Insider Prison Perspectives in Europe and the Americas

This book focuses on the work of Convict Criminology at Westminster, a research group convened by the editors that since 2016 has initiated seven programmes where university and prison-based students study, research and write about prisons.

The chapters are co-authored by students and teachers inside and outside prison, with and without incarceration experience, in the UK, Italy, Brazil and Argentina. Most chapters were presented at a Convict Criminology symposium convened by the research group at the university and three prisons in June 2023. The first section explores Convict Criminology's origins and its development at Westminster as a research activist movement that combines the knowledge and standpoints of people with and without personal experience of prison. The book then divides into five themes, reflecting partnerships between incarcerated and non-incarcerated students: prisoner-university partnerships, hope and survival, autonomy and responsibility, reforming prison, and inside-out student reflections.

Insider Prison Perspectives in Europe and the Americas views all teachers and students who co-produce research on prisons as convict criminologists, whether they have experienced incarceration or not, and aims to preserve prisoners' authentic voices without academic misrepresentation. This book is important reading for Convict Criminology scholars, social science students, and educators engaged in prison higher education.