Colonization of diatoms in and on porcine bone substrate and considerations of diatom ecology for forensic science

The presence of diatom algae in bone marrow has been used as forensic evidence of drowning for several decades; however, these studies are based on known or suspected recent drowning events. This study addresses the potential for diatoms to enter the bone marrow of skeletal remains, that is, de-fleshed long bones post-mortem. In laboratory and field experiments, bones were either inflicted with two access points by a cut and acid pitting or left intact. The bones were submerged in water for at least 1 week and up to 3 months. Samples of the bone surface and marrow were inspected for diatoms. The analysis considered the time required for diatoms to enter marrow and whether genus characteristics like size or mobility affect entry. The presence of an access point influenced diatom entry in that bones without an introduced access point had zero to one diatom present in the marrow, whereas a bone with an access point had >150 diatoms present in the marrow. The results of both laboratory and field phases suggest that diatoms will reliably colonize bone in as quickly as 1 week, establishing and maintaining communities for at least 3 months. However, the bone surface assemblages differ from the source community. Bone marrow displayed even more restrictive access to diatom colonization, resulting in communities dominated by small raphid diatoms. Based on these findings, we suggest some caveats on the use of diatoms as trace evidence in forensic science with recommendations for future avenues of research.     

Staging incapacitation: the corporeal politics of hunger striking

This essay examines the ongoing hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Through an analysis of news media compiled by journalists reporting on the timelines of the strikes, and various prisoner testimonials, I contextualize how hunger striking has been historically understood to be grounds for emancipation from, and resistance to, state violence and carceral techniques. I further present an analysis of the 1981 Irish death fast to consider how prisoners’ resistance to corporeal wholeness comes to function as a viable form of political self-expression. Focusing on both the state’s suppression of embodied protest as well as the weaponization of the prisoner’s body, I argue that although geopolitically different, in both the Guantánamo and Irish strikes, forms of corporeal incapacitation function as the mechanisms through which protest and discipline register.     

Private health insurance in Uganda: bridging the gap in public health provision?

This article discusses two organisations currently providing voluntary private health insurance in Uganda and considers their contributions to bridging the gap in provision in the country's public health sector.     

The Paradox of Probation: Community Supervision in the Age of Mass Incarceration

After four decades of steady growth, U.S. states' prison populations finally appear to be declining, driven by a range of sentencing and policy reforms. One of the most popular reform suggestions is to expand probation supervision in lieu of incarceration. However, the classic socio‐legal literature suggests that expansions of probation instead widen the net of penal control and lead to higher incarceration rates. This article reconsiders probation in the era of mass incarceration, providing the first comprehensive evaluation of the role of probation in the build‐up of the criminal justice system. The results suggest that probation was not the primary driver of mass incarceration in most states, nor is it likely to be a simple panacea to mass incarceration. Rather, probation serves both capacities, acting as an alternative and as a net‐widener, to varying degrees across time and place. Moving beyond the question of diversion versus net widening, this article presents a new theoretical model of the probation‐prison link that examines the mechanisms underlying this dynamic. Using regression models and case studies, I analyze how states can modify the relationship between probation and imprisonment by changing sentencing outcomes and the practices of probation supervision. When combined with other key efforts, reforms to probation can be part of the movement to reverse mass incarceration.