Topic description and stories

‘I bottle it up’: the emotions of solitary confinement

01 Apr 2019

New research will set out to examine the emotional world of solitary confinement. Dr Ben Laws from the Institute of Criminology discusses his project...

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Muslims leaving prison talk about the layers of their lives

15 Aug 2018

The Lammy Review in 2017 drew attention to inequalities among black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the criminal justice system. It also flagged...

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Six Cambridge academics elected to prestigious British Academy fellowship

20 Jul 2018

Six academics from the University of Cambridge have been made Fellows of the prestigious British Academy for the humanities and social sciences.

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Releasing a better version of me: the power of education in prison to change lives

16 Jan 2017

A pioneering project to teach university students alongside prisoners, so that they learn from each other, has proved remarkably successful. The...

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Custody officer assistant

System is failing to prevent deaths following police custody and prison, study suggests

13 Dec 2016

Poor access to health care and confusion over post-detention care may have contributed to more than 400 deaths following police custody and prison...

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Prisoner and guard.

Inside information: Students and prisoners study together in course that reveals the power of collaborative education

26 Apr 2016

A highly innovative project in which Cambridge students and prisoners studied together at a Category B prison in Buckinghamshire has broken down...

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Staff who understood the impacts of prison environments, and attempted to proactively ameliorate those impacts upon prisoners, were more likely to be effective in preventing deaths.

Staff-prisoner relationships are key to managing suicide risk in prison, say researchers

03 Jul 2015

In the wake of a recent increase in prisoner suicide, new research commissioned by the Harris Review on the views and experiences of prison staff...

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Alone. Banner image via Voices for Dignity

“Without paperwork I am nothing. I do not appear to exist”

11 Mar 2014

Researchers from the Institute of Criminology reveal that many women trafficked into the UK who commit crime under duress are imprisoned without...

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Crime and punishment: a 19th-century love affair

30 Apr 2013

The violence of everyday life in 19th-century Europe – including murder most foul, handsome bandits, wicked women and huge crowds at executions – is...

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Professor David Feldman

'Votes for Prisoners? Democracy and the European Convention on Human Rights'

29 Nov 2012

Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights holding that the UK's blanket ban on voting by convicted prisoners violates Article 3 of Protocol 1...

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Jason Warr

Filmed behind bars

07 Jul 2012

For thousands of people in Britain, prison is a grim reality. For the rest of us, it holds a fascination that is all too often simply prurient. Jason...

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Does Prison Work?

Security 'obsession' hampering prison debate

26 Oct 2011

Public and government obsession with security is hampering a rational, open debate about prison policy, the former governor of Brixton Prison told a...

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