Search results

Women represent approximately 6% of the prison population of Sweden (total ‐ 5000). This article presents a study of female inmates in the closed prison for women, Hinseberg, in Sweden. The study examines the inmates and staff culture on the basis of concepts such as interaction rituals, status, role conflicts and social representations. The methodology included questionnaires to all inmates, qualitative interviews with inmates and staff and observation within the prison. Among the findings, it was clear that some inmates have a higher status than others, which is linked to the type of crime committed, years of imprisonment, previous imprisonment, relations to male gang members, and charisma. So‐called ‘Queens’ rule the wings and maintain the inmates’ codes. Examples of these codes are: do not associate with the staff, do not talk too long with staff, do not be an informer, do not seek treatment programmes, and do not trust anybody. Those who challenge the codes are seen as an informer or traitor, and the culture in the prison was found to be oppressive towards women who want to seek treatment and support from staff. The study also shows that there are similarities in the staff and the inmates’ cultures. Experienced prison officers often have a significant impact on the staff culture, and among staff there are informal codes, i.e. that you should not be ‘too close’ to the inmates and do not trust the inmates. This leads to an objectifying and distancing approach in relation to the inmates. In both cultures stereotypical social representations of ‘the other’ is created, which have a negative impact on the possibilities for working with rehabilitation.

Recent ethnographic research has examined the forces that shape the working lives of prison managers, in particular, the growth of managerialism, pushing in from the outside and the deeply rooted local cultures that exist within. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the interplay of these forces in the context of a therapeutic community (TC) prison.

This paper draws upon ethnographic research conducted in two prisons and expands this using an autoethnographic approach to examine the experience of governing a TC prison.

The original study described how the dynamic interaction of globalised change and local culture created gave rise to “prison managerialism”. This notion reflects the negotiation between the global managerialism and local occupational culture. This concept is equally relevant in a TC prison, albeit it exists in an altered form reflecting the distinct characteristics of the local culture.

The approach builds upon an ethnographic study, expanding this through autoethnography. This inevitably limits the scope and perspective as it is looking at a specific context. It nevertheless highlights the distinctive challenges of managing a TC prison.

The work has implications for the management of TC prisons in practice, including human resource management such as recruitment, selection, appraisal and development of those managers.

The paper applies and revisits a recent in-depth study of prison managers, re-imagining and revising this to reflect the distinct context of managing a TC prison.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which influence male prisoners’ motivation for, and engagement in, exercise and subsequent healthy behaviours.

The first authors conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with male prisoners inside an English medium-security male prison. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, themes were identified using thematic analysis and a critical realist perspective applied to understand objective processes behind prisoners’ experiences and shared meanings of exercise and engaging in healthy behaviours in prison.

Emerging themes indicate that in the context of healthy behaviours male prisoners aspired to a masculine ideal that was characterised by a culture of either adaptive behaviours, or maladaptive behaviours. The former fostered an adaptive exercise culture which promoted psychological well-being through an autonomy-supportive environment, consequently internalising motivation and minimising perceived barriers to engaging in healthy behaviours. Conversely, a culture of maladaptive behaviours fostered a maladaptive exercise culture which led to negative psychological well-being, underpinned by external forms of motivation which emphasised barriers to engaging in healthy behaviours.

Findings emphasise the need for prisons to promote an internal perceived locus of control for male prisoners when engaging in healthy behaviours.

The authors adopt a rare interdisciplinary approach combining a psychological theory of motivation and criminological perspectives of prison culture to understand how best to minimise the impact of prisons as an institution on the psychological well-being of male prisoners.

Parkruns are weekly, free, community-based, 5 km runs around open spaces, with a growing body of research indicating their social, physical and psychological benefits. Thirty-one custodial establishments in England and Wales regularly offer parkruns. The purpose of this paper is to consider prisoners' experiences of parkrun in custodial settings, and these are discussed in the context of the evidence base regarding parkrun in the community and the wider literature on prison sport, desistance, and rehabilitation culture.

Using an inductive, qualitative approach, data was collected at three English prisons, via semi-structured interviews with 24 adult male prisoners who participated in parkrun. Data was subjected to thematic analysis.

In total, five themes reflecting positive experiences associated with custodial parkrun were identified: connection with others; healthy living; a safe and predictable exercise environment; a sense of purpose; and a re-humanising experience. Factors appearing frequently in the wider parkrun research are present in the perceptions of parkrunners in custody. In addition, factors deemed important to desistance and promoting a rehabilitation culture were also found in the experiences of the sample.

The work emphasises the successes of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and parkrun working in partnership to support custodial events. By highlighting the positive experiences of custodial parkrun on prisons and prisoners, the authors anticipate that their findings may encourage further sites to consider launching parkrun events and prompt existing sites to consider their events in line with efforts to promote desistance and a rehabilitation culture.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to explore custodial parkrun. The findings indicate that custodial parkrun supports HMPPS strategic goals by offering an opportunity for prisons to promote desistance.

This paper aims to discuss some of the obstacles to implementing policy and strategy related to health promoting prisons. It focuses on the role of prison officers and raises issues concerning their conditions of service, training and organisational culture in a situation where the prison system faces security issues, overcrowding and high levels of ill health among prisoners.

This paper emerged as a result of significant overlapping themes between two separate studies conducted by the authors. The paper draws on the authors' qualitative data from these studies.

The findings demonstrate the ambiguities and tensions in changing organisational cultures and among prison staff. Alongside the qualitative data, the paper draws on theory regarding policy implementation at the micro‐level to show how staff can block or speed up that implementation.

Prison officers are an essential part of health promoting prisons, but have been relatively ignored in the discussion of how to create healthier prisons.

The contribution that prison staff make to creating health promoting prisons has been under‐explored, yet pertinent theory can show how they can be more effectively involved in making changes in organisational culture.

There is an increased focus on making prison cultures more rehabilitative, with clear evidence that certain environmental characteristics contribute towards rehabilitation. To date, limited research has explored the rehabilitative culture in a high security prison. This study aims to measure staff and prisoner ratings of social climate and their levels of hope in such an establishment.

The research adopted a quantitative approach, using the EssenCES and State Hope Scale. Data was analysed using parametric and non-parametric tests to explore correlations/relationships between variables.

Findings indicated that higher ratings of social climate were associated with higher levels of hope. Staff rated the social climate more favourably than prisoners, and Category B prisoners had higher levels of hope than Category A prisoners. No significant correlation was found between length of time in service or custody and ratings of social climate or hope.

This paper highlights the importance of developing a positive social climate and hope, supporting the rehabilitative culture initiatives.

This paper contributes to the limited literature on social climate and hope within UK forensic settings. Furthermore, reliability testing indicates the State Hope Scale is appropriate for use with a UK forensic population, extending its application.

This article examines a range of issues associated with gangs in incarcerated settings. We begin by examining the similarities and differences between street and prison gangs, and differentiating them from other types of criminal groups. Next, we focus on the emergence and growth of gangs in prison, including patterns and theoretical explanations. Importantly, we draw theoretical linkages between differing perspectives on gang emergence and gang violence. We also present administrative and official responses to gangs in prison. Finally, we discuss the movement from prison to the street, examining the difficulties that former prisoners face when re‐entering communities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social climate of therapeutic wings and mainstream wings within one prison, to identify positive areas of social climate that can be built upon and areas for improvement.

In total, 1,054 social climate questionnaires (the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema – EssenCES) were sent to prisoner-facing staff and all prisoners within an English Category B prison holding indeterminate sentenced prisoners. Perceptions of social climate on therapeutic wings and mainstream wings and perceptions of social climate between staff and prisoners were compared.

The results showed that the therapeutic wings felt safer, there were better staff-prisoner relationships and there was better peer support among prisoners than people on the mainstream wings. Also, prisoners felt safer than staff, staff rated the overall social climate as more positive than prisoners and staff felt that they supported prisoners, but prisoners did not feel the same.

The main limitation is that the EssenCES measure does not explain the participants’ ratings of the social climate.

There is a need to transfer the principles and values of therapeutic wings to mainstream wings. In addition, there is significant room for improvement in the social climate of this prison.

This is the first study to compare the social climate of therapeutic and mainstream wings within one single prison. The research has a valuable contribution to the development of positive social climates conducive to better clinical outcomes.

This chapter will examine the basis for the teaching of integrity-based competencies to prison officers as part of their training. This training underpins the performance of prison officers in the execution of their daily workplace duties, and forms a part of the ‘Sustainable Justice’ approach to rehabilitation. At the heart of this approach is a desire to understand and explain how a prison officer can be taught to go beyond what is the basic requirement in their tasks, in order to deliver the ‘safe, secure and humane’ service required of them in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) Mission Statement. The degree of success in achieving this form of elevated integrity within the prison can be seen to impact upon the lives of the prisoners in the officer’s care, and on wider society as a whole.

This chapter will also discuss mentoring as a key form of learning within the prisons. While the world of the prison is one which is closed to many in society, the author gained insights when he worked as an ‘embedded sociologist’, working as the senior academic on the IPS recruit training programme for five years between 2008 and 2013 within Ireland’s prison system. Here, he used his academic experience to put together an award-winning academic programme with his colleagues and senior IPS training staff. This experience provided him with valuable sociological understandings into the hidden world of the Irish prison system, as well as the officers who work behind their walls.