Growing health in UK prison settings

Abstract

Globally, prisoners tend to come from marginalized and socially disadvantaged sections of the society and exhibit a high incidence of ill health, linked to social exclusion and multiple complex needs. Prisons therefore offer an important opportunity to tackle inequality and injustice, through promoting health, reducing reoffending and facilitating community reintegration.This paper reports on and critically discusses findings from an evaluative research study, which aimed to identify and explore impacts of prisoners' participation in an innovative social and therapeutic horticultural programme, 'Greener on the Outside for Prisons' (GOOP), delivered in prisons in North West England. Focus groups with 16 prisoners and semi-structured interviews with six prison staff were conducted at five sites. Presented under three overarching themes (health and well-being; skills development, employability, and work preparedness; and relationships), findings suggest that engagement with and participation in GOOP were important in improving positive mental well-being, increasing physical activity and knowledge about healthier eating; developing skills and work readiness; and building relationships and catalysing and strengthening prosocial behaviours, important for good citizenship and effective resettlement. The paper concludes that - in the context of the current UK prison reform agenda and concern about the high incidence of violence, substance misuse, self-harm and suicide - prison-based horticulture can offer multiple benefits and make a significant contribution to the creation of safe, secure, supportive and health-enhancing environments. Furthermore, it contends that by joining up health and justice agendas, programmes such as GOOP have the potential to serve as powerful catalysts for wider systemic change, thereby helping tackle inequalities and social exclusion within societies across the globe.

Producing food in English and Welsh prisons

“…Globally, prisoners tend to come from marginalised and socially disadvantaged sections of society and exhibit a high incidence of ill health, linked to social exclusion and multiple complex needs (Baybutt et al, 2018). Therefore, as a setting, prisons offer a unique opportunity to invest in the health of disadvantaged and marginalised populations and address health inequalities and social exclusion (Woodall, 2016).…”

“…There have been a number of different mixed-method research studies assessing the benefits of the GOOP programme using prisons as case studies. Measures employed within the case studies have included tailored Green Gym© questionnaires to assess physical activity and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) to guage mental wellbeing amongst prisoners and staff in adult male and female prisons in the North West (Baybutt, Dooris & Farrier, 2018;Baybutt, Farrier & Dooris, 2012) as well as a process evaluation exploring 'what works and why'.…”

“…In the context of the current UK prison reform agenda that seeks effective and sustainable prisoner management and rehabilitation (Ismail & de Viggiani, 2018) and against a backdrop of public sector constraint and concern about the high incidence of violence, suicide, self-harm and poor mental health among prisoners, GOOP has empirically demonstrated that gardening can benefit the physical and mental health and wellbeing of prisoners and make a significant contribution to the creation of safe, secure, supportive and health-enhancing environments (Baybutt et al, 2018;Farrier, Baybutt and Dooris, 2019;Farrier and Kedwards, 2015). These impacts are increasingly widely recognised as being the result of joined-up 'whole system' working.…”

Promoting health and well-being in prisons: an analysis of one year’s prison inspection reports

“…Documentary analysis can take a myriad of forms, but includes the systematic analysis of organisational and institutional reports (Bowen, 2009). Prison researchers working toward a greater understanding of health promotion in prison have largely neglected documentary methods, opting instead to pursue empirical approaches (Baybutt et al, 2018;De Viggiani, 2007;Woodall, Dixey, & South, 2013). While these studies have substantially advanced critical debate and dialogue and added rich insight, they often focus on a single, or a small number of settings which makes transferability of findings challenging given the heterogeneity of most prisons.…”

“…However, a more 'upstream' focus on prison health is also widely recognised. Moreover, a positive conceptualisation of health, encompassing notions such as improving well-being has long been neglected (Baybutt, Dooris, & Farrier, 2018). It is generally agreed internationally (WHO, 2014) that the mechanism to enable an upstream approach to happen in prison is a settings approachor 'whole prison approach'to health promotion which sees the environment, structural issues, physical conditions, and policy within a setting as being crucial to achieving optimal health outcomes.…”