This project represents research-impact activity funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account at the University of Birmingham. It emerges out of the existing ESRC-funded research project ‘Breaking the Cycle’: Prison Visitation and Recidivism in the UK (ES/K002023/1).

This IAA funding has enabled the establishment of a partnership between the research team at the University of Birmingham, and the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS). An initial ‘Urgency’ award enabled a site visit by the research team to three prisons in Northern Ireland, and extensive discussions at NIPS HQ around further collaborative co-production of research. A follow-up Secondment Grant will enable the secondment of Post-Doctoral Researcher Marie Hutton to the NIPS in summer 2015

The Secondment will: enable the co-production of research to address the strategic priorities of the NIPS in relation to visitation and reoffending; provide applied academic guidance on issues of policy and practice around visitation, to enhance the experience of visitation and its positive effect on reducing reoffending; and support the work of NIPS’ statisticians through discussions about future data capture, in relation to the relationship between visitation and reoffending.

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