Doing Porridge: Understanding Women's Experiences of Food in Prison

As highlighted by the Farmer Review in 2019, there is still a pressing need to understand the experience of women who are in prison. Women prisoners are likely to be drawn from more disadvantaged backgrounds and more likely to enter prison with experience of drug and/or alcohol dependency, domestic violence and self-harm. Food forms an important part of daily life in prisons. However, research has yet to provide a detailed exploration of food and the experience of eating in women's prisons in England. This study will provide an important opportunity to hear women's voices, in relation to food in prison and by doing so, will provide a window into life in women's prisons more generally.

The proposed research analyses women's experiences of food in prison using a range of qualitative research methods including observations, interviews, reflective diaries and art workshops. These will provide insight into women's perceptions of food in prison, with the aim of exploring the connections of food in situated spaces; the use of food in relation to consumption and preparation; and the extent to which ethnic and cultural needs are catered for in practice.

The main contribution of this project will be to apply an intersectional perspective to understanding the dynamics of food, in relation to conceptualising issues of social control; agency; and power in women's prisons. This study will look deeper at the intersections of gender, race and social class, with regards to how these have influenced the use of food in prison: for example, by looking closer at the essence of day-to-day prison life, food practices and daily diets. Fieldwork will take place in four women's prisons: HMPs Styal, Send, East Sutton Park and Downview. All four prisons have been selected because they are distinct from one another in terms of their location, capacity, architecture, length of sentences as well as the facilities available for the preparation and consumption of food. They also have differing governing practices and diverse ways of managing the provision of food.

Twenty women and five members of staff will take part in interviews in each location. The women from our study will also be invited to participate in an art workshop and to complete a reflective diary of their experiences of food in prison. This will provide rich multi-sensory findings from a total of eighty women in four prisons. We will conduct one-to-one interviews with women twice during the fieldwork. This will be at the beginning as well as after delivering the art workshop. During data collection, we will also be conducting observations as well as completing fieldwork diaries.

To celebrate the women's participation in the workshop, we will hold an exhibition to display their artwork for the public. We will manage and coordinate the planning of the exhibition in partnership with Koestler Arts, while Koestler Arts have agreed to set 'food' as a theme within their annual competition, leading to ongoing impact from the research. Within this context the study will make a practical contribution to knowledge by campaigning to improve the quality of food in women's prisons. We will develop a practitioner toolkit which will be disseminated to prison governors. Furthermore, we will share our findings with policymakers and practitioners to help with campaigning for change in the context of the quality of food in prison. This research will contribute to academic knowledge on food, women and prisons, in which we will draw out key themes in relation to: social control, agency as well as resistance. The findings from the project will be disseminated at national and international conferences in the fields of criminology and sociology.