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Campaigning to Improve the Quality of Food in Women's Prisons

Start date

October 2022

End date

July 2024

Overview

Drawing on the findings from their ESRC funded ‘Doing Porridge’ project, the investigators will engage with prison staff, policymakers, and governmental agencies to build platforms to exchange knowledge and develop practical tools to improve food in prisons. Impact will be achieved in several ways:

  • Delivering knowledge exchange workshops to prison staff and policymakers.
  • Providing a hub that contains up-to-date research and information on research into food in women’s prisons.
  • Campaigning for change, through a charter with the prison service and voluntary organisations to improve the quality of food. 

Team

Partners

Planned Impact

The long term aims of this project are to increase the food budget for each person in prison and provide informative platforms to educate those working in the criminal justice system, and the wider public, about the issue of food in women’s prisons.

The team will publish in two academic journals including the Prison Service Journal and Criminology and Criminal Justice. Contributions will be made to governmental reports and parliamentary briefings on improving the role of food in women’s prisons.  Findings will be fed into applications for future funding, to create a further impact project project: ‘Understanding Women’s Experiences of Feeding their Children in Prison Mother and Baby Units’. 

Short term outcomes

  • Educate prison staff and policy makers and positively change their perceptions and attitudes towards the provision of food in prison. 
  • Attain the support of prison staff and policy makers to improve the quality of food and identify new and innovative ways of preparing meals on a limited budget in prison. 
  • Create a platform where information is accessible to a wide range of audiences to inform them about up-to-date research, policies, and resources about food in prison. 
  • Diversify meal provision to contribute towards improving overall health and well-being of women in prison. 

Discover how food shapes the experiences of women in prison

The team's animation aims to raise awareness among the public of the challenges related to food in prison and how it shapes womens' experiences.