Campaigning to Improve the Quality of Food in Women's Prisons
Start date
October 2022End date
July 2024Overview
Drawing on the findings from their ESRC funded ‘Doing Porridge’ project, the investigators will engage with prison staff, policymakers, and governmental agencies to build platforms to exchange knowledge and develop practical tools to improve food in prisons. Impact will be achieved in several ways:
- Delivering knowledge exchange workshops to prison staff and policymakers.
- Providing a hub that contains up-to-date research and information on research into food in women’s prisons.
- Campaigning for change, through a charter with the prison service and voluntary organisations to improve the quality of food.
Related sustainable development goals
Team
Principle Investigator
Dr Maria Adams
Associate Professor in Criminology
Biography
I am an Associate Professor in Criminology and Programme Director for the MSc in Criminology and MSc in Social Research at the University of Surrey . I graduated with a PhD in 2017 titled: “We are living their sentence with them…” - How prisoners' families experience life inside and outside prison spaces in Scotland. Prior to my PhD, I completed my Master of Arts in Sociology at City University and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Sociology at the University of Leicester.
My research and teaching are centred on issues surrounding prisons, including food in prison and the effects of imprisonment on families of prisoners.
I am a PI on a funded ESRC project called on Doing Porridge: Understanding women’s experiences of food in prison. This is a two year project adopting qualitative approaches with 108 women who participated in this project and shared their stories on issues around food, identities, space and relationships.
From this study, we produced a short 3 minute animation, which features vignettes from three women (Billie, Jasminder and Louise) from this study. This video, produced by Nifty Fox Creative, highlights how food interlinks with the women’s identity, culture and sense of self. Please see research tab for further details.
We were also featured on the Secret Lives of Prisons podcast with a special episode on food in women's prisons.
My book titled 'Prisoners' families, Emotions and Space', co-authored 'The Impact of youth imprisonment on the lives of parents' and Beyond Porridge are now released.
Co-investigator
Professor Jon Garland
Professor
Biography
I joined the Department of Sociology in January 2013 and prior to that I worked and studied at the University of Leicester.
I'm currently a Trustee of StopHateUK, on the Board of the International Network for Hate Studies and on the Steering Committee of the British Society of Criminology Hate Crime Network. I'm a member of the British Society of Criminology, the European Society of Criminology, the British Sociological Association, and the Howard League for Penal Reform and am on the Editorial Board of Ethnic and Racial Studies. I've been the external examiner for eight doctoral theses in the areas of hate crime, rural racism, racism in sport and football disorder. I have supervised a number of research students through to completion.
Co-investigator
Dr Vicki Harman
Associate Professor in Sociology
Biography
My research interests are primarily in the areas of family life, gender, food practices and social inequalities. I am passionate about using qualitative research methods including ethnography, interviews, focus groups and creative and visual approaches to research. I am a co-director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Generations.
I am a Co-Editor of Sociology, the journal of the British Sociological Association. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Co-investigator
Professor Daniel McCarthy
Professor
Biography
McCarthy is currently Professor in Criminology in the Department of Sociology/Co-Director of the Centre for Criminology. He specialises in research in areas of policing, inter-agency working, and more latterly in the area of prison/family effects and incarceration. He also has interests in cross-national research, including emphasis on public attitudes to policing and punishment (especially the death penalty).
McCarthy's wider interests concern the effects of family contact on prisoner re-entry, the impact of prison conditions on prisoner behaviour during and beyond their sentence, as well as more generally in the application of criminological theory. He is author of 'Soft Policing: The Collaborative Control of Anti-Social Behaviour' (Palgrave, 2014), 'The Impact of Youth Imprisonment on the Lives of Parents' (with Maria Adams, Routledge, 2023) and 'Beyond Porridge' (with Maria Adams, Jon Garland, Vicki Harman, Erin Power and Talitha Brown( Waterside Press, 2024), as well as numerous articles in the fields of criminology and sociology. He has received several grants and awards including the 2014 British Society of Criminology (Policing Network) award, the 2014 Economic and Social Research Council, Future Leaders Award, as well as the 2015 Vice Chancellor's 'Researcher of the Year' Award. He also was co-awarded the Faculty Teacher of the Year Prize (2019).
Partners
- Food Behind Bars
- HMP Styal
- HMP Send
- HMP Downview
- HMP East Sutton Park.
Planned Impact
The long term aims of this project are to increase the food budget for each person in prison and provide informative platforms to educate those working in the criminal justice system, and the wider public, about the issue of food in women’s prisons.
The team will publish in two academic journals including the Prison Service Journal and Criminology and Criminal Justice. Contributions will be made to governmental reports and parliamentary briefings on improving the role of food in women’s prisons. Findings will be fed into applications for future funding, to create a further impact project project: ‘Understanding Women’s Experiences of Feeding their Children in Prison Mother and Baby Units’.
Short term outcomes
- Educate prison staff and policy makers and positively change their perceptions and attitudes towards the provision of food in prison.
- Attain the support of prison staff and policy makers to improve the quality of food and identify new and innovative ways of preparing meals on a limited budget in prison.
- Create a platform where information is accessible to a wide range of audiences to inform them about up-to-date research, policies, and resources about food in prison.
- Diversify meal provision to contribute towards improving overall health and well-being of women in prison.
Campaign to improve the quality of food in women's prisons toolkit
Discover how food shapes the experiences of women in prison
The team's animation aims to raise awareness among the public of the challenges related to food in prison and how it shapes womens' experiences.