{"title":"'Trying to battle a very slow version of the system that exists outside': Experiences of waiting for healthcare in English prisons.","authors":"Sue Bellass, Krysia Canvin, Laura Sheard","doi":"10.1177/13634593231195785","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prison has been described as the ultimate form of time-punishment - a place where time is no longer a commodity for individuals to spend, but is ordered by a system which symbolises its power through the control of segments of people's lives. As such, a prison sentence epitomises the experience of waiting. Yet anticipating release is not the only form of waiting within carceral life; waiting for healthcare in its various forms also shapes people's temporal experience. Drawing on interviews with 21 people who have lived in prison, this article describes how experiences of waiting for healthcare are mediated by expectation or hope, perceptions of the relationship between behaviour and healthcare access, and the consequences of waiting for care. Constraints on the autonomy of people in prison mean that waiting for healthcare differs in important ways from waiting for healthcare in the community, and can be perceived as an additional form of punishment. The experience of waiting for prison healthcare can affect physical and psychological well-being, and can in itself be understood as a pain of imprisonment.</p>","PeriodicalId":12944,"journal":{"name":"Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11323424/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593231195785","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/8/28 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Prison has been described as the ultimate form of time-punishment - a place where time is no longer a commodity for individuals to spend, but is ordered by a system which symbolises its power through the control of segments of people's lives. As such, a prison sentence epitomises the experience of waiting. Yet anticipating release is not the only form of waiting within carceral life; waiting for healthcare in its various forms also shapes people's temporal experience. Drawing on interviews with 21 people who have lived in prison, this article describes how experiences of waiting for healthcare are mediated by expectation or hope, perceptions of the relationship between behaviour and healthcare access, and the consequences of waiting for care. Constraints on the autonomy of people in prison mean that waiting for healthcare differs in important ways from waiting for healthcare in the community, and can be perceived as an additional form of punishment. The experience of waiting for prison healthcare can affect physical and psychological well-being, and can in itself be understood as a pain of imprisonment.
期刊介绍:
Health: is published four times per year and attempts in each number to offer a mix of articles that inform or that provoke debate. The readership of the journal is wide and drawn from different disciplines and from workers both inside and outside the health care professions. Widely abstracted, Health: ensures authors an extensive and informed readership for their work. It also seeks to offer authors as short a delay as possible between submission and publication. Most articles are reviewed within 4-6 weeks of submission and those accepted are published within a year of that decision.