An article in the latest edition of the Prison Service Journal looks at how we can apply the lessons from recent research into wellbeing to people in prison.
The article, written by Kate Netten and Dr Rachel A. Gibson who are part of the Evidence Based Practice Team in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), starts by summarising what we know about wellbeing in the general population, that it is linked to a range of positive outcomes, including increased productivity at work, better relationships, and better health.
The researchers note that it is unsurprising that people in prison in the UK appear to have poorer wellbeing than people in the community. People in prison have limited autonomy, are separated from their family, friends and support networks, and threat and suspicion are often part of day-to-day life. The introduction of restricted prison regimes to control the spread of Covid-19 exacerbated many of these issues and we know from last week’s Chief Prison Inspector’s report that most prisons are still operating restricted regimes.
Promoting and supporting the wellbeing of people in prison is closely linked with HMPPS’ duty of care to provide safe and supportive environments. Of course, the high prevalence of pre-existing vulnerabilities across the prison population means that it is likely that all prisoners at some stage will experience difficulties maintaining positive wellbeing.
Making a difference
The authors synthesise the evidence base on wellbeing and identifies the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ adopted by the mental health charity MIND:
- Connect
- The active
- Take notice
- Keep learning
- Give
They add one more which accounts for some of the unique prison-specific factors identified in the literature, which they describe as “Build”. They then apply these six ways to wellbeing to prisoners and prison life and come up with a very helpful list (shown as an infographic in the original article) of key factors that prisons and prisoners can adopt to promoted wellbeing inside:
- Connect
- Encourage and enable trusting supportive relationships with staff
- Ensure that processes and decision making are conducted in a fair and just way (applying principles of procedural justice)
- Provide prisoners serving longer sentences with the opportunity to talk about their life and sentence, at a stage that works for them
- Encourage staff to engage well with prisoners’ families and support networks in a respectful and procedurally just way
- Enable informal support networks between prisoners
- Provide lots of contact with family and friends and support networks, ensuring that the use of technology does not replace face to face contact and is accessible, good quality and provides privacy as well as being affordable
- Develop and maximise green space within prisons and prisoners’ access to it
- Be physically active
- Provide lots of opportunity for different forms of exercise and access to the gym
- Encourage and provide a healthy diet
- Develop and maximise green space within prisons and prisoners’ access to it
- Ensure that changes to regimes are communicated to prisoners as soon as possible in a procedurally just way, to provide them with an opportunity to plan how they will manage additional time in their cells
- Provide books and televisions within cells to assist prisoners manage the passing of time
- Enable and encourage access to the prison library
- Take notice
- Encourage people in prison to try mindfulness, meditation and yoga
- Engage prisoners in out of cell music activities
- Consider interventions using animals for those who may need that form of support
- Keep learning
- Provide access to cognitive behavioural therapy
- Provide access to mindfulness based therapies
- Provide access to positive psychological interventions
- Provide access to creative activities
- Support prisoners experiencing insomnia
- Give
- Encourage participation in social and community life. Foster an interest in helping others and encourage and reinforce acts of kindness
- Enable and provide the right support to peer delivered interventions
- Encourage and support activities which enable prisoners to do good and be good
- Build
- Build opportunities to help develop optimism hope and meaning through meaningful roles activities and evidence based interventions
- Building ways to help manage the passing of time
- Provide opportunities where prisoners can have some control and make decisions for themselves to help foster and create a sense of autonomy
- Foster a safe, clean and decent prison environment where prisoners are encouraged to play a role in creating and maintaining that environment
