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Coping with COVID in Prison: The Impact of Prisoner Lockdown Findings from a peer-led research study - Departmental/Public Seminar by Professor Shadd Maruna (QUB)
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We are delighted to welcome Professor Shadd Maruna (QUB) to UCC to present a Departmental/Public Seminar:
Coping with COVID in Prison: The Impact of Prisoner Lockdown. Findings from a peer-led research study. Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 13.00-14.30, Shtepps, Student Hub 2nd Floor, UCC.
ALL welcome!
Funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, 'Coping with Covid in Prisons', offers one of the most comprehensive studies of life in prison during the pandemic internationally. The project drew on an innovative peer-led methodology developed by ex-offender-led charity User Voice in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast.
Nearly 100 serving prisoners were trained in research methods to survey their peers across the UK prison estate. Over the 18-month project, they completed over 1,400 surveys with fellow prisoners across 11 prisons, including the women’s estate, young offender institutions, and all categories of prisons.
The study found amongst other things, that prolonged isolation and the simultaneous reduction in support services resulted in widespread deterioration of mental health and the erosion of the rehabilitative function of prisons. The argument can be made that the ramifications of prison lockdowns for future prison reform efforts may be even more profound. If a deadly pandemic is not enough to instigate a reimagining of the role of prison in society, it is unclear what could.
Shadd Maruna is Professor of Criminology at Queen’s University Belfast.
His research focuses on desistance from crime and implications for prisoner reintegration and he is the author or editor of seven books, including, most recently, The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. His book Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives was named the Outstanding Contribution to Criminology in 2001. Finally, he received the inaugural Research Medal from the Howard League for Penal Reform for his research’s impact on real-world practice in the criminal justice system.