Full Description
This book focuses on the work of Convict Criminology at Westminster, a research group convened by the editors that, since 2016, has initiated seven programmes where university and prison-based students study, research and write about prisons.
The chapters are co-authored by students and teachers inside and outside prison, with and without incarceration experience, in the UK, Italy, Brazil and Argentina. Most chapters were presented at a Convict Criminology symposium convened by the research group at the university and three prisons in June 2023. The first section explores Convict Criminology's origins and its development at Westminster as a research activist movement that combines the knowledge and standpoints of people with and without personal experience of prison. The book then divides into five themes, reflecting partnerships between incarcerated and non-incarcerated students: prisoner-university partnerships, hope and survival, autonomy and responsibility, reforming prison and inside-out student reflections.
Insider Prison Perspectives in Europe and the Americas views all teachers and students who co-produce research on prisons as convict criminologists, whether they have experienced incarceration or not, and aims to preserve prisoners' authentic voices without academic misrepresentation. This book is important reading for Convict Criminology scholars, Social Science students and educators engaged in prison higher education.
Contents
1 Introducing Convict Criminology at Westminster; 2 The Early Origins of Convict Criminology in the United States (and Canada); PART I Prisoner-University Partnerships in Western Europe and South America 3 Doing Time, Doing Research: Notes from a CC Experiment 25; 4 Prisoner to University Pipeline Projects across Italy and the United Kingdom; 5 Another Vision: Promoting Prisoner Perspectives in Public and Scientific Debates; 6 Rethinking Incarceration: GDUCC, New Route and Convict Criminology; 7 Navigating Academic Co-production between Inside and Outside Learners; 8 Silent Censorship and the Challenges of the Prison Academy; PART II Hope and Survival 9 Maintaining Hope During Life-Sentence Imprisonment; 10 If This Isn't Crime, I Don't Know What Is: Health and Solidarity in São Paulo Prisons; 11 The Struggle for Survival in Brazilian Prisons; PART III Autonomy and Responsibility 12 Breaking the Glass: Higher Education, Research and Writing in Argentine Prisons; 13 From Security to Autonomy: Rethinking Prisoner Categorisation; 14 The Purpose of Open Prisons: A Collaborative Policy Evaluation; PART IV Reforming Prison 15 How HMP Sentence Reviews Can Improve the Rehabilitation of Those Who Offended as Young Adults; 16 Convict Criminology Policy Report: A Critical Analysis of the 'Mixed Regime' at HMP Five Wells; 17 Addressing the Discrepancies of the Rehabilitative Ideal; 18 Responding to Epistemic Injustice: Building Collective Representation from Prisoner Groups to Lead Liberation Work; PART V Inside-Out Student Reflections 19 Studying Convict Criminology with University of Westminster; 20 Peer-to-Peer Academic Mentoring; 21 Reflective Report: Working as Teaching Assistants at HMP Pentonville
