To kickstart Season Four of Crossing Channels, Richard Westcott talks to Alison Liebling, Nicola Padfield and Arnaud Philippe about the growing prison population, the prison experience, and the most effective ways to rehabilitate ex-offenders.
To launch season four of Crossing Channels, host Richard Westcott talks to Alison Liebling, Nicola Padfield, and Arnaud Philippe about the increasing prison population, the realities of prison life, and the most effective strategies for rehabilitating ex-offenders.
Our experts discuss why the prison population is growing and the similarities and differences across European countries. They share their expertise on the impact of the prison environment and the privatisation of prisons for rehabilitation. They also identify best practices for effectively rehabilitating and reintegrating ex-offenders into society.
This episode is hosted by Richard Westcott (Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus), and features guest experts Prof Alison Liebling (University of Cambridge), Prof Nicola Padfield (University of Cambridge) and Prof Arnaud Philippe (University of Bristol, former IAST fellow).
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For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett Institute and IAST (Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse) visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.
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With thanks to:
- Audio production by Steve Hankey
- Associate production by Stella Erker and Burcu Sevde Selvi
- Visuals by Tiffany Naylor and Aurore Carbonnel
More information about our host and guests:
Richard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o’clock TV news as well as the Today programme. His last role was as a science correspondent covering the covid outbreak, but prior to that he was the transport correspondent reporting on new technologies such as driverless cars, major accidents and large infrastructure projects including HS2 and the expansion of Heathrow. Over the decades he also reported on the Iraq War and 9/11 as well as numerous UK general elections. Last year, Richard left the corporation and he is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city. @BBCwestcott
Alison Liebling is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre. She has carried out research on life in prison for over 30 years. Her books include ‘Prisons and their Moral Performance: A Study of Values, Quality and Prison Life’ (2004), ‘The Effects of Imprisonment’ (2005, with Shadd Maruna), and ‘The Prison Officer’ (2001, 2nd edition 2010). She is the co-editor of the ‘Oxford Handbook of Criminology’ (2017 and 2022 editions). She has recently completed a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, carrying out the project, ‘Moral rules, social science and forms of order in prison’. She is finishing a book arising from that project. She was made a member of the British Academy in 2018. @AlisonLiebling
Nicola Padfield KC (Hon) is Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, where she has worked for more than 30 years. She was Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge from 2013–2019 and is now a Life and Honorary Fellow. She has a broad research lens, engaged in both ‘hard’ law and in socio-legal-criminological research. She is a leading European expert on sentencing law, including the law and practice of release from (and recall to) prison. A barrister by training, she has published widely on criminal law, sentencing and criminal justice. Her books include ‘The Criminal Justice Process: Text and Materials’ (5th edition, 2016); ‘Criminal Law’ (10th edit, 2016); ‘Beyond the Tariff: Human rights and the release of life sentence prisoners’ (2002). She sat as a Recorder (part-time judge) in the Crown Court from 2002–2014, and is a Bencher of the Middle Temple, where she chaired the Education and Training Committee. She has been an expert advisor to a wide variety of criminal justice organisations.
Arnaud Philippe is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics of the University of Bristol. He studies the criminal justice system to better understand the determinants of criminal behaviour, how judicial decisions are made, and the consequences of sanctions on individuals. He works in several countries, including France, the Czech Republic, the USA, and, more recently, Denmark. He collaborates with public administrations in those countries to gain access to large administrative datasets documenting judges’, criminals’, and prisoners’ behaviours. He is currently an associate researcher at the French Penitentiary Administration, where he explores the effect of carceral experience on recidivism. His research on the determinants of judgments has been popularized in a book published in French in 2022: La Fabrique des jugements (éditions la découverte). @ArnaudPhilipp
Relevant links
- Auty, K. M., & Liebling, A. (2024). What is a ‘good enough’ prison? An empirical analysis of key thresholds using prison moral quality data. European Journal of Criminology, 21(5), 725-753. https://doi.org/10.1177/14773708241227693
- Chen, D. L., Cingl, L., Philippe, A., & Šoltés, M. (2024). Exploring inmates’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors: Implications for theories of crime. Working Paper Series, 779. ISSN 2788-0443. https://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp779.pdf
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
