Doing Prison Research: Views From Inside

Abstract

This article is coauthored by four prisoners and a prison-researcher. In it, the authors discuss the differing aims and aspirations of research participants and scholars and their implications for doing prison research. Unlike most other accounts of prison research, the authors stress the experience of those being interviewed rather than that of the interviewer. The authors pay particular attention to the emotional nature of being part of a study and how a researcher gains participants’ trust. The authors also consider the utility of academic research and how inmate voices might be effectively harnessed to build a sustained critique of the U.S. prison system.

Expert views of peer-based interventions for prisoner health

“…The expert symposium used in this research offered a unique insight into the application of peer interventions in prison settings. Those experts participating (three of whom were ex-prisoners) were able to illuminate the realities of using peer approaches -something that is difficult for those 'outside' of the prison or criminal justice field to appreciate (Bosworth et al, 2005). Moreover, the experts provided contextual detail to peer interventions in prison.…”

Barriers to positive mental health in a Young Offenders Institution: A qualitative study

“…It is difficult without serving a sentence to understand what life in prison is actually like 23 . This research has attempted to provide further insight specifically into the life of young offenders, which up until now seems under researched.…”

Conducting Prison Research in a Foreign Setting

“…We know that conducting research in prisons is a difficult endeavor (Bosworth et al 2005;Liebling 1999a). Liebling (1999a: 163) argued that it is 'an enterprise made complex by the human nature of the researchers and the researched', in 'an intense, risk-laden, emotionally fraught environment', and that it 'makes demands on fieldworkers which are at times barely tolerable'.…”