Social enterprise in prisons: enabling innovation and co-creation

IMPACT

The authors provide evidence for prison management on how transformational learning through innovation and co-creation is made possible through prosocial relationships within social enterprise activities in criminal justice settings. Examples are given of how social enterprise, through innovation and co-creation, can inform a wider criminal justice strategy and policy. The article highlights the importance of building relationships between potential employers and prisons in support of resettlement, rehabilitation and desistance. To ensure success and mitigate challenges, the building of relationships within these interventions requires trust, time and experience.

ABSTRACT

This article explores how social enterprise enables opportunities for social innovation and co-creative practices within prison-based environments contributing to a gap in the literature and identifying areas for further research. In particular, trust, time and experience are regarded as influencing factors that affect the development of prosocial relationships. These relationships underpin co-creative innovation, organizational culture change, and wider societal support to challenge criminal labelling, increase agency and provide access to social capital to make a lasting impact on individual wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-creation
• criminal justice
• innovation
• prison
• relationships
• social enterprise

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the support and funding from two ESRC IAA grants (2018 and 2019) and the contribution of Philip Angier, Dave Nicholson and Rachel O’Brien without whom the research would not have been possible.