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Championed as an economic strategy to enhance community safety and reduce the need for formal police response to social disorder, volunteer policing groups have become a common sight in many urban centres. They represent a key element of police civilianisation, with existing research unmasking how they differ from other civilian personnel and their relationship with sworn police officers. Far less, however, is known about how marginalised groups, such as People Experiencing Houselessness (PEH) and People Who Use Drugs (PWUD), experience and perceive police volunteers. Drawing upon 50 semi-structured interviews with unhoused PWUD in Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada), we interrogate how participants experienced, perceived, and engaged with an unpaid police volunteer group responsible for addressing downtown community safety – the Lethbridge Police Service's Ambassador Watch Programme (The Watch). Our findings show participants held diverse and often conflicting perceptions of this group, with The Watch serving as 1) caring agents, 2) agents of surveillance and control, and 3) a medium for police intervention. We argue that despite some of the benefits provided by police volunteer groups, they may exacerbate harm and feelings of insecurity for marginalised people when organised and managed by police agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

19F nuclei serve as versatile sensors for detecting protein interactions and dynamics in biomolecular NMR spectroscopy. Although various methods have been developed to incorporate fluorine-containing aromatic residues into proteins using E. coli or cell-free expression techniques, similar approaches for protein production in mammalian cell lines remain limited. Here, we present a cost-effective synthetic route to obtain selectively deuterated, carbon-13 labeled fluorotryptophan and demonstrate its use in introducing 19F–13C spin pairs into carbonic anhydrase 2 and superoxide dismutase, following an expression protocol utilizing HEK cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed how correctional systems, including parole processes, work and function. As essential workers, parole officers continued to work through the pandemic, despite the upheaval to their typical occupational routines. Through these challenging times, they worked to meet the needs of parolees; yet, the challenges brought on by the pandemic caused considerable stress and created new occupational risks and vulnerabilities. Drawing on interviews with 54 community parole officers in Canada, this paper identifes these challenges and stressors. Specifically, we identify three COVID-19 related occupational stressors salient across interviewees' narratives: (1) Changes to workload, routines, and work-life boundaries; (2) Effects of decarceration policies; and (3) Navigating support and supervision in the face of added health risks and reduced ability to interact with clients. Drawing on studies of occupational stress in community correctional work, we make several recommendations for correctional services in building a resilient (post) pandemic parole system. Keywords: pandemic; parole; health; COVID-19 La pandemie de la COVID-19 a considerablement modifie la façon dont les systemes correctionnels, y compris les processus de liberation conditionnelle, se deroulent et fonctionnent. En tant que travailleurs de premiere ligne, les agents de liberation conditionnelle ont continue a travailler pendant la pandemie, malgre le bouleversement de leurs routines professionnelles typiques. Les defis poses par la pandemie ont cause un stress considerable et cree de nouveaux risques et vulnerabilites professionnels. S'appuyant sur des entre vues avec plus de 54 agents de liberation conditionnelle au Canada, cet article identifie ces defis et facteurs de stress. Plus precisement, nous identifions trois facteurs de stress professionnels lies a la COVID-19 qui ressortent des recits des personnes interrogees : (1) les changements dans la charge de travail, les routines, et les delimitations entre le travail et la vie ; (2) politiques de decarceration ; et (3) navigation dans le soutien et la supervision face a des risques accrus pour la sante et a une capacite reduite a interagir avec les clients. En nous appuyant sur des etudes sur le stress professionnel dans le travail correctionnel communautaire, nous formulons plusieurs recommandations pour les services correctionnels dans la construction d'un systeme de liberation conditionnelle resilient (apres) la pandemie. Mots cles: pandemie; parole; sante; COVID-19, Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant implications for Canada's federal parole system, and in particular the working conditions and realities of the more than 1,200 federal parole officers who [...]

Advocates and academics have increasingly called on governments to recognize anti-homeless violence as a hate crime and type of domestic extremism, representing a broader trend in Westernized countries for responding to social issues through anti-hate policies. Can these approaches protect unhoused people? Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and observation with 50 unhoused community members in a Canadian city, we outline their experiences with anti-homeless and anti-Indigenous violence. Our findings show how hate crime approaches often (1) fail to consider intersectionality, especially how class contributes to vulnerability, and (2) overlook place-based victimization and how institutions enable class vulnerability. We call for more localized analyses of hate crime and introduce the concept of 'cumulative risk of hate crime victimization' to help address intersectionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on existing literature on organizational culture in correctional work, in the current article we augment scholarship on community correctional services, specifically parole work, by considering how organizational culture, as narrated by frontline parole officers, impacts parole officers" feelings toward their work and their own health and well-being. Using the insights gained from 150 qualitative interviews with parole officers across Canada, we empirically show how participants described organizational culture as (1) imbued with social networks and hierarchies and (2) inherently reactive. We then provide insight into their perceived relationships with management. Participants explained they largely felt uncomfortable voicing concerns or making suggestions for improvements, in addition to feeling their work did not receive the respect and appreciation it deserved. We draw attention to the implications of perceptions on parole officers' feelings toward their job and sense of self, as well as the potential impact of organizational culture on parole officers' feelings of safety and emotional well-being on the job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, parole work is loaded with tensions, particularly when supervising a people convicted of sex crimes (PCSCs) who, due to their criminal history, are stigmatized and occupy the lowest rungs of the status hierarchy in prison and society more broadly. Drawing on analyses of interview data from federal parole officers (n = 150) employed by Correctional Service Canada, we interpret their perceptions and feelings about overseeing re-entry preparations and processes for the PCSCs on their caseloads. We unpack the "tensions" imbued in parole officers' internal reflections and negotiation of complexities in their efforts toward supporting client's rehabilitation efforts, desistance from crime while negotiating external factors (e.g., the lack of available programming), and being responsible for supervising PCSCs. We highlight facets of occupational stress parole officers experience, finding PCSCs may be more compliant when under supervision but may also require more of a parole officer's resources, including time and energy. We put forth recommendations for greater empirical nuance concerning parole officer work and their occupational experiences and beliefs about PCSC, particularly as related to parole officer health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2018, there was a surge of news stories about liquor store theft in Winnipeg, Canada that resulted in public and political calls for action, and ultimately led to the introduction of a range of new security and surveillance measures at government owned liquor stores. This brief news cycle provided opportunities for various social actors, politicians, and authorities to make claims about the nature of crime and society more broadly. This article analyzes recent news media coverage of liquor store theft in Winnipeg, Canada and the social construction of an ostensibly new crime trend in the city: "brazen" liquor store thefts. We employ a qualitative content analysis of news articles about liquor store theft published in local Winnipeg news media between 2018 and 2020 (n = 147). Drawing on the social constructionist paradigm, and Fishman's conceptualization of "crime waves," we argue that the framing of liquor theft via news media reflects longstanding cultural tropes and myths about crime, as well as hinting at but never fully confronting, deeply engrained colonial and racialized stereotypes. This paper contributes to our understanding of the ways putative social problems are made intelligible in the media. We demonstrate how "crime waves" are shaped by and shape dominant tropes about crime, safety, and citizenship. We argue that something as mundane as liquor theft reveals much about the historical, colonial and social roots of crime in local and national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interview data with over 50 male former prisoners in Ontario, Canada, we examine male ex-prisoners' narratives of change within prison settings. Specifically, we focus on how ex-prisoners talk about change to self and their persona, as they reflect back on both their pre-prison selves and the ways they believe prison changed them. We find that these ex-prisoners described prison as a time where they developed a more general sense of positive change. Ex-prisoners described how prison living made them "calmer," "stronger," and more "patient" overall. These descriptions stand in tension with the overall hostility of prison environments where prisoners are forced to focus on survival and basic well-being as they navigate the risks and threats of prison living. Overall, in this article, we seek to contribute to emerging discussions on positivity within prison settings, acknowledging that studying the more positive impacts of prison is a delicate yet important endeavor necessary to help better understand the experiential complexities of punishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 44% of all Europeans have high blood pressure compared to only 28% of North Americans, according to surveys in Germany, Finland, Sweden, England, Spain, Italy, Canada and the US. In addition, the average blood pressure was 136/83 in the European countries and 127/77 in Canada and the US. Blood pressure was highest in Germany and lowest in the US.