A literature-based intervention for women prisoners: preliminary findings
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Shared Reading (SR), a specific literature-based intervention, is transposable to a prison context and whether mental health benefits identified in other custodial and non-custodial settings were reported by women prisoners.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 35 participants were recruited within an all-female maximum security prison and attended one of two weekly reading groups. Qualitative data were collected through researcher observation of the reading groups; interviews and focus group discussions with participants and prison staff; interviews with the project worker leading the reading groups; and a review of records kept by the latter during group sessions.
Findings
Attendance rates were good, with nearly half of the participants voluntarily present at =60 per cent of sessions. Two intrinsic psychological processes associated with the SR experience were provisionally identified, “memory and continuities” and “mentalisation”, both of which have therapeutic implications for the treatment of conditions like depression and personality disorder.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations included the small sample, lack of control for confounding variables, and constraints imposed on data collection by the custodial setting.
Originality/value
Although more controlled research is required, the findings indicate that women prisoners will voluntarily engage with SR if given appropriate support, and that the intervention has potential to augment psychological processes that are associated with increased well-being.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Author disclosure statement: no competing financial interests exist.
This study was supported by funding from the National Personality Disorder Team and is adapted from the report “An Evaluation of a Pilot Study of a Literature-Based Intervention with Women in Prison” published by the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool. The authors would like to thank the staff of HMP Low Newton, project workers at TR, all participants who took part in the reading groups, and the generous efforts of Lindsey Dyer (Mersey Care NHS Mental Health Trust), in helping to secure the research partnership with HMP Low Newton.
Citation
Billington, J., Longden, E. and Robinson, J. (2016), "A literature-based intervention for women prisoners: preliminary findings", International Journal of Prisoner Health, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 230-243. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-09-2015-0031
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