigenous, African and Asian descent, and including women and juveniles.Guyana has serious resource constraints; in terms of GDP it is the second poorest country (after Haiti) in the southern hemisphere. Following the destruction of the country's largest jail during a prison riot in 2017, the challenges facing Guyana's prison system are unparalleled in the Caribbean region. This project is urgent and timely. The research team will conduct research on colonial-era and post-1966 archives and records, and conduct focus groups, workshop and interviews with prison personnel, communities living near prisons, and prisoners' families. The project seeks to enhance academic, practitioner and public understanding of MNS disorders in the jails context; build robust relationships between academics, practitioners and policy makers; and stimulate behavioural change among key actors. Its impacts will be to enhance prison security, improve the administration of criminal justice, and respect prisoner well-being, rights and equality, whilst protecting the public from people deemed 'dangerous'.