Navigating Mental Health in the Male Open Prison - by Ed Schreeche-Powell (Hardcover)

About the Book

Navigating Mental Health in the Male Open Prison re-examines how mental health is managed within the male open prison, focusing on the under-explored role of peer support during transfer, transition, and adaptation.

Book Synopsis

Navigating Mental Health in the Male Open Prison re-examines how mental health is managed within the male open prison, focusing on the under-explored role of peer support during transfer, transition, and adaptation. Schreeche-Powell addresses a neglected gap in penal research by investigating how 'well-meaning interventions' can produce unintended, iatrogenic harms. Through the lens of power and pain, the book critically explores how peer-led support operates at a time of heightened stress and uncertainty to support adaptation and transition to the open prison environment.

With attention to theory, lived experience, and policy development, this book offers a vital and timely analysis of peer support and how it can better support those navigating the emotional and institutional complexities of open prison life.

Review Quotes

Each year, tens of thousands of prisoners are transferred within the prison estate in England and Wales. One innovation of this system is so-called peer-led induction. In the context of Category D, or "open," prisons, Ed Schreeche-Powell deftly interrogates this practice, which harnesses the inmate community itself to perform the labor of prison governance and carceral subjectivation. While peer-led induction may outwardly appear to be a form of benign "power sharing," it can also mask novel pains of imprisonment and contain veiled frustrations. Schreeche-Powell's incisive book forces us to confront the degree to which inmates themselves should be made party to the work of prison governance. Schreeche-Powell rightly asks whether responsibilization is as benevolent as its proponents claim--or whether it might not, in fact, tend to "extend institutional control in more insidious ways.

--Dr. Victor Lund Shammas, Head of Department & Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder, Norway

Schreeche-Powell opens up analysis of both transitions, which happen daily between criminal justice, psychiatric and immigration detention institutions - yet remain woefully under-researched, and the roles of peer support therein. This fresh approach to shifting forms of penal power will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners across criminal justice and psychology.

--Professor Philippa Tomczak, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nottingham

Peer support schemes have become increasingly popular in prisons and have achieved some success. Ed Schreeche-Powell's insider research offers a more critical account of peer support in open prisons. When poorly implemented in the neo-liberal prison, such schemes can become superficial tickbox exercises, used to reduce staff costs and encourage prisoner self-regulation. Schreeche-Powell reveals that to thrive, peer support schemes need proper investment and must be situated in an empowering culture.

This book will be of interest to prison staff and policy makers as well as scholars with an interest in prisons and the transformative potential of lived experience.

--Dr Jamie Bennett, Research associate at University of Oxford and former prison governor

Ed Schreeche-Powell speaks with a confident and convincing authority as he questions the value of peer-led induction processes in an open prison. Thoughtfully written and deeply grounded in the academic literature, the book shines a useful light on an under-studied phenomenon.

--Emeritus Professor Nicola Padfield KC (Hon), Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge

Like the best criminological work, Schreeche-Powell's research raises much larger questions about mental health in prison, the purpose and value of punishment, and the future of carceral power. It is thick with context, grounded in lived experience and unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths.

--Professor Shadd Maruna, Chair of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool

This is a compellingly rigorous study of how ostensibly progressive penal initiatives, such as Peer-Led Induction, can solidify the 'pains of imprisonment' rather than improving prisoner wellbeing. Dr Schreeche-Powell's research identifies the institutional dynamics that generate and sustain manifestly deficient interventions, irrespective of their damaging consequences. This timely, deeply informed analysis of what can be done to remedy this situation should be required reading for penal policy makers.

--Professor Eugene McLaughlin, City St George's, University of London

About the Author

Ed Schreeche-Powell is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and programme leader in Criminology and Criminal Psychology at The University of Greenwich, UK, and an Associate Lecturer in Social and Forensic Psychology.