News

Euro MQPL +: Alison Liebling, Deborah Kant and Katherine Auty hosted a two-day symposium at Trinity Hall

10 November 2023

Euro MQPL +: Alison Liebling, Deborah Kant and Katherine Auty hosted a two-day symposium at Trinity Hall, Cambridge in November 2023, to support teams from five countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and the US) to adapt and use MQPL surveys to help steer reform efforts in their prison systems. The teams all...

Dr Bethany Schmidt awarded the 2022 Nigel Walker Prize

6 May 2022

The members of the selection committee for the Institute of Criminology's annual Nigel Walker Prize , have awarded this year’s prize to Dr Bethany Schmidt , a member of the Prisons Research Centre for her PhD: ‘ Democratising Democracy: Reimagining Prisoners as Active Citizens Through Participatory Governance ’. The Nigel...

New edition of the book 'Power and Pain in the Modern Prison: The Society of Captives Revisited'

6 May 2022

A new edition of Power and Pain in the Modern Prison: The Society of Captives Revisited (2022) Oxford: Clarendon , edited by Professor Ben Crewe , Andrew Goldsmith and Mark Halsey has recently been published. This edition contains highly engaging discussion of challenges faced in prison life, such as staff-prisoner...

Dr Bethany Schmidt awarded a Cambridge University Public Engagement Starter Fund

23 November 2021

Bethany Schmidt has been awarded a Cambridge University Public Engagement Starter Fund . Bethany, in collaboration with Healthier Democracies , will facilitate three workshops with prisoners to reflect on and document the democratic innovations they have developed whilst incarcerated. Mixed media creative expressions...

Dr Susie Hulley talks at a CLiNKS event on 'Working with Life Prisoners: What the evidence tells us'

10 November 2021

Dr Susie Hulley and Dr Serena Wright (Royal Holloway) had participated in the first CLiNKS event series : 'Working with Life Prisoners: What the evidence tells us' , where they discussed their research on men and women serving life sentences in prison from an early age. You can watch a recording of this event here: https...

Professor Ben Crewe and Dr Susie Hulley participate in the 'The Secret Life of Prisons' podcast series

10 November 2021

Professor Ben Crewe , and Dr Susie Hulley have both recently participated in the Prison Radio Association 's podcast series: ' The Secret Life of Prisons '. The Secret Life of Lifers: Part 1: What is it like to receive a life sentence ? (1 November 2021) In this podcast the hosts we're joined by two people who have had...

Professor Ben Crewe interviewed for BBC Radio 4 programme Thinking Allowed

20 April 2021

Professor Ben Crewe has been interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 programme Thinking Allowed about the book he co-wrote with Dr Susie Hulley and Dr Serena Wright, on life imprisonment from young adulthood. The programme will be broadcast on Wednesday 21 April at 4.00pm, and after that will be available to listen to on BBC...

Virtual Book Launch: Sensory Penalities: Exploring the Senses in Spaces of Punishment and Social Control (Friday 12 February)

8 February 2021

Friday 12 February, 7.00pm - 8.00pm (GMT) This virtual book launch is being held to celebrate the publication (on Monday 8 February) of the new book: Sensory Penalities: Exploring the Senses in Spaces of Punishment and Social Control , edited by Kate Herrity, Bethany E. Schmidt , and Jason Warr. This is a free ticketed...

Ben Crewe, Alice Ievins and Alison Liebling give papers at the inaugural conference of the Centre for Criminological Research, University of Alberta

17 December 2020

In November, Ben Crewe and Alice Ievins, and Alison Liebling, gave papers at the inaugural conference of the Centre for Criminological Research at the University of Alberta (Twitter @CCR_UofA) , titled: ' Tightness, misrecognition and penal power ' and ' Does trust matter in prisons ?', respectively. Video recordings of...

Justice Focus - A podcast featuring Professor Ben Crewe

11 December 2020

Understanding Life Imprisonment

Prisons Research at Cambridge University

The Prisons Research Centre (PRC) was founded in 2000, under the Directorship of Professor Alison Liebling. The Centre has received funding from a wide range of sources, including the Prison Service/NOMS, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the ESRC, KPMG, the Home Office and UKDS (now Kalyx).

The Cambridge Institute of Criminology Prisons Research Centre aims to provide a stimulating research environment in which a coherent strategy of high quality research can be pursued, and integration between funded and non-funded, and applied and theoretical projects can be facilitated. We investigate how prisons operate, socially, morally and operationally, how they are experienced, and the relationship between these moral and social qualities, and their effects.

Members of the PRC team carry out, individually and collectively, methodologically rigorous and theoretically relevant field-based studies addressing problems of human and social values, punishment practices, and the organisation and effects of aspects of prison life. We strive to forge links with other prisons researchers, scholars in the broader fields of criminology and sociology, and with practitioners. Our vision is to develop a rigorous and person-centred model of social inquiry.

You can read more about the latest projects in our Annual Reports.