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prisonHEALTH

Images courtesy of prison arts charity Koestler Arts.

prisonHEALTH is a group of multidisciplinary academics who deliver research to help improve health in detention.

prisonHEALTH exists to encourage high-quality scholarship, engagement and knowledge transfer regarding all aspects of mental and physical health, in and around prisons and detention sites. Prison health and safety matters morally and affects health and safety across societies, impacting upon prisoners, prisoners’ families, prison staff and communities.

Our work centres around three overlapping themes:

1. Highlighting the harms and questioning the rates of imprisonment
2. Improving conditions and treatment in detention and upon release
3. Facilitating evidence-based debates about detention across broader audiences

prisonHEALTH has members across academic subjects and faculties, providing distinctive depth and breadth of approach and expertise. It hosts multiple funded research projects. Members are currently concentrated at the University of Nottingham and benefit tremendously from expert partners at organisations including the Nuffield Trust and University of Manchester. prisonHEALTH hosts regular discussion groups with internal and external speakers. All of our activities are intended to be welcoming, supportive and informal; and provide productive spaces for discussion and reflection.

Projects

Leadership

Members

Images: Train Over Troubled Waters, HM Prison Barlinnie; and Different Walls, Different Perspective, HM Prison Littlehey; courtesy of prison arts charity Koestler Arts.

CRIMVOL

CRIMVOL, an international research network of academics interested in criminal justice voluntary sector (or non-profit) research, was nested within prisonHEALTH until 2024.

CRIMVOL was established in 2017 by Philippa Tomczak with generous financial support from the British Academy (Rising Star Engagement Award), Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship), Socio-Legal Studies Association (Seminar Competition) and the University of Sheffield Centre for Criminological Research. From 2020-2024, CRIMVOL was co-directed by Gillian Buck, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Chester.

CRIMVOL’s achievements include:

• Supporting 25 international early career voluntary sector scholars, from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Scotland. The original group included nine PhD candidates who have all since successfully graduated.
• Producing a 2019 special issue of the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice 58(3): 269-456, of nine articles, including seven lead authored by early career scholars and a promotional video.
  
• Enabling ‘The Nordic Network for Penal Voluntary Sector Research'.
  
• Enabling the working group for ‘Naming the Penal Voluntary Sector’.
  

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