Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive of over 1400 titles.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Describes the critical role of Muslim prison chaplaincy in Muslim prison life through prisoners’ experiences of chaplains and the chaplains’ experiences of prisoners, with a particular focus on Statutory Duties, Friday Prayer and Islamic Studies classes. This chapter articulates some principles for best practice derived from the views and experiences of Muslim prison chaplains themselves.
A summary of what has been discovered about Islam in prison, how many Muslim prisoners find the virtuous rehabilitative cycle leading faith, freedom and fraternity in prison, and our plans to assist this process in the future.
Describes five key types of Muslim prisoner and tests and then challenges the idea that prisoners mainly choose to follow Islam for reasons of ‘perks, privileges and protection’.
The subjects of Islam in prison and the lives of Muslim prisoners have hitherto been shrouded in ignorance and speculation.
Islam in Prison sheds light on this damaging situation. It is a ‘one-stop shop’ which offers a comprehensive and practical account of Islam and Muslims in today’s European prisons to inform criminal justice professionals, journalists, academics and students of criminology and Islamic Studies and prisoners themselves.
Derived from the largest academic study of Muslims in prison to date, with the participation of 279 prisoners and 70 prison staff from ten prisons in England, Switzerland and France, Islam in Prison gives an account of:
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how Muslims come to be in European prisons;
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who Muslims in prison are in socio-demographic and religious terms;
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the reasons why many prisoners choose to follow Islam in prison;
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the types of Muslim prisoner in European prisons;
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how the Worldviews of Mainstream Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism shape life in prison;
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the rehabilitative benefits and criminogenic risks of choosing to follow Islam in prison; and
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how Islam and Muslims are managed by prison authorities and the prison chaplaincy.
Thereby, Islam in Prison documents the diverse, hopeful and occasionally harrowing experiences of Muslims in prison and shows how Islam in prison offers significant rehabilitative opportunities, as well as some Islamist risk.
Are you a prison officer who feels nervous about dealing with Muslims on the wings?
Are you a prison chaplain who wants to know how your chaplaincy affects the lives of prisoners?
Are you a policymaker who needs a robust base of evidence for Islam in prison?
Are you an academic or a journalist seeking ground-breaking social science in a contentious field?
Based on original evidence from 279 Muslim prisoners and 79 prison officers, we explore how Muslims come to be incarcerated, how the practice of Islam affects prison life and rehabilitation, the types of Islam and the effects of Islamic conversion in prison and the professional practice of officers and chaplains. We also investigate the common belief that incarceration fosters Islamist extremism and suggest improvements to faith provision and rehabilitative opportunities for Muslim prisoners.
Describes in often graphic and eye-opening terms how Islamist and Islamist Extremist Worldviews shape the experiences of prison life for a small minority of Muslim prisoners and how these prisoners generate a level of fear that belies their small numbers.
Seven different types of Muslim prisoner describe in detail how they experience religious conversion and change in prison, and how these changes offer opportunities for rehabilitation, as well as risks of crime and Islamism.
Describes how the values and practices of Mainstream Islam are brought to life in prison by the majority of Muslim prisoners themselves and how the Worldview of Mainstream Islam shapes their experience of prison life and rehabilitation.
In light of the importance of relationships with prison staff in the experience of religion, this chapter articulates critical principles for engagement with Muslims on the part of prison officers and prison governors.
An account of the basic beliefs and practices of Islam, such as the Six Articles of Faith, the Five Pillars of Islam and the Permitted (halal) and Forbidden (haram) and, from prisoners’ own voices, how these basic beliefs and practices shape and influence their lives.
