Blog Archive for September 2020

In this blog, Dr David Scott offers a critical appraisal of the legacy of the Woolf Report. The blog argues that whilst Woolf was heralded at the time of publication, it is a dated and limited approach to the penal crisis and the activists and practitioners looking for radical change should engage with the voices of prisoners, ex-prisoners and the families of prisoners in the present struggle. 

In this article, Dan McCulloch critically explores claims of a relationship between participatory visual research methods and 'voice'. Dan McCulloch is a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at The Open University.

We take prisons for granted - but how effective are they? Are there better alternatives? In a new BBC ideas video, David Scott and Deborah H. Drake ask what a world without prisons would be like.

Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski considers the arguments for educating prisoners. Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski is a PhD candidate in Criminology, Associate Lecturer, and Regional Manager in the Students in Secure Environments team, at The Open University.