Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK; Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Public Health. 2023 Jul;220:155-164. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2023.04.008. Epub 2023 Jun 14.
Individuals from the community who volunteer within prisons are an understudied population, despite previous research indicating the increase in involvement of the penal voluntary sector and benefits to both prisons and prisoners from effective implementation of volunteer programmes.
This study aimed to identify the characteristics, motivations and experiences of individuals who volunteer in prisons.
This was a systematic review conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines.
Peer-reviewed publications were identified through searchers of five electronic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts and Social Sciences Database) without date restrictions, supplemented by hand searching and reference checking of retrieved articles. Explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria determined study eligibility. Study quality was appraised using standard tools. A narrative synthesis was conducted, and motivations were organised according to the Volunteer Function Inventory.
Eight studies (five qualitative and three quantitative) reported a total of 764 volunteers across five countries. More than half of the included studies investigated individuals providing primarily religious volunteer support; volunteers in these studies were typically middle aged, White and female. Prison volunteers frequently described motivations related to altruistic or humanitarian values, as well as social reasons. Positive experiences of volunteering were related to personal benefits to volunteers. Negative experiences were related to a lack of support and challenges in volunteers' relationships with prison staff.
Prison volunteer programmes have the ability to improve the psychological health of prisoners and provide a range of potential benefits to penal systems and volunteers themselves, but research on individuals who volunteer in prisons is limited. Difficulties in the volunteer role could be mitigated by developing formal induction and training packages, promoting closer integration with paid prison staff and providing ongoing supervision. Interventions to improve the volunteer experience should be developed and evaluated.
尽管先前的研究表明，刑罚志愿部门的参与度增加，以及有效实施志愿计划对监狱和囚犯都有好处，但在监狱中自愿服务的社区个体仍然是一个研究不足的群体。
本研究旨在确定在监狱中自愿服务的个体的特征、动机和经历。
这是一项根据系统评价和荟萃分析首选报告项目进行的系统综述。
通过对五个电子数据库（MEDLINE、PsycINFO、Scopus、应用社会科学索引和摘要以及社会科学数据库）进行搜索，没有时间限制，同时辅以手工搜索和对检索文章的参考文献检查，确定了同行评审出版物。明确的纳入和排除标准确定了研究的资格。使用标准工具评估研究质量。进行了叙述性综合，根据志愿者功能清单组织了动机。
八项研究（五项定性和三项定量）共报告了来自五个国家的 764 名志愿者。纳入的研究中有一半以上调查了主要提供宗教志愿支持的个体；这些研究中的志愿者通常年龄在中年，白人，女性。监狱志愿者经常描述与利他主义或人道主义价值观以及社会原因相关的动机。积极的志愿服务经历与志愿者的个人收益有关。消极的志愿服务经历与志愿者与监狱工作人员关系中缺乏支持和挑战有关。
监狱志愿计划有能力改善囚犯的心理健康，并为刑罚系统和志愿者自身提供一系列潜在的好处，但对在监狱中自愿服务的个体的研究有限。通过制定正式的入职和培训包、促进与带薪监狱工作人员更紧密的融合以及提供持续的监督，可以减轻志愿者角色中的困难。应该制定和评估改善志愿者体验的干预措施。
