Prisons Research beyond the Conventional

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

In 1967 Stan Cohen and Laurie Taylor converted their evening sociology classes with prisoners in Durham’s high security wing into a prisoner-led research project. These discussions led to their classic book, Psychological Survival: The Experience of Long-Term Imprisonment. Their collaborative and phenomenological approach to prisons research was based on mutual trust, intellectual curiosity, and resistance to the limitations and indignities of ‘standard test-driven psychological research’. Many of these constraints and limitations continue to restrict the terms on which we can conduct our research. This workshop explores some of the unconventional, participatory and exploratory methods used in recent research projects in several prisons. These methods are aimed at building trust with participants, demonstrating respect, and encouraging authentic dialogue. Many evolved organically from our engagement with prisoners and ex-prisoners engaged in active efforts at reform. We argue that in order to generate accurate description, our methods must reach beyond the conventional, including being fully human. Disclosure and friendship are regarded as risks by those who police and grant access to the field. So how do we do authentic, and ethically acceptable, prisons research?

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 41. Prisons and Jails

Individual Presentations

• Getting in Deep: Affirmative Social Science and Trusting Participants in a High Security Prison - Helen Arnold, University Campus Suffolk; Alison Liebling, Cambridge University

• Humanizing the Survey: Making Sense of Prison Life Beyond Numbers - Katherine Auty, Cambridge University; Alison Liebling, Cambridge University

• ‘Our voices challenge the prison…and ourselves’: Explorations in epistemological research, institutional hegemony, and participatory governance in prison - Jason Warr, Cambridge University; Bethany Schmidt, Cambridge University

• Freedom within bars: maximum security prisoners’ negotiations of identity through rap - Richard Bramwell, Cambridge University