Author Archives: prestonparkboy

We’re delighted to announce that The Conversation has published a story written by our project lead, Maria Adams with Erin Power and Jon Garland about our exhibition and the art workshops. You can read the article here, with thanks to Savannah Photographic Ltd for the images used in the article.

By Amelia Hoy Covid-19 has had an unprecedented and detrimental impact on society as a whole, but prisons  have been even more susceptible to the impacts of the pandemic. As identified by the World Health Organisation (2020:1) people in prison are ‘more vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak than the general population’ due to the closeContinue reading “The Impact of Covid-19 on Food in Prison”

Report from a Roundtable Discussion held at the BSC conference Vicki Harman The British Society of Criminology conference was held at the University of Surrey 29th June-1st July 2022. The aim of the conference was to enable delegates to critically engage with research and debates within contemporary criminology at a time of rapid social andContinue reading “Food in Prison”

International Women’s Day Claire Warrington, Doing Porridge Research Fellow As James Brown told us, this is a man’s world… prisons worldwide are a very clear demonstration of this, just 4% of the total number of people in prison are women. Since the government published the Corston Report in 2007, it has been acknowledged that women and menContinue reading “International Women’s Day”

Ellie Coburn and Sophie Pavitt Prison visits can be of great importance, including in supporting rehabilitation and incentivising people in prison to maintain good behaviour. Visits can also support healthy relationships with family networks, which may improve prisoners’ chances of rehabilitation. Factors such as having a safe place to live on release and emotional andContinue reading “Prison Visits:  A meaningful space to reunite ties between prisoners and their loved ones”

By Amelia Hoy What are artistic methods? In recent decades researchers have begun to explore how artistic methods can be used to conduct research (Leavy 2014). Artistic methods involve the researcher using art-making as their primary method during research (McNiff 2011) such as visual art (e.g. painting), literary forms (e.g. writing) and performative forms (e.g.Continue reading “The Art of Qualitative Research: The Use of Artistic Methods in Prison”

Isabel Beaumont Approximately 1.6 billion people worldwide fast during Ramadan (IOPG, 2019). Muslims all over the globe will have spent the last month taking part in Ramadan. This is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and it involves a focus on prayer, reading the Qur’an, community, self-reflection, and abstinence from impure thoughts. Muslims willContinue reading “Observing Ramadan in Prison”

Isabel Beaumont and Amelia Hoy Food plays an important role in celebrating many holidays and cultural events. In prison, research has shown it can also provide an opportunity for socialising, strengthening of relationships and a way to express cultural and religious identities (Smoyer 2014; Godderis 2006). Although not everybody observes Christmas, the national focus onContinue reading “A Taste of Christmas Behind Bars “