Serious violence in the Irish Prison Service: exploring the experiences of prison officers and prisoners under the Violently Disruptive Prisoner policy

ABSTRACT

In the Irish Prison Service, prisoners repeatedly engaged in serious violence are managed under the Violently Disruptive Prisoner (VDP) policy. With the development of the National Violence Reduction Unit (NVRU), practice has shifted from being operationally-driven to the integration of a psychological perspective in the management of these prisoners. Part of an ongoing evaluation of this changing practice, this study explored the experiences of VDP policy prisoners (n = 4) and the prison officers (n = 13) working with them before practice changed. Descriptive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews identified nine themes: (1) describing VDP policy prisoners, (2) staff characteristics and approaches, (3) describing the VDP policy regime, (4) the social environment, (5) the occupational environment, (6) function of the VDP policy, (7) impact of the VDP policy, (8) factors influencing violence, and (9) responding to violence. Results are interpreted in light of comparable research and the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Implications for policy, practice and research in the NVRU are considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Prison
• violence
• qualitative research
• Power Threat Meaning Framework

Acknowledgements

This study received funding from the Irish Prison Service (IPS), as part of a funding package for a PhD research project examining violence in Irish prisons. We thank the IPS for facilitating data collection, and the prison officers and prisoners who shared their experiences. We thank Dr Lucy Rowell for her feedback on this manuscript in advance of submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This interview schedule was used for those prison officers currently working with VDP policy prisoners. Those prison officers who were being asked about their previous experiences working with VDP policy prisoners were asked the same questions but in the past tense (e.g. how long were you managing prisoners under the VDP policy?).

2 This interview schedule was used for those prisoners currently being managed under the VDP policy and those prisoners currently being managed similarly to those under the VDP policy. As such, general terminology, as opposed to terminology specific to the VDP policy, was used (e.g. what do you think is the purpose of your current regime?). Those prisoners who were being asked about their previous experiences under the VDP policy, or previous experiences being managed similarly to those under the VDP policy, were asked the same questions but in the past tense (e.g. What about your previous regime do you think worked well?).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Irish Prison Service.