Secondary analysis of data collected over a 20 year period by HM Inspectorate of Prisons

该提案使用了英国皇家英格兰和威尔士监狱总督察在过去20年中对10万多名囚犯进行的调查数据，以研究囚犯对其待遇和条件的报告如何根据其特征，刑期和其他因素而变化，以及这与监狱政策的变化和这一时期的表现如何相关。自2000年6月以来，作为其进行的每一次全面监狱视察的一部分，HMIP对囚犯进行了详细、保密的调查。在此期间，调查由政府认可的社会研究人员根据公布的方法进行（例如，见HM监狱监察员，2020 a：73-74）。这项调查由独立的HMIP研究人员进行，没有监狱工作人员的任何参与。参与完全是自愿的，无法确定个人答复者。由此产生的数据库由至少10万名受访者的调查数据组成，包含1000多万份可分析的回复。这些都是从英格兰和威尔士的每一所监狱和青少年罪犯机构（YOI）收集的。此外，由于HMIP的职权范围在此期间有所扩大（HM监狱督察，2019：6-7），它在安全培训中心（这些中心关押12至17岁的儿童），移民遣返中心和军事拘留中心进行了定期调查：这为监狱和其他拘留场所提供了丰富的可访问但尚未探索的数据。继伦敦皇家霍洛威大学（RHUL）在2020年上半年与HM监狱督察局（HMIP）合作进行了成功的可行性研究之后，现在已经建立了一个基础设施，用于准备，分析和首次向学术研究人员提供大规模的历史数据库。这项研究将利用对囚犯在调查答复中记录的自己的经历的分析，对监狱系统目前面临的最紧迫问题提出新的见解：安全状况恶化，攻击、自残和自杀的发生率很高;出狱者的重新犯罪率一直很高;囚犯在囚室外参与工作、教育和改过自新活动的时间限制，以及这些限制如何根据囚犯的特点而有所不同。大量学术文献论述了利用囚犯的经验解决这些问题的必要性以及这些经验对安全、体面和改造性监狱运作的重要性。拟议的研究与监狱将如何摆脱因COVID-19疫情而施加的限制以及解决Black Lives Matter运动所强调的不合理性的必要性具有直接和直接的相关性。项目小组将与从业人员、其他专家和前囚犯（如有可能，还有现任囚犯）密切合作，根据研究结果制定实用指南和建议，并将数据库作为项目的永久遗产，使教师和研究人员能够利用这一以前隐藏的资源。我们在可行性研究期间主持的囚犯重点小组收到的答复令我们感到鼓舞，这些答复表示希望积极利用调查来支持改进工作，高级决策者在这项工作中确定了价值，他们希望在项目咨询小组中发挥积极作用。

This proposal uses data from over 100,000 prisoner surveys conducted by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (HMIP) over the last twenty years to examine how prisoners' reports of their treatment and conditions varies according to their characteristics, sentence and other factors, and how this relates to changes in prison policy and performance over this period. Since June 2000, HMIP has conducted detailed, confidential surveys of prisoners as part of every full prison inspection it undertakes. Throughout this period the surveys have been conducted by accredited government social researchers according to a published methodology (see for example HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 2020a: 73-74). The survey is administered by independent HMIP researchers without any participation by prison staff. Participation is entirely voluntary and individual respondents cannot be identified. The resulting database consists of survey data from at least 100,000 respondents and contains more than 10 million analysable responses. These have been collected from every prison and young offender institution (YOI) in England and Wales. Furthermore, as HMIP's remit has expanded over this period (HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 2019: 6-7) it has conducted regular surveys in Secure Training Centres (these hold children between the ages of 12 and 17 years of age), Immigration Removal Centres, and Military Detention Centres: this provides a wealth of accessible but as yet unexplored data for prisons and other places of detention. Following a successful feasibility study conducted by Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) in collaboration with HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) during the first half of 2020, an infrastructure is now in place for a large-scale historical database to be prepared, analysed, and made accessible to academic researchers for the first time. The research will use analyses of prisoners' own accounts of their experience recorded in their survey responses to develop new insights into the most pressing issues facing the prison system at this time: deteriorating safety with high rates of assaults, self-harm and suicide; consistently high reoffending rates for those released from prison; restrictions on the time prisoners are able to spend out of their cells participating in work, education and rehabilitative activities; and how these differ according to prisoners' characteristics. The need to use prisoners' experience to address these topics and the importance of them to the operation of safe, decent and rehabilitative prisons is addressed in a large body of academic literature. The proposed research has an immeduate and direct relevance to how prisons will emerge from the restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic and the need to address the disproportionality highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. The project team will work closely with practitioners, other experts and former (and if possible current) prisoners to develop practical guidance and recommendations arising from the research and leave the data base as a lasting legacy from the project, enabling teachers and researchers to make use of this previously hidden resource. We have been encouraged by the responses we received in the prisoner focus groups we ran during the feasibility study which expressed the wish for the surveys to be used positively to support improvement and the value senior policy makers have identified in this work and their desire to play an active role within the project advisory group.