Projects

• Dr Geth Rees (PI), Newcastle University
• Dr Mwenza Blell, Newcastle University
• Dr Iain McKinnon, Newcastle University
• Dr Michelle Addison, Durham University 
• Professor Tracy Finch, Northumbria University 
• Dr Steph Mulrine, Newcastle University 

This ESRC project aimed to better understand the delivery of healthcare in police custody suites to enable a higher standard of care. 

People in police custody with health issues are regularly put at risk because medication is delayed or unavailable.

This is what a new study by researchers from Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria universities shows.  

The research found that detainees are frequently denied the healthcare they need as healthcare professionals are often not present in custody suites due to staff shortages. 

There is also a postcode lottery in terms of which medications these healthcare professionals can provide to detainees across different police force areas.  

The study showed that Custody Officers were often sceptical or mistrustful about the legitimacy of detainees’ health conditions and their requests for medication. 

Medications that are being withheld include prescribed drugs for epilepsy, cancer, mental health conditions and diabetes as well as methadone and other opioid replacements.    

These factors all contribute to inequities in levels of care across Police Force areas. 

The researchers are calling for all healthcare providers to sign up to a standardised medication list and a legal framework. This framework would allow them to administer medicines to patients, who meet specific criteria, without the need for a prescription from a doctor. 

Healthcare Providers (HCPs) – mainly nurses and paramedics employed by private companies – are meant to be located in police custody suites for 12-hour shifts. However, due to challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, this is often not the case. 

This means HCPs cover multiple custody suites travelling large distances and leading to exhaustion and compassion fatigue. The report recommends that HCPs are properly embedded in all custody suites.  

It also calls for Custody Teams to listen to detainees’ accounts of their health needs with compassion and professional curiosity rather than with scepticism, stigma and mistrust.  

• Read the “Equivalence in Police Custody” report. 
• Visit the project website Equivalence in Police Custody Healthcare | Newcastle University
• The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), involved Dr Michelle Addison from the Department of Sociology, Durham University.  
• Michelle is a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing and the Institute for Medical Humanities.

• Dr Steph Scott (PI), Newcastle University
• Dr Naomi Griffin, Newcastle University
• Professor Tracy Shildrick, Newcastle University
• Dr Shona Minson, Oxford University 
• Professor Nancy Loucks, University of Strathclyde / Families Outside 
• Tina Young, Nepacs

Growing up in a household where a family member has spent time in prison is one of ten recognised adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). However, we know very little about the experiences of children and young people with a family member in prison. Our work is the first UK qualitative longitudinal research project to work with children and young people to learn about how it feels to visit family members in prison. The aims of our research were:

• To understand the (long-term) impact of family imprisonment
• To explore how the lived experience of CYP can be harnessed to co-produce a child-centred framework for prison social visits.  

Nineteen children and young people aged 7-17 took part in up to three one-to-one interviews over nine months. All interviews used visual and creative activities. In total, we carried out over 45 hours of interviews. All participants lived in the North of England or Scotland and interviews took place in family homes or public spaces. In addition to interviews, some children and young people worked with us to produce sketches of their stories (illustrated by Jack Brougham) and a film advocating for change (produced by Operating Theatre)

Managing the emotional load of justice-involvement was embedded into all aspects of life for the participants in our study. This had a profound impact on children and young people’s health and wellbeing over time. They experienced grief, relief, trauma, shock, confusion, stress, worry, problems at school and changes to their ability to focus, lack of engagement in hobbies, impacts to their relationships with others, and changes to their sleep quantity and quality.

Within our work we drew on a tapestry of concepts such as ambiguous loss, disenfranchised grief, biographical disruption, othering and stigma ultimately arriving at three inter-connecting themes salient to children and young people’s stories: 

• Navigation of complex, adult systems; 
• Distress, grief and trauma; 
• Acceptance, normalisation and coping mechanisms

Our longitudinal qualitative data has also been harnessed to underpin a co-produced rights-based framework for prison social visits:

This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) [Grant reference: ES/W003716/1]. Here we include graphics and illustrations by Nifty Fox Creative (https://www.niftyfoxcreative.com/) and Jack Brougham (www.jackbroughhamdrawing.com). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the ESRC. The funders had no role in data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of these findings. 

You can read the full Divided Households final report here: https://issuu.com/niftyfoxcreative/docs/newc_0342_divided_households_final_web 

You can watch ‘Better For Everyone’ here: https://youtu.be/gIpriaMqRF8?si=EEzHBBmzNs98HDx9 

Original artwork by Jack Brougham:

• Dr Steph Scott (PI), Newcastle University
• Dr Michelle Addison (Deputy PI), Durham University
• Dr Naomi Griffin, Newcastle University
• Dr Lisa Crowe, Newcastle University
• Dr Kat Jackson, Newcastle University
• Dr Joanne McGrath, Durham University
• Professor Amy O’Donnell, Newcastle University
• Professor Sheena Ramsey, Newcastle University
• Professor Clare Bambra, Newcastle University
• Dr Luke Munford, University of Manchester
• Dr Kelly Stockdale, Northumbria University
• Professor Stephen MacDonald, Durham University
• Dr Hannah King, Durham University
• Dr Alison Jobe, Durham University

England and Wales (E&W) has one of the highest rates of imprisonment worldwide, with re-offending estimated to cost the economy £18.1bn every year. People who are involved in the criminal justice system (CJS) are more likely to experience health and care inequality and be marginalised/minoritised for reasons such as their race/ethnicity, extreme disadvantage/poverty, substance use, mental ill health and neurodiversity. Integrating health and justice (H&J) systems could provide a vital response to health and care inequalities. However, beyond custody and prison sites, integration of H&J is less clear-cut, with links to adult social care, mental health services, access to housing and third sector organisations lacking. Inadequate integration of H&J systems also has the potential to reinforce stigma and harm for those

in positions of marginality/exclusion. This ambitious project will take a bold approach in order to explore whether current H&J systems could be disentangled and organised differently in order to ‘put the pieces back together better’ for people within them. We contend that it is not integration per se that is harmful, but the ways in which integration and relationships currently exist.

This large project brings together researchers from social sciences, public health and health inequalities disciplines across four universities (Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Manchester) working in partnership with policy, practice and public collaborators to establish a Northern H&J research consortium. It aims to:

1. Understand and evaluate health and care inequalities and social harms experienced by marginalised/ minoritised communities within the CJS in E&W;
2. Explore how H&J systems could be improved to reduce harm, stigma and inequality experienced by marginalised/ minoritised communities involved in the CJS.

This study is ongoing and will use a number of different research methods:

1. We will conduct a literature review to explore how H&J systems come together in different countries and the impact these systems have on marginalised or minoritised communities.
2. We will use multiple qualitative research methods (such as observation, interviews, walking methodologies, photography, poetry, sketching, letters/diary extracts) to understand the experiences of four ‘case study’ marginalised or minoritized groups involved in the CJS over the course of 12 months. These groups will be young adults, women, neurodivergent people and older adults.
3. Data regularly collected within hospitals, GP practices and social care services will be examined to determine whether CJS involvement has any impact on health inequalities.
4. We will co-analyse data with public members and use this information to co-develop a suite of creative resources to increase public and stakeholder understanding of the experiences of marginalised/minoritised communities within the CJS, and to underpin mechanisms for change, such as critical consciousness raising and/or political pressure.

This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) [Grant reference: ES/Y002458/1]. Here we include graphics and illustrations by Nifty Fox Creative (https://www.niftyfoxcreative.com/). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the ESRC. The funders had no role in data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of these findings. 

You can watch our project animation produced by Nifty Fox here: 

Original static artwork by Nifty Fox here: