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Today’s prison system in England and Wales has been developed as one solution to the issue of how society should deal with offenders, and part of this approach is to provide an education service that contributes towards the rehabilitation of offenders by helping them to gain qualifications that can lead to employment. For almost two hundred years the role of prison education has been based on the perceived purposes of prisons, which have dictated how offenders have been treated and what role prison education has to play in this treatment. At present three sets of policies, further education, prison education and penal policy, are used by government to determine the role of prison education and deal with the issues it presents. This thesis uses the concept of ‘wicked’ problems to investigate what two key stakeholder groups, prison educators and their managers, believe are the key issues in prison education and the impact of the policy approaches that are used to deal with them. The concepts of wicked and tame problems are derived from Rittel and Webber’s analysis of the rational planning approaches that were being applied in the 1960s to complex social policy issues such as housing and health. From this Rittel and Webber proposed that there were ten criteria that could be used to characterise an issue as ‘wicked’. These ten criteria underpin the questions used to answer the main research question for the thesis: 'What are the perceptions of two key stakeholder groups on the impact of tame and wicked approaches to prison education?' The research was founded in an interpretivist-constructivist philosophy and adopted a qualitative approach in the form of in-depth interviews with 12 participants, consisting of three managers and nine educators, all based in one prison setting in the north of England. From the analysis of the interviews it was concluded that both the educators and the managers acknowledged the complexities of the system within which they worked and some of the issues that arose from this situation. They also believed that policy makers and the prison system adopted tame approaches to deal with these issues and, whether consciously or unconsciously, replicated some of these in their own approach prison education. There were some areas of agreement between the views of the educators and their managers on the key issues in prison education, how they may be addressed and if they could be solved. However, there was not a sufficient level of consensus to be able to formulate an agreement on which issues were the most pressing, or to devise an approach to deal with them, a situation which in itself confirmed that prison education was a wicked problem. This thesis therefore suggests that the first step in attempting to address the problem of prison education is for stakeholders to better appreciate its wicked nature, for only then can further steps be taken towards building a shared understanding of the issues through the involvement of all stakeholders. It has to be accepted by all stakeholders, including government and policy makers, that there may be ways of improving the situation by addressing some of the issues, but there is no 'right' answer to the wicked problem of prison education that will solve all of the issues 'once-and-for-all'.

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This thesis examines how relationships that promote behavioural change are conceptualised and de-constructed within Probation practice in England and Wales, investigating the relational narrative and temporary tears in the relationship (ruptures). The project embraces a participatory approach, involving probationers1 and practitioners within the design, implementation and analysis of the research to acknowledge the benefits of listening to the “offender voice” within relational research. Seventeen Probation practitioners participated in focus groups and eighteen probationer interviews were undertaken, with the use of visual aids to enhance engagement. In light of the findings, the Dynamic Model of Therapeutic Correctional Relationships (TCRs) is presented to conceptualise TCRs, through an examination of its mechanisms. The relational narrative is de-constructed and five stages emerged from the data, these being; relational pre-conceptions, activating the TCR, developing the TCR, sustaining/maintaining the TCR and preparing to end the TCR. During each stage, it was found that certain aspects of practice could promote the development of TCRs over time. Finally, the findings suggest that relational ruptures exist within Probation practice and the management of ruptures are addressed through a set of principles. These principles promote the reparation of ruptures through acknowledgement, action, reflection and review. This thesis concludes with the proposal that practitioners need to “play‖ a new relational ―game” within Probation practice, to encourage the development of TCRs and support the processes of change.

Over the past few decades, the large scale of imprisonment and the heavily-adopted punitive approach as a way of responding to crime have engendered widespread concerns among the public and academia in the UK. Whereas there have been a good number of studies that have investigated their underlying sociological causes and elaborated a variety of accounts of how such phenomena are historically configured and how they may be moderated or reversed, the normative dimensions of the current imprisonment complex have not yet received sufficient examination. This particularly regards the understanding of the tensions between the aspiration for a universal ideal of imprisonment and the reality of highly diverse and fragmented post-welfarist approaches in the incarceration field. This thesis tries to uncover and account for the dilemmas and problems in the normative sphere of incarceration in the UK. In doing so, it elaborates the analytical-evaluative framework based on the concept of introspective normativity.

While studies about minority group prisoners are becoming more commonplace in prison research, knowledge about the experiences of hard of hearing (HoH) and d/Deaf prisoners remains limited. A primary aim of this thesis is to provide a more comprehensive understanding about the lives of HoH/d/Deaf people in prisons throughout England and Wales than what is already available, and to explore existing claims that d/Deaf prisoners suffer disproportionately whilst in custody. In order to do this a qualitative methodology is adopted, with semi-structured interviews being carried out with HoH, severely deaf and profoundly Deaf prisoners, and staff members across seven prisons in England, and observations being made at each establishment. This thesis shows that in an environment like prison, those who are seen as ‘different’ often become institutionally deficient. While this could apply to many different subsections of prison populations, findings presented throughout show that the difference of d/Deafness is unique because sound rules in prison, with penal regimes being reliant on sound in order to run. However, d/Deafness, it is shown, is not merely a lack of hearing, and on the contrary there are different levels and layers of d/Deafness. Consequently, how a d/Deaf person experiences prison depends strongly on the way in which they identify with their d/Deafness and the way their d/Deafness is viewed by the prison. Despite such differences, findings suggest that there is little room for either deafness or Deafness in prison, with HoH/deaf and particularly Deaf prisoners often experiencing the pains of imprisonment more severely than their hearing peers as a result the Prison Service's inability to accommodate such difference. This thesis makes an original and significant contribution to existing knowledge for a myriad of reasons. Firstly, it fuses together the fields of Deaf Studies and prison studies in a way that has not been done before, and considers d/Deafness on both an audiological and cultural level. In doing this, it notes the similarities and differences between the experiences of those who are HoH, those who are severely deaf, and those who are culturally and linguistically Deaf; giving meaningful consideration to the role of imported identity in prison. Secondly, excluding small-scale unpublished undergraduate dissertations, it is the first empirical study about d/Deaf prisoners in England and Wales to carry out face-to-face interviews with these prisoners. Finally, as the most in-depth research yet to be carried out about HoH/d/Deaf prisoners in England and Wales, this thesis provides a level of insight which has not been available previously.

Introduction: Head injury (HI) is associated with impairments in cognition, behaviour, emotion and lasting disability. HI in offender populations is higher than in the general population however studies do not report prevalence of disability. This study estimates the occurrence of disability, cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression in prisoners, and the numbers who may require assessment or intervention. Methods: A cross-sectional, between subjects design comparing severity of disability in 81 male prisoners with HI. Severity of HI was screened and outcome measures administered including the Glasgow Outcome at Discharge Scale (GODs), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADs) and neuropsychological tests. Participants were grouped by duration of loss of consciousness (LoC) of greater (moderate-severe) or less (mild) than 30 minutes, and by number of HI’s. Results: Overall, between 31.3-56% of prisoners with moderate to severe HI are likely to require assessment and possibly intervention. HI was mild in n=65 and moderate-severe in n=16. Symbol Digit Modalities, clinical anxiety, and disability by HI were associated with duration of LoC after adjusting for covariates. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment, disability and clinical anxiety are more common in prisoners with moderate to severe HI with 31.3-56% likely to require follow up. Findings are preliminary and further large scale research is required.