Mostoufi, Mia; (2024) Men's experiences of segregation in a UK prison. Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).

Text Thesis_final_volume1_Mostoufi_e-thesis.pdf - Other Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 October 2025. Download (1MB)

Abstract

This thesis examines the practice of segregation or solitary confinement within the prison system. It is comprised of three parts: a review paper, an empirical paper, and a critical appraisal of the thesis. Part 1 is a systematic review paper which considers how the impacts of segregation are defined and investigated in the empirical literature. The approaches of 66 papers were reviewed to understand what research methodologies are employed by the literature to study the impacts of segregation and what the literature defines as an impact of segregation, including how this is measured and operationalised. The paper comments on the limitations and implications of segregation research in prison. Part 2 is a qualitative empirical paper aiming to understand the process of segregation in the context of a Category C resettlement prison in England. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is utilised to analyse semi-structured interviews conducted with nine men with experience of segregation. Analysis generated five themes: Prison as a Place of Purposeful Harm; The Inevitable Actuality of Segregation; The Duality of Obvious and Indescribable Horror; Adjusting to the Abnormal; and Temporal Dissonance, Shifting Perspectives of Time. The paper discusses the implications of the intrinsic link between the harmful practice of segregation and the wider prison system. Part 3 is a critical reflective account of the ethical and emotional challenges of conducting research in prison settings and the role for academia to capture harm.

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