Breaking the Cycle? Prison Visitation and Recidivism in the UK.

In the aftermath of the 2011 UK riots, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke described the rioters as a 'feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream', and blamed the riots on the 'broken penal system - one whose record in preventing reoffending has been straightforwardly dreadful'. Reoffending or recidivism is key to the operation of the repetitive cycle of incarceration, re-entry, re-offending and re-incarceration, and represents a major policy challenge. In the UK, 75% of ex-inmates reoffend within nine years of release, and 39.3% within the first twelve months. Clarke's solution as set out in the government's "Breaking the Cycle" Green Paper is 'payment by results'; a 'radical and decentralising reform' with 'freedom to innovate' new interventions, opening 'the market to new providers from the private, voluntary and community sectors'. This project draws attention to prison visitation as an aspect of imprisonment which has already been demonstrated to improve the outcomes of released prisoners, but whose specific functionality is at present poorly understood. Through parallel methodologies, this project investigates the relationship between visitation and recidivism.

This interdisciplinary project provides a new perspective on prison visitation and its relationship to the highly topical issue of recidivism in the UK. Macro-level statistical analysis in parallel with innovative mixed-methods research into visiting facilities will identify the nature of this relationship and its socio-spatial context, informing policy towards visitation and the design of visiting spaces, and contributing to broader debates about prisoner rehabilitation and resettlement.

Research into studying recidivism finds that prison visitation is a significant factor in improving post-release outcomes; outcomes are in general much more positive for visited prisoners, and lower recidivism rates have been demonstrated across study populations and time periods. However, although the effect is widely observed, the causality is poorly understood. It is presumed that the maintenance of personal relationships and the feeling of 'connectedness' to home and community which may arise through visitation smooth reintegration after release, but this process has never been fully explored. The processes underlying persistent criminal careers remain a research gap, and very little is known about psychological change in relation to prison visits in terms of the psychological constructs which may mediate the relationship between visits and recidivism.

In order to analyse the relationship between visitation and recidivism in the UK, the project uses national level statistics from the Ministry of Justice and the Police National Computer, with analysis carried out in conjunction with Ministry of Justice Analytical Services, and also explores the experience of visitation 'on the ground' in a West Midlands prison, investigating the ways in which prisoners, visitors and prison personnel experience prison visits; specifically the psychological effects of visitation, and the ways in which spatial context affects the kind of contact which takes place between prisoners and visitors.

The project will uniquely generate both the most nuanced insights yet produced into the relationship between prison visitation and recidivism, and also critical insights into the socio-spatial context of prison visiting, to inform visitation policy and the design of more effective prison visiting spaces. It seizes an opportunity to influence policy and create impact, at a time when the the coalition government is consulting on policy reform, in particular in relation to recidivism. It represents convergence of cutting-edge debates in cognate disciplines of human geography, criminology, psychology and wider social theory, and resonates with policy development in individual prison institutions in the UK in the context of the 'Breaking the Cycle' initiative.

The timely focus of this project on the highly topical issue of reoffending will make a demonstrable contribution to society and the economy. Coinciding with active government consultation on and development of policy towards reoffending, it will assist in increasing;

(1) the effectiveness of public services and policy, by improvement of the effectiveness and sustainability of public, private and third sector organisations around prisoner rehabilitation;

(2) enhancement of social welfare, social cohesion and quality of life, by reducing recidivism and therefore delivering the social benefits associated with fewer victims of crime;

(3) the economic competitiveness of the UK, by helping reduce the estimated £7-10billion annual cost of reoffending to the UK economy (through reduced demand on the criminal justice system, fewer court cases, reduced legal aid spending, fewer Community Orders, fewer Suspended Sentences and fewer Custodial Sentences; reductions in acquisitive crime which could benefit businesses; and reduced violent crime which could deliver financial savings to other government departments such as the Department of Health).

This economic and societal impact will be Instrumental (influencing the development of policy, practice and service provision and altering behaviour towards recidivism); and Conceptual (contributing to the understanding of policy issues and reframing current debates around this issue).

The research is timed to coincide with the development of relevant policy issues. The UK Coalition Government's Ministry of Justice published the Green Paper 'Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders' in December 2010, and the 'Breaking the Cycle: Government Response' to consultation in May 2011, and to complement the drive to identify effective interventions to reduce recidivism by the end of the Spending Review period 2014/15.

Beneficiaries will be the UK Ministry of Justice, National Offender Management Service and HMP Hewell, as well as organisations working with prisoners' families and providing interventions aimed at reducing recidivism, such as 'Partners of Prisoners' and 'Action for Prisoners' Families' (members of which are part of an Advisory Group to the project). These organisations will be direct users of this research in developing their core areas of activity.