Measuring the Quality of Prison Life in Germany and Switzerland
Project Members:
What really matters in prison: Measuring Quality of Life in German and Swiss prisons
In 2017, a collaborative group of researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the UK began working on an adaptation of MQPL+. Building on the existing research instrument developed by Alison Liebling and colleagues at the Prisons Research Centre, this adaptation explores the quality of life in prisons across the German-speaking world.
Beginning in June 2022, this three-year project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) will apply the adaptation of the research instrument and methodology to two German prisons in Berlin and Nordrhein-Westfalen, and one prison in Switzerland.
The core aims of the research are:
- To establish a research baseline for prison cultures and climates in Germany and Switzerland.
- To explore the transferability of concepts and methods developed in the context of prisons in England and Wales across social and political jurisdictions.
- To discover to what extent legally enshrined frameworks (e.g. the right to resocialisation) shape and interact with the moral quality of prison life.
The team includes:
- University of Cambridge: Alison Liebling and Deborah Kant
- Freie Universität Berlin: Kirstin Drenkhahn and Eva Tanz
- University of Cologne: Frank Neubacher, Nicole Bögelein and Deborah Kant
- University of Bern: Ineke Pruin, Ueli Hostettler, Irene Marti, Louise Frey, and David Mühlemann
Publications
Neubacher, F., Liebling, A. & Kant, D. (2021) ‘Same problems, different concepts and language: What happens when prison climate research goes on a journey?’, European Journal of Criminology.