Prison research support group

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Comment by Fabio on January 29, 2012 at 13:50

Hi Dominic, 

thank you for this! 

I am working in a prison as well but that seems not being helping (so far). 

If you are recording that's brilliant! I think the main issue is to actually "bargain" the access and the methodology with the people who are in charge. 

I am not sure whether each prison have different rules about this but the person mentioned the "prison management rule" and I can't get hold of it anywhere on internet or understand what this is about.

Great to know about other successful stories! :)

Fabio

Comment by Gergely Fliegauf on January 29, 2012 at 10:06

There is a brilliant evidence how important recording could be: the New Mexico prison riot's events were documented by the attorney general by taping, and later the transcripts were analyzed and published. The riot resulted 33 deaths, mainly sexual offenders and prison snitches. Only some staff members refused to give an interview. Bert Useem wrote on this an excellent article.

Comment by Dominic Kelly on January 28, 2012 at 23:15

I work in a prison myself, and I haven't found it to be a problem so far. Of course, it helps to personally know those in charge as well as the officers.

I make sure all the officers in the study are aware of what they are signing up to and I give them regular feedback on the findings.

I also find the best findings some from field notes during work-shadowing.

Comment by Maggie Hall on January 28, 2012 at 20:19

Hi all - I was able to record the interviews with prisoners on a small hand held recorder. I think establishing empathy and really listening is very difficult when you are writing notes. I did write some but just to record my impressions of the physical environment.

As to the situation in the Uk - I would contact one of the more experienced researchers like Alison Liebling or Ben Crewe.

Nice to hear about all these different prison researchers. It's a challenging area but so much work needs to be done!

Happy New Year

Maggie

Comment by Gergely Fliegauf on January 28, 2012 at 15:45

Yes, mainly in Hungary. Doing research in prisons is amazing, I totally agree, however to share your findings with prison officials or state officials is quite disturbing since they can not implant your findings into their daily practice and sometimes they can feel themselves embarrassed.

Once I met a lady from Malawi, she worked in a prison, and she was totally amazed on the Hungarian conditions. I can tell you that the Hungarian situation is not the worst in Europe, but it is under average.

I am happy to see someone also researching those countries.   

Comment by tina.lorizzo on January 28, 2012 at 15:07

it has been an amazing experience. I have worked as a lawyer for legal aid institute in maputo, the capital city. and 1 year ago i moved to Cape town in South Africa to do the LLM. I am just at the end of the master, two more weeks...only editing editing editting......two months ago I went to Maputo for the field work......and the Minsitry Justice gae me the authorization to do the study in 2 prisons, interviewing pre-trial detainees, officials and directors. I am hoping to go to Uganda for few months working with NGO and come back here to do the Phd!!! So are you doing the research in Hungary? 

Comment by Fabio on January 28, 2012 at 15:04

Thanks for the replies. I understand that generally bringing a recorder in prison is not allowed for different reasons. I guess there still might be a chance to arrange things in some way perhaps making clear what the use of the info and the alike will be. thanks for your support! I hope someone with some experience within the UK might help/shade some light on the policy in this country! (hand writing..argh!)

Comment by Gergely Fliegauf on January 28, 2012 at 14:57

Tina,

your research sounds interesting, never heard on the situation of prison in Mozambique. 

Comment by Gergely Fliegauf on January 28, 2012 at 14:56

Fabio,

this is strange. I thought this would be a practice only in Hungary that you were not allowed to record your interview. I did since I am a prison officer. So lets engage yourself truly with the prison service!   

Comment by tina.lorizzo on January 28, 2012 at 14:50

I did my research in two prisons in Mozambique and although quite difficult to do research in the prison field, i did not have problem in recording the interviews. however it is important to secure confidentiality and anonymity. I did let sign a letter to ensure their rights and mine. Hand written option will be hard when you need to analyse the findings. I will suggest that you tell interviewersthat you give copy to them.    

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