The significance of 'the visit' in an English category-B prison: Views from prisoners, prisoners' families and prison staff

A number of claims have been made regarding the importance of prisoners staying in touch with their family through prison visits, firstly from a humanitarian perspective of enabling family members to see each other, but also regarding the impact of maintaining family ties for successful rehabilitation, reintegration into society and reduced re-offending. This growing evidence base has resulted in increased support by the Prison Service for encouraging the family unit to remain intact during a prisoner’s incarceration. Despite its importance however, there has been a distinct lack of research examining the dynamics of families visiting relatives in prison. This paper explores perceptions of the same event – the visit – from the families’, prisoners’ and prison staffs' viewpoints in a category-B local prison in England. Qualitative data was collected with 30 prisoners’ families, 16 prisoners and 14 prison staff, as part of a broader evaluation of the visitors’ centre. The findings suggest that the three parties frame their perspective of visiting very differently. Prisoners’ families often see visits as an emotional minefield fraught with practical difficulties. Prisoners can view the visit as the highlight of their time in prison and often have many complaints about how visits are handled. Finally, prison staff see visits as potential security breaches and a major organisational operation. The paper addresses the current gap in our understanding of the prison visit and has implications for the Prison Service and wider social policy

First-time and recurrent inmates' experiences of imprisonment

The authors surveyed 267 first-time (n = 102) and recurrent (n = 165) adult male inmates from two medium-security prisons in England. The findings revealed significant differences between the two groups of inmates: A relatively higher proportion of recurrent inmates were enrolled in drug treatment programs; a relatively higher proportion of first-time inmates had given up smoking and drinking, whereas more recurrent inmates had given up drugs; recurrent inmates thought about sex significantly more often, whereas first-time inmates were more concerned about being attacked; and finally, the highest proportion of recurrent inmates cited “improved health” as the best thing about being in prison, compared to the highest proportion of first-time inmates who cited “opportunity for rehabilitation.” Results were partially explained by differences in aspects of prisoners’ lives before prison and their differential exposure to imprisonment, and not by prison security, prison regime, or sentence variables. The findings can inform the development of prison regimes and policies that facilitate adjustment to imprisonment