The Voluntary Sector in Prisons ─ Encouraging Personal and Institutional Change

This volume examines how volunteers and non-profit programs encourage institutional change in prisons and offer individual support and services to people who are housed behind bars. Through a diverse set of chapters, including two that are co-written by current prisoners, the volume spans the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and juvenile and adult facilities. The book showcases the exciting, groundbreaking, and yet often unrecognized work that the voluntary sector provides in correctional settings. Collectively, the chapters highlight beneficial practices while raising critical questions about the role of the voluntary sector in prison and reentry settings. The chapters also offer useful information about how to implement innovative prison programs that promote health, education, and peer support. 

Laura S. Abrams is Professor of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, California, USA. She is the author ofCompassionate Confinement: A Year in the Life of Unit C (2013) and Life After Juvie: Young Men and Women on Desistance, Survival, and Becoming an Adult(forthcoming).

Emma Hughes is Associate Professor of Criminology at California State University, Fresno, USA. She is the author of the bookEducation in Prison: Studying through Distance Learning (2012). She has contributed book chapters on offender rehabilitation to edited volumes and previously lectured at Birmingham City University, UK.

Michelle Inderbitzin is Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University, USA. She is the lead author of the booksDeviance and Social Control: A Sociological Perspective (2013) and Perspectives on Deviance and Social Control (2015).

Rosie Meek is Professor, Chartered Psychologist, and Head of the Law School at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. She is the author ofSport in Prison (2014) and is a Fulbright distinguished scholar, University of California, San Diego, USA.