Prison
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- How can we better understand the impact of interventions delivered in prisons and how these are sequenced alongside those in the community?
- What are the impacts – both within prison and post-release – of the physical and mental health services, and support services delivered in prisons?
- How effective are different types of technology across the estate in ensuring prisons are safe, secure, fair, inclusive and productive?
- What works to reduce levels of self-harm and self-inflicted death in prisons, for different individuals and groups? How can mentoring, peer support and staff relationships help in reducing self-harm?
- What are the levels and drivers of serious organised crime and the illicit economy in prisons, including drugs, psychoactive substances, and mobile phones?
- How do different individuals and groups perceive their experiences of legal aid services? How does this vary by the nature of their legal problem, advice and support acquired, jurisdiction and outcome?
- What are the outcomes of receiving legal aid, and how do they vary by the type of service and time at which they were provided? What are the long-term outcomes for those who access and those who do not, but are eligible for legal aid?
- How many people in prison need access to mental health services who cannot or do not access them? When is the optimal time to intervene or offer support? What are the longer-term effects of early identification and intervention?
- How can we better isolate the impact of multiple interventions within an individual's time in prison? How can we better route individuals onto appropriate programmes in a timely way?
- How can short periods in custody be made more effective at reducing reoffending? What are the effects of longer custodial sentences on crime?
- Approaches to lifetime offender management and deterrence of continuing criminal behaviour, such as Serious Crime Prevention Orders.
- What factors contribute to creating and maintaining a rehabilitative culture within prison, and how can this can impact on post-release outcomes for individuals?
- What works across our prisons to increase safety and security and reduce levels of violence?
- How and to what extent can digital technology in prisons assist staff and our understanding of the needs of our workforce?
- How can services and therapeutic interventions, such as training, peer and family relationship support, and drug and addiction services, improve post-release outcomes? What impact does prison education have on the type of work secured after release?
- What works, for whom, to support effective transition and resettlement from custody into the community? In particular, for children and young people.
- What factors contribute to an effective within-prison health service and how can we respond to changing demographics and needs? What works to support a ‘whole-prison’ approach to physical and mental health?
- How can we improve the transition from the secure estate for children and young people to the adult estate?
- How effective are different prison types, categories and functions, such as reception, training and resettlement, in meeting their core objectives?
- How do licence period, conditions, and durations affect the potential for recalls, and what are the downstream impacts on individual outcomes and risks to public protection?
- How can we effectively balance prison and secure establishment approaches to safety and security, with the delivery of other services and initiatives in prisons?
- To what extent is technology supporting and enabling individuals to rehabilitate? For example, maintaining relationships via in-cell telephony.
- How does staff diversity – in terms of protected characteristics – impact relationships with individuals in prisons, and their behaviour?
- How does intra-prison crime manifest and what are the associated costs?
- Intervention programmes for offenders who view online indecent images of children.