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Appreciative inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield.

Start date: 01 March 2009
End date: 30 November 2009

This project brings together practical policy and theoretical concerns about responding to diversity in prison. Prison management in England and Wales are concerned with developing and sustaining an environment which is secure and yet respectful of diversity. This involves showing respect for a diverse prison population that includes 'race' and ethnicity, faith, gender, sexualities, age, disabilities and class. It is within this national context of increased awareness of the breadth of diversity that the present project is located.

This research is concerned with the following questions:

How do minority group prisoners in HMP Wakefield experience life in custody?
What do they understand by the word 'respect' and how does the prison show respect to them?
How can minority group prisoner's experience of life in prison be improved?
What policies and practices does HMP Wakefield seek to develop in relation to diversity?
How does HMP Wakefield seek to implement its diversity policies?

The project develops a nuanced approach to researching diversities in prison that involves considering processes not merely outcomes. The methodology combines three elements, drawing, in part, on Appreciative Inquiry Methodology, taking a critical stance towards notions of respect and decency within prison and using post-modern theoretical perspectives on culture and identity. This combined approach has the potential to identify, evaluate and contribute towards the analysis of the social norms and processes that relate to the management of diversities within the Prison Service.