What works across our prisons to increase safety and security and reduce levels of violence?

Background

We want to provide decent, safe and secure accommodation that supports individuals in their rehabilitation. We want to reduce levels of violence and self-harm and develop the evidence on what structures and interventions can help improve outcomes for individuals in prison.

Next steps

We can be contacted at the following email address: evidence_partnerships@justice.gov.uk.

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Areas of research interest

Related UKRI funded projects


  • Design tools for healthy prison environments

    Matter Architecture is leading a project to develop a set of design tools for improving rehabilitation through the architecture of prison environments. Together with Space Works we are connecting evidence from the field ...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: MATTER ARCHITECTURE LTD

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to develop design tools for improving rehabilitation through the architecture of prison environments, which directly addresses the question of increasing safety and security and reducing levels of violence.

  • "Fear-suffused environments" or potential to rehabilitate? Prison architecture, design and technology and the lived experience of carceral spaces

    This research investigates developments in the design of prisons, exploring the propositions that punishment is manifested architecturally, that 'good' prison design need not cost any more than 'bad' design, that archite...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Brighton

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project investigates the impact of prison architecture, design, and technology on prisoners' emotional and psychological reactions to incarceration, which partially addresses the question of increasing safety and security and reducing levels of violence.

  • The "Rehabilitation Prison": An oxymoron or an opportunity to radically reform imprisonment?

    Prisons are experiencing numerous problems: rising numbers, 'new' populations requiring specialised care (e.g. elderly men, military veterans); an ageing and dilapidated estate that spatially exacerbates effects of overc...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Bath

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project examines the extent to which a designated 'Rehabilitation Prison' can deliver on its promise of rehabilitation, which partially addresses the question of increasing safety and security and reducing levels of violence.

  • Prison Regulation, for Safer Societies: Participatory, Effective, Efficient?

    In May 2019, Dutch courts refused to deport an English suspected drug smuggler, citing the potential for inhuman and degrading treatment at HMP Liverpool. This well publicised judgment illustrates the necessity of my FLF...

    Funded by: FLF

    Lead research organisation: University of Nottingham

  • Coping with the COVID Crisis in Prison

    Across the globe, prisons have emerged as epicentres of some of the largest outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, as of 4 December, there have been 232,382 COVID-19 cases and 1,565 COVID-related deaths amo...

    Funded by: COVID

    Lead research organisation: Queen's University Belfast

  • Secondary analysis of data collected over a 20 year period by HM Inspectorate of Prisons

    This proposal uses data from over 100,000 prisoner surveys conducted by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (HMIP) over the last twenty years to examine how prisoners' reports of their treatmen...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: Royal Holloway University of London

  • MNS Disorders in Guyana's Jails, 1825 to the present day

    This project will research a critical but entirely neglected aspect of the prison system in Guyana, which certainly contributes to violence and instability: the definition, extent, experience and treatment of MNS disorde...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Leicester

  • Learning from the impact of and recovery from COVID-19 within prisons: the effect of COVID-19 management and the environment on wellbeing and harm.

    COVID-19 is a particular challenge within the prison setting given the vulnerable nature of the population (in terms of emotional dysregulation, mental health difficulties, rates of suicide, self harm and violence); the ...

    Funded by: COVID

    Lead research organisation: Swansea University