Prisoner-led movements and the democratisation of prisons

Prisons are inherently undemocratic spaces, with incarcerated people losing control of whole swathes of their lives. In recent years, prison regimes have introduced ‘democratic’ mechanisms with the aim being to give incarcerated people greater say over the operation of the institution in which they are held. A number of these mechanisms have been institutionled while others have been a collaboration between the prison authorities and nongovernmental organisations (such as User Voice). Such programmes have been examined in recent research and shortcomings identified. A number of prisoner-led movements (such as the Incarcerated Workers’ Organising Committee) aim to democratise prisons and operate autonomously from the prison authorities. Moreover, many such platforms reject state involvement explicitly and are hostile to a reformist agenda. A gap exists in the literature with respect to such organisations and this research intends to fill that. The project will examine formerly incarcerated people’s experience of democratic mechanisms within the prison, including those that are institution-led. It will investigate the experience of those involved in prisoner-led movements, undertaking to identify obstacles that they have encountered. The project will also involve those who provide support to prisoner-led movements, yet who have never been incarcerated themselves. The project will take a Participatory Action Research approach with the aim of co-producing a framework for the democratisation of prisons.