Prison Service Journal 266

This special edition of the Prison Service Journal is dedicated to the research undertaken by participants on the Unlocked Graduates Leadership Development Programme as part of their Masters studies, and the often-forgotten voice of the Prison Officer.

The officers who authored these papers started on the landings in September 2020, as the world was still getting to grips with the COVID pandemic, whilst prisoners spent unprecedented time behind their cell door, and access to family visits, education, and other purposeful activity was either suspended or severely reduced.

All these papers were co-edited by some of the Prisons and Custody team at Leeds Trinity University – Professor Danielle McDermott, Associate Professor Claire Vilarrubi and Dr Sarah Waite, as well as Gemma Buckland, Director of Do It Justice.

In this edition:

• Editorial Comment
• Architectures of Harm or Architectures of Hope? The effects of carceral space on the wellbeing of prisoners, by Ayeisha Vaze
• ‘Before My Brother Came... I Lived Off Sandwiches’ Adapting the Prison Service to ensure equality for neurodiverse prisoners, by Elizabeth Davison
• Women With Learning Disabilities In Prison: What Else Needs To Be Done? A review of how the Prison Service supports female prisoners with learning disabilities, by Beth Sutherland
• Trauma Informed Practice in a Women’s Prison, by Iona Warren
• ‘Feeling Safe in an Unsafe Place’ Improving well-being through the use of Trauma-Informed spaces, by Scarlett Thomas
• Sustaining Change and Effectiveness in Prisons: A study of the perceptions, experiences and attitudes of operational prison staff towards the keyworker scheme in a young offender establishment, by Galina Ignatova
• Recommendations for an Optimised Framework on the Implementation of Key Working and Training for Key Workers in UK Prisons, by Amy Viner
• Communication is ‘Key’: Barriers to Effective Staff Communication in a Custodial Setting, by Bethany Kendle
• Use of Force and Rehabilitative Culture, by Max Baker