Abstract
Abstract
Prison staff experience multiple stressors in the course of their working lives and existing literature consistently emphasises the negative wellbeing implications of prison work. There is a gap in existing research regarding the types of wellbeing support that are appropriate and positively impactful for this occupational group. This article presents original findings following the delivery of an innovative wellbeing activity across two prisons in England which involved groups of prison staff engaging in an 8-week creative writing course. The activity brought together prisoner-facing and support staff resulting in an important opportunity to collaborate, reflect and enhance role appreciation. The core benefits of the course were improvements in personal and professional wellbeing and an opportunity to ‘detox’ negative prison working cultures.
‘Prison staff, they need help, and the kind of help they need is something that's going to enrich them and strengthen them inside … there needs to be some human connection’. (creative writing tutor)
Introduction
In the UK in June 2023, the Justice Committee – Prison Operational Workforce Survey reported that prison staff do not feel valued for the work they do; that staff morale is dire (particularly in men's prisons); and, that staff experience work-related stress on multiple occasions per week (Ministry of Justice, 2023). According to Mark Fairhurst, National Chair of the Prison Officers Association (POA), these findings confirm what the POA have been communicating to the Government and HMPPS ‘for years without both parties listening at all’ (POA, 2023). These findings mirror existing literature that has consistently revealed similar insights into the state of prison staff wellbeing (see Forsyth et al., 2022; Kinman et al., 2016).
The delivery of educational and creative activities to people serving prison sentences is longstanding and has been well documented (see Fitzmaurice, 2019; Langille, 2019; Marchetti and Nicholson, 2020; Skipper, 2023). The recognised benefits include the development of self-awareness and confidence, improved expression and communication skills and enhanced familial relationships. Despite the known value of such initiatives, the delivery of creative courses to a workforce whose wellbeing has been consistently poor has been surprisingly under-explored. This article scrutinises a new project which fills a gap in the exploration of prison staff wellbeing provision. It is also original in its contribution to a limited base of academic literature concerning the wellbeing of non-prisoner facing staff.
Our findings evidence the impact of a bespoke creative writing course for prison staff delivered in 2023 at two prisons in England, UK. As the first course of its kind, it was designed to address the potential for creativity to improve prison staff wellbeing. Presenting empirical evidence stemming from the evaluation of the course, this article offers a unique insight into the outcomes of embedding a creative activity in the working lives of prison staff to facilitate much needed wellbeing opportunities.
Participants produced numerous writings during the workshops of which, following course completion, a sample were collated into a now-published anthology; Words Behind Walls: Prison Staff Writing Anthology (Metcalf et al., 2023). A cursory glance at this collection immediately points towards how insightful such writings are, providing a real sense of what the outcomes were and, importantly, giving a face to the participants. As the prose piece, ‘Ramble’ explains: Sometimes I go home and worry about work. Working in prisons is intense. It plays on your mind. I talked with colleagues about whether we tell people where we work when we’re on holiday or meeting strangers. It got me thinking. I tried writing some stuff down when I got home, with the hope of getting it out of my head. Hoping to switch off. If a stranger asks me where I work, I usually say that I work in an office. (Metcalf et al., 2023)
We begin this article with a review of the existing literature that speaks to the challenging nature of prison work before explaining how the creative writing course was designed, delivered and evaluated. The impact of the course on those who took part is then reported and discussed in relation to the personal and professional benefits experienced. The article concludes by highlighting the unique value of creative writing to the wellbeing of prisoner facing and non-prisoner facing staff. This includes core arguments concerning breaking down barriers between staff in prison, consideration of the nature and shape of wellbeing interventions, and viewing creativity as a potential means to detoxify a palpable masculine working culture.
Literature review
Prisons are stressful environments for those living and working in them. Focus on those working in prisons has gained some momentum in academic literature with new work emerging in this area (see Arnold et al., 2024; Brierly, 2023; Harrison et al., 2024). During a working shift, officers are cut off from the outside world and are required to manage the pressures of working with prisoners to build relationships and trust and maintain safety and security within the prison space (Forsyth et al., 2022). Like Forsyth et al.'s (2022) work, much of the scholarship concerning the prison workforce focuses on employees who are prisoner-facing. According to Kinman et al. (2016), prison officers are at greater risk of experiencing physical and mental health conditions associated with work-related stress and other organisational hazards (e.g. exposure to violence) in comparison to most other professions.
In their study assessing stressors, mental health and job satisfaction experienced by officers working in UK prisons, Kinman et al. (2016) discovered numerous ‘psychological hazards’ that required urgent attention, without which serious implications could be experienced by individual staff members as well as the prison itself as a functional organisation. Mental health problems were exacerbated by poor quality working relationships, indicating the need to enhance the quality of the social environment at work (Kinman et al., 2016). While officers’ close work with vulnerable prisoners creates a highly emotionally charged environment (Crawley, 2004), this characterisation of the prison space is also compounded by the requirement to navigate sometimes-challenging working relationships with colleagues.
Officers often allege staff-on-staff intimidation to reinforce and encourage subscription to the dominant ‘macho’ norms of the occupational group (Crawley and Crawley, 2008). Further, the intense pressure to conform to such group values can cause stress to staff through the doubting of ‘the validity of their own values and experiences’ (Crawley and Crawley, 2008, p. 144). Bullying can stem from a failure to operate within ‘macho’ cultural norms, which involve putting on a tough façade (see Arnold, 2005; Bennett, 2015; Crawley, 2004; Crawley and Crawley, 2008; Hemming et al., 2020). Griffin et al.'s (2010) research on prison staff in the United States revealed that job stress can lead correctional workers to treat others callously and impersonally. As such, a duality exists whereby stress can be both a trigger for and product of poor working relationships.
Of course, strong working relationships can provide a key source of prison officers’ job satisfaction (Lancefield et al., 1997). This is of notable importance given the social isolation experienced by officers. This characteristic is frequently discussed by officers themselves who note isolation from both their managers, and from wider society (Crawley and Crawley, 2008). Officers have noted feeling ignored or invisible and viewed as contaminated by their work by outsiders who do not work in prisons (Crawley, 2004). Yet a further key source of stress among prison officers is a lack of social support internally (Harvey, 2014; Schaufeli and Peeters, 2000) as well as externally. Officers can be dissatisfied with emotional support from their superiors due to a lack of availability and staff can be reluctant to disclose emotional reactions to their work with line managers (Kinman et al., 2016). This is despite the fact that rates of prisoner self-harm and assaults on staff continue to be close to historically high levels (Ministry of Justice, 2023) resulting in an ‘exodus’ of prison officers from their jobs in recent years (GOV.UK., 2023). Urgent consideration needs to be given to how employees in prisons are supported in their working lives, especially if this has positive implications for retention. While the improvement in the wellbeing of officers for their own health is important, their wellbeing also has wider implications including the potential reduction in punitive attitudes towards prisoners (Lambert et al., 2015; Lambert et al., 2010).
Beyond the prison officer role, there are many other employees within prisons whose work is not prisoner-facing and yet whose jobs are important and potentially stressful. As noted in the introduction to Words Behind Walls: Prison Staff Writing Anthology, while non-operational staff ‘may not be exposed to the same risks and challenges as their colleagues working on the wings, they nonetheless operate in a high-pressure environment where meeting targets is paramount and political turbulence has direct implications for their working lives’ (Metcalf et al., 2023, n.p.). Although part of the same working establishment, separated from wider society, there can be a lack of role appreciation between those whose jobs serve different functions, leading to ‘them and us’ dynamics in the prison working environment (Smith et al., 2022). The wider prison workforce have been neglected in research to date and should thus be considered further by those with an interest in the impact of workplace on prison staff.
The work-related stress experienced by all prison staff not only stems from internal sources within the establishment. It is also compounded by the broader context within which prisons operate; a context which has suffered a consistent narrative of politically driven turbulence, uncertainty, and precariousness. Organisational change is a significant stressor for prison employees, regardless of their role (Biron et al., 2012). Further, prisons remain overcrowded, with the population projected to increase from 87,465 (at the time of writing) to 98,700 by September 2026 (Ministry of Justice, 2020) despite the estate having an operational capacity of 89,136. Staff who do not work on the wings still feel the pressures of overcrowding in their administrative workloads. Moreover, all staff are highly aware of the way in which prisons are subject to regular press coverage which rarely reports positive news about innovative and successful practice. Instead, emphasis is primarily placed on the worrying and problematic issues concerning the estate which are deemed to have high news value (Jewkes, 2013).
Existing research consistently communicates the concerning health implications for those working in the prison environment and the need for wellbeing intervention. It is important to note that wellbeing support for all prison staff does exist and includes PAM Assist (Employee Assistance Programme), reflective activities, TRiM (Trauma Risk Management), a post-incident care policy and mental health allies. However, data is scare on the uptake and effectiveness of such support and research on the wellbeing of prison governors has exposed cultural barriers to staff engagement with such initiatives through a fear of being seen to be weak (see Nichols et al., 2024). The introduction of a new Workplace Wellbeing online platform for HMPPS staff hosted by Optima Health suggests some progress being made in the attention being paid to staff wellbeing. However, interventions remain online, individualised and largely self-help oriented.
There is an absence of research which explores the kinds of intervention appropriate and effective for prison staff. In response to this gap, this article offers evidence of how interventions of a creative nature can deliver different kinds of opportunities for meaningful reflection and the processing of traumatic experiences. Importantly, this kind of activity can be successfully delivered in a supportive, face-to-face peer group setting which also facilitates an opportunity to challenge unhealthy workplace cultures (see Nichols et al., 2024). Further, the present research contributes to existing literature by exposing the wellbeing implications of working in the prison setting more broadly and how those in administrative and professional service roles are not exempt from the harms caused by consistent exposure to the carceral space.
Creative writing course design
The project's interdisciplinary team comprised of a cultural studies academic, a criminologist, a creative writing academic and practitioner, and two psychologists. The first stage of the project involved the design of the creative writing course which was born out of previous initiatives developed for prisoners and former prisoners by the lead investigator (see Litten and Metcalf, 2019). The course was designed to engage prison staff participants with readings to instigate conversation. The selected readings combined both fictional and non-fictional depictions of prison life from diverse perspectives and included Stephen King's 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption to discuss the theme of hope; Shaun Attwood's 2014 prison memoirs to address ideas around desistance; and Marc Falkoff's 2007 Poems from Guantanamo Bay to deliberate notions of humanity and citizenship. Giving participants familiar thematic prompts to discuss was an important element of the design given the lack of guarantee that participants would know one another, despite working in the same prison establishment. Further, the texts and their associated exercises were selected to detract from tutors having to ask explicit questions about the workplace, thus facilitating the organic emergence of discussions and writings about participants’ working roles and experiences.
Prompt questions were designed to guide discussions and course participants were encouraged to write their own original pieces reflecting their personal and professional experiences. They could choose whether to represent their writings as fictional or non-fictional to account for the possibility that some participants would be less comfortable in writing openly about their experiences. These writings were always guided by specific prompts including: the characterisation of a prisoner who has / has no hope; writing individual lines of poetry about what it means to be human to create a collective piece; writing the opening page of a memoir in which the author wants to go on a journey to change something about themselves; and, writing another moment in a memoir when an ‘epiphany’ takes place. In addition to providing participants with copies of the selected texts to use and keep, they were given a writing booklet for use at home. Beyond the classroom setting participants were encouraged to write by engaging with specific journaling prompts: ‘I get out of bed in the morning because…’; ‘On the way to work I…’; ‘Being a human being at work means…’; and ‘Being a human being at home means….’.
While the skillset to deliver the course was held within the project team, independent creative writing tutors were employed to deliver the sessions. This decision was taken so the tutors could be interviewed, and their accounts analysed for the course evaluation. The two tutors employed (one for each prison site) were published authors who had significant experience tutoring prisoners and thus were familiar with the prison environment. Neither tutor had worked with prison staff before. Ethical approval for the delivery and evaluation of the course was gained from both the University of Hull and National Research Council ethics committees.
Course participants
The creative writing course was delivered via weekly 1-hour face-to-face sessions between February and April 2023 over an 8-week period at two prison sites: a Category A and B men's prison with an operational capacity of 1238 [HMP1] and a Category B local men's prison with an operational capacity of 1044 [HMP2].
Course participants were recruited following a combination of email, poster and in-person recruitment processes. The resulting cohorts included representatives from a range of roles including prison officers of different grades, Operational Support Grade (OSG) staff, chaplains, medical staff, and librarians. For several practical reasons, including staff annual leave and issues concerning challenges in implementing wing staff cover to facilitate course participation, participant attendance reduced to a core group of 15 at HMP1 (split into 2 cohorts) and 9 at HMP2. Issues concerning attrition will be discussed in further detail in the limitations and discussions sections of this article. Details of gender distribution and changes in participant numbers over time are presented in Table 1.
Distribution of participants among study sites over time.
As demonstrated in Table 1, female participants were overrepresented in the course cohorts. This could be due to the gender distribution in roles (see Table 2), with females being more prevalent in non-operational and support roles (e.g. business administration). A further explanation could be the influence of gender-related norms in engaging with creative activities which will be considered in detail in the discussion of this article.
Participant job roles.
To examine the potential impact of the course on the wellbeing of participants, the evaluation involved participant surveys conducted both prior to (T1) and after (T2) the course delivery. T1 provided insight into the wellbeing of participants before the course took place. Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), a self-report tool designed to screen for anxiety and depression consisting of four items, 1 was used within the questionnaire, along with questions concerning job satisfaction, mental wellbeing, and occupational self-efficacy. To complement Tables 1 and 2 in introducing the participant group, Figure 1 provides participant mental health state at T1.
PHQ-4 results at T1.
The assessment of pre-existing mental health conditions within our sample revealed a concerning level of difficulty, with 37.5% of respondents reporting moderate to severe mental health difficulties (i.e. anxiety and depression) at T1. While these mental health difficulties may not be caused directly by work and can be the result of difficulties in other life spheres, these figures align with the findings of Kinman et al. (2016) whose study reported a high rate of 72% regarding mental ill-health among prison officers. Significantly, unlike existing studies, the majority of course participants in our project occupied non-officer roles and thus provided insight into the wellbeing status of the broader prison workforce.
Evaluation
Sources of data
Two surveys were distributed to prison staff who joined the creative writing course: one at the launch of the sessions (T1) and one at the end (T2). Participants were invited to complete the surveys via the digital survey platform Cognito with consent sought before completion. The surveys included validated measures and questions designed for the purpose of this work. The validated measures used in both surveys evaluated participants’ job satisfaction, mental wellbeing, mental health conditions and occupational self-efficacy. At T1, participants were also asked about their previous experiences of creative writing and their motivations for joining the course. At T2, they were asked about the perceived benefits of their participation. Open boxes were also included in the T2 survey for participants to provide comments and suggestions about how the course may be developed or improved in future iterations (Table 3).
Survey responses.
To enable participants to elaborate on their survey responses in more depth, they were also invited to be interviewed. Following the gaining of informed consent, interviews were recorded and transcribed. In total, 5 course participants were interviewed and a further participant provided written responses to the interview questions (4 male, 2 female). During interviews, participants discussed their experience of the creative writing course in several ways including the extent to which it met their expectations, how they found the independent tasks, their favourite course text, how they felt about the writing they had produced and their experience of working in their course group. Additionally, at the end of the course, the two tutors (1 female at HMP1, 1 male at HMP2) were also interviewed to share their experience of delivering creative writing classes to prison staff for the first time in their career.
With the consent of course participants at both prison sites, group sessions were recorded by the course tutors using security-approved Dictaphones and the recordings were transcribed 2 . A total of 18 sessions were recorded (six of each of the three course cohorts across the two prison sites). The transcripts of the sessions provided insight into the organisational context, and the challenges faced by prison staff in their working lives through their discussions of themes prompted by the tutors. They were also useful in gathering additional data on the benefits of the sessions that were not necessarily captured in the survey and interview data.
While a larger data capture would have been valued, as a pilot study we were able to produce important outcomes to establish a basis for larger-scale investigations into the benefits of creative activity for prison staff wellbeing. It also highlighted the challenges that need to be overcome when working with participants who have limited resources in terms of time and energy in high-pressure contexts 3 .
When discussing sources of data, participants produced numerous writings during the workshops. As already noted, some of these were collated in a published anthology (Metcalf et al., 2023). In a separate forthcoming literary-facing publication, we consider the work of Kara (2015) and Kara and Philips (2021) who advocates for creative data collection in the social sciences, to examine in detail how these writings constitute as data themselves.
Data analysis
For the qualitative data (interviews and group session recordings), a top-down approach was taken to thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006), with preconceived themes guiding the analysis to focus on factors relating specifically to implications for wellbeing. These themes are presented in the first column of Table 4 below. Verbatim quotes related to each theme were extracted and categorised accordingly.
List of themes and subthemes extracted from the qualitative data.
For the survey data, basic descriptive statistics were run to describe the sample and extract frequencies of responses. Means and standard deviations were then computed for the validated measures. Results from both the qualitative and quantitative data analysis were examined together to build a coherent understanding of the data.
Limitations
The iterative nature of this work means the limitations are valuable to acknowledge, not only as a demonstration of research integrity, but also to draw important learnings from this pilot phase. There are two key limitations:
The potential for self-selection bias – participants who left the course before completion could be those suffering from greater mental health difficulties (see Table 1) and thus most in need of a wellbeing intervention. While some participants did give reasons including work schedules, there may have been other factors that prevented their continued engagement. This could also have implications for understanding the full benefits of the course. People who did not respond to the T2 survey could also be those who did not benefit from the course or did not enjoy it as much as those who responded. Lack of participation of prison officers – their views and experiences are underrepresented in this work, while they may be the members of prison staff who would benefit the most from this course. Prison officers are more exposed to violence, injuries, and harm than non-operational staff and thus, can have more traumatic work experiences to process.
Despite these limitations, and as previously stated, the participation of non-operational staff is valuable and original in itself providing insight into the wellbeing of prison staff whose experiences have received significantly less attention in existing research.
Results
Creative writing in a group setting
The design of the course as a group activity brought staff from the across the prison together in a shared space which facilitated interactions that participants found enjoyable. One survey respondent described the sessions as a safe space: ‘It provided a safe space in the hectic working day’. Others mentioned the absence of competition and judgement between participants: ‘you know I was open about it and spoke about it a couple of times and I certainly didn’t feel judged’ (Interview participant 1).
The nature of the support from the tutors is also an important factor. ‘[the tutor] had a way of kind of getting the best out of people and he was really engaging and ever so supportive. [The tutor] has been supporting all of us outside the workshop with writing as well’ (Interview participant 2). The tutors encouraged participants to share their reflections on each topic as well as their writing without pushing those who were not ready to engage in this way: ‘what worked for me was there was no pressure from [the tutor] to speak up in front of everyone’ (Interview participant 6). The respect for each participant's pace was also appreciated. In particular, the tutors played an important role in alleviating participants’ individual barriers: ‘[the tutor] says to us you know like “just chill out, it doesn’t have to be perfect first time, it doesn’t even have to be good”’ (Interview participant 4). The tutors’ former experience was key in addressing participants’ fears and helping them gain confidence in their writing. ‘Creative writing can be a bit scary . . . I made sure in every session they knew it wasn’t competitive, it wasn’t an achievement of academic level, it was an opportunity for them to just simply express themselves in their own way . . . What was funny, because I’ve obviously done this kind of thing with prisoners for so long also, the same things and the same fears and the same barriers came out from both: “oh I’m not good at writing” and “I’m not sure”’. (HMP2 tutor).
This links to the concept of psychological safety that describes ‘perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context’ (Edmondson and Lei, 2014: 7). Psychological safety plays a critical role in understanding why people voice, share knowledge, collaborate and work together, and has been found to be a mediator enabling teams to achieve target outcomes (Edmondson and Lei, 2014). Here, participants perceived a low risk associated with sharing their writing. They mentioned the absence of judgement and laughter and appreciated support and encouragement from the tutor for sharing their thoughts and writing. These factors created an atmosphere of trust that facilitated the achievement of the course's objectives. Interview participant 4 summarised this experience: I feel like that when you’re trying to be a bit creative and stuff you want to put up a barrier to protect yourself in case someone doesn’t like it and I think in that first week that's what we were all doing a little bit but you know once we’d seen each other's faces week after week, knowing that no one was actually laughing at us when we were reading our things and actually everyone was being really enthusiastic and like cheering us all on, it yeah, really comfortable, it was also like a nice honest area where we could all say stuff to each other.
The relief at not being laughed at may speak to the culture of working in prisons more broadly (discussed later), and the division of status in such a working environment. Indeed, if non-operational staff express sentiments about being respected in the space of the writing workshop, this could reflect a feeling of being disrespected or less valued in their daily working lives.
Because participants became more comfortable as the sessions progressed, there is potential to consider lengthening the duration of future iterations of the course to enable participants to further enhance the beneficial outcomes experienced. In considering future iterations of the course, the results also included participants commenting on the suitability of the group sizes in facilitating positive experiences. Had it been a bigger a group I think that would have been harder. Had there been like 15 people in a room I would have sat at the back in the corner [and said nothing] but because there was only like half a dozen of us and I knew everybody, I found that a lot easier to actually get involved and join in so that worked really well (Interview participant 2).
The discussions were one of the most enjoyable activities for participants: . . . it was quite nice to actually engage in conversation with this, just discuss ideas with everybody you know, didn’t have to be my idea, could be somebody else's idea, you know, “have you thought about this?” (Interview participant 2) Being able to sit and hear all the other perspectives and to be able to join into that discussion is what made it so exciting to keep coming back and what made me look forward to going to it every week (Interview participant 4).
Participants also enjoyed the possibility of receiving feedback on writing they were producing: I mean just reading some of the things I’d written out and getting positive feedback from members of the group and stuff that was, that was really good . . . Getting good feedback from other people encourages you more (Interview participant 5).
The group discussions provided a space for active engagement between participants, and it was noted that this was particularly positively experienced in comparison to other wellbeing opportunities: . . . [in other wellbeing training] there's no interaction, so the actual interaction and having somebody there to sit and discuss things with made it a lot more engaging (Interview participant 2).
Individual wellbeing benefits
In terms of individual wellbeing benefits, two major subthemes emerged. Some participants appreciated the opportunity to escape from work, finding it beneficial to have dedicated time when they didn't have to think about work and could clear their minds of work-related issues: It's been, whosever idea it was in the first place, genius idea because certainly from my perspective to have an hour in the week at work where you’re not having to deal with what you’ve got to deal with, it's just wonderful, like an oasis (HMP2 G1 transcript #5) I enjoyed the homework, and it actually helped me with my mental health. I did my homework on a Sunday afternoon and found that this took my mind off thinking about going back to work the next day (Interview participant 6) We’re in a stressful world, we do a stressful job and to have something that takes you out of your job for a brief time, into a different environment has been really, really good for me, very positive (Interview participant 2).
Some participants described the experience as ‘therapeutic’ and ‘cathartic’, allowing them to express their feelings and process emotionally difficult experiences whether work-related or personal. There was evidence that engaging in creative writing helped create a distance between themselves and difficult experiences. Some participants found they could let go of a difficult personal experience they had been carrying. Never done anything like it before, but it has been cathartic. It's almost like it's given me permission to write feelings down (survey comment) It let me really step back from where I am every day and like assess it, like somebody else, like it was like being a fly on the wall for my day and being able to look at it without any feelings behind it (Interview participant 4) . . . because I’ve never found a way to kind of move on from some things in my life or they’ve always kind of sat in my head. You know, things from my childhood and I actually spoke about how it had made me feel actually, being able to write it down. It's almost like a release so, I think I got more out of the course for my wellbeing point of view than I did about finding ways to write things (Interview participant 2) [The epiphany prompt], that one was particularly helpful for me, you know after it I felt like it was something I had held inside me for 8 years and then it was just gone and I didn’t feel, like I was still holding it, it was there and then it was gone (Interview participant 4).
Regarding therapeutic effects, one participant described creative writing becoming a new coping mechanism for them to deal with stressful experiences: Now it's like another coping mechanism that I can call on, on the darker days, so it will be able to get me through whatever I’m doing that day. I know it happened, the last time was 3 weeks ago, I was having a really, really bad attack, and I just sat in bed and I had my book . . . and just getting out on the page it doesn’t hurt me anymore as it's not in there anymore, it's out, so I’ve got the strength to sort of move on with the rest of my day (Interview participant 4).
The same participant described how therapeutic this activity was for them personally: When I’m feeling one certain way and I don’t understand why and I just want it to go away it's the only thing where I can write exactly how I’m feeling, exactly what the problem is and really get it out . . . it's not really broad, it's something that I can really hone in on and write about, really privately but in a lot of detail so it's, it's not vague it's not wishy washy, its out and it's on the page and if I wanted to I can get rid of the page, which I have done actually . . . I can get rid of it like both by writing it down and getting out of my head, getting rid of it from my head but also I can physically just get rid of it.
One interview participant reported perceiving no benefits for their wellbeing. Exploring their responses further, this interviewee expressed a high level of job satisfaction suggesting they felt less need for escape. There was however an indication that this participant had indeed had difficult experiences, but that creative writing was not their preferred approach to processing them: [The tutor] would say a lot of people write about the past and stuff like that, that doesn’t interest me, I don’t want to delve into that (Interview participant 1).
Some benefits related to personal relationships with friends and family. While fewer participants mentioned positive changes in their personal relationships compared to wellbeing and self-development, those who processed difficult personal events and shared their writings with loved ones reported developing stronger relationships with them as a result. . . . actually discussing things with one sister who had similar experiences to me, I think it's made us even closer because of that shared understanding. Neither one of us had actually really talked it through before about some of the experiences we had from childhood and we’re now planning to do that. She's done the same, you know talked about her experiences and mine and it helped her as well . . . So, yeah I guess that's brought us a bit closer. (Interview participant 2)
Further creative benefits
In addition to wellbeing benefits, further creative benefits were identified. The course allowed participants to develop their creative skills, and some reported the benefits of engaging in something creative and different from their job requirements. The possibility of exercising more diverse abilities was positively experienced: . . . it felt completely different to anything I’ve done for a long time, different to what I normally do at work so like you’re in a room, chatting about all these like concepts of creative writing and chatting about poetry and stuff it's just very, very different (Interview participant 5) . . . a lot of what we do is about physical stuff, you know physical health, we put stuff out there about prostate cancer and breast cancer and . . . it's all physical stuff whereas this was really about getting your brain working, so that was quite different (Interview participant 1).
Participants also reported developing self-confidence in their skills and improved confidence to speak up and express themselves and their ideas: I think I was quieter to begin with but as I gained a bit more confidence about it and, I’m not normally one to speak up, it did encourage me to speak up a bit more and give an opinion and read bits and pieces out, not something I would normally ever consider doing (Interview participant 5) Before I’d think oh I can’t do that because you know I’m a wreck and I can’t do that . . . For me to speak up in front of those people about something that was really, really, incredibly personal was a massive boost for me being able to do that (Interview participant 2).
In relation to self-growth, some participants described the experience as pushing them outside of their comfort zone, leading to a gain in self-knowledge and in personal development: I think I try to develop myself; I think that's what we’re here for, I think . . . we’re on a journey of self-development and sometimes the most frustrating thing for me is when I look at things and I think I’ve not developed, I’ve not moved on (HMP2 G1 transcript #7) . . . the creative writing has kind of made me look at myself inside and I’ve never experienced that in a training course before (Interview participant 2) I think I learned that I probably know myself a bit better than I thought I did [..] Because I didn’t particularly enjoy school . . . a writing course or something like that is not something that I would normally go anywhere near, so I’m really pleased . . . I suppose its growth and development by stepping out of my comfort and trying something new (Interview participant 1).
The course also instilled a sense of pride in participants regarding their writing. Some even gained enough confidence in their skills that they decided to continue writing and one participant considered writing a novel.
Benefits in professional life: Relationships with colleagues and prisoners
Some participants reported enhanced relationships and team building with colleagues because the discussion format created more interaction between staff members. The opportunity to establish more social connections was important, especially regarding the low social support that can be experienced by people working in the prison environment (Kinman et al., 2016). There is evidence that social support acts as a buffer to work-related stress. The staffing can be tight and everybody's really busy so to have that time and to sit and actually talk to someone that you’ve probably know for ten years but have never really had a proper chat with, that was really helpful. (Interview participant 1) I think it brought me closer to the people that were in the group because I knew them to say hello to but obviously more the developing personal relationships kind of thing (Interview participant 5).
The tutor from HMP2 shared an example of enhanced relationships: . . . something always went wrong admin wise and then after one of the classes she took him in for a chat with their [colleague] about something that had happened . . . they’d opened up communication about a problem and . . . they were sorting something out.
Furthermore, the course helped participants gain a better understanding of each other's roles and challenges: I found more of an appreciation for my co-workers (Interview participant 4) I think because it opens up those doors to other people's perspectives and how they see things (Interview participant 3)
Peer support and the quality of co-worker relationships are important characteristics of a healthy workplace, and poor peer relations constitute a risk to work-related stress. The feeling of camaraderie, shared experience and understanding that stemmed from the course groups was particularly important given we had not expected these benefits to manifest themselves in such inter-departmental ways.
In terms of relationships with prisoners, fewer benefits were reported although the tutor at HMP2 recalled an instance where a participant expressed their willingness to promote creative writing to prisoners: ‘He said I’ve never really done this myself, expressed myself and he was saying how he sees things on the wings, and he did say, “now I’ve seen this I can relay it to prisoners”’. By doing so, prisoner-facing staff can potentially enhance their relationships with prisoners and encourage them to engage with creative activities that may have a positive impact on their wellbeing.
Discussion
This article offers key contributions to knowledge and practice and the development of positive working culture. The creative writing course offered the ability to break down barriers between prison staff in a variety of roles. This presents a vehicle through which to develop role appreciation which is fundamental to a positive working culture and one of six key stress risks identified as in urgent need of action for prison officers (Kinman et al., 2016). Further, the research findings provide important insight into a specific kind of wellbeing intervention which is uniquely positioned within the creative arts. Interventions into workplace wellbeing can be considered as either primary, secondary or tertiary, respectively (1) addressing the stress risks directly, (2) helping staff to cope with the stress risks in their work or (3) supporting staff who have become unwell due to exposure to work-related stress risks. The current intervention employs a secondary approach, which differs from the tertiary interventions currently in place for prison staff, as outlined previously. In addition to the novel approach adopted here, implementation of this programme within the prison context furthers our understanding of the effective delivery of staff wellbeing interventions in practice. This work facilitates an opportunity to challenge dominant ‘macho’ workplace culture through the incorporation of a wellbeing initiative which is designed around creative activity, which some associate with distinctly feminine characteristics. These three core contributions will be further explored within this discussion.
Breaking down barriers between staff in prison
The findings provide a clear indication of the ‘key ingredients’ required for creative wellbeing initiatives to be successful, and specifically, more beneficial than other kinds of wellbeing training or activities. The course environment should be confidential, respectful and facilitate the development of mutual trust. Core to this is the embedding of non-judgemental attitudes among those taking part. Further, course tutors need to be consistent in their encouragement of participants to engage, while at the same time being responsive to the variable pace at which each participant feels able to work in terms of contributing to discussions and sharing their writings. The facilitation of stimulating conversation and interaction differentiated this course in a positive way from other wellbeing initiatives that participants had experienced. The bringing together of members of staff who would not usually interact was an important element of the course as this enabled the development of role appreciation which can be lacking in hierarchical organisations.
A potential barrier to role appreciation and the breaking down of internal hierarchies is the separation of staff by their working grades, responsibilities, and their seniority in the prison. These divisions can create barriers to developing broader networks of social support and thus opportunities to interact beyond the usual groups were welcomed by participants. A creative writing tutor reflected on their observation of participant interaction during the course and recalled staff discussing the tensions between uniformed and non-uniformed staffing groups. They noted that having a mixture of both staffing groups was one of the highlights of the course and that it created unbiased understanding of other people's roles through the facilitation of dialogue.
The creative writing course increased empathy towards colleagues through the open and reciprocal exchange of various points of view. It helped participants to gain a better understanding of each other's roles and the challenges they faced in their daily working lives. Importantly, this highlights that both prisoner facing and non-prisoner facing roles within prisons can be stressful for staff. Peer support and the quality of co-worker relationships are crucial characteristics of a healthy workplace (see Garrihy, 2023), and similarly, poor peer relations constitute a risk to work-related stress. 4 The positive impact of bringing together prison staff of different working roles for the creative writing course was in fact an unintended outcome, and a result of challenges in participant recruitment.
Interventions inside the prison
This work has identified some challenges to delivering creative wellbeing interventions for staff in the prison environment. For prospective participants, there were both practical and logistical barriers to taking part in the creative writing course. Practical barriers included navigating shift patterns, staffing levels, the ability to organise cover on the wings and in some cases, deciding whether to forego a lunch break to participate. However, cultural barriers also presented challenges to participation (see Smith et al., 2022). As noted earlier, prison staff can experience pressure to conform to a dominant working culture which is characterised by ‘macho’ performances. Many officers stress the importance of ‘machismo’ to perform their jobs successfully (Crawley, 2008) given the nature of the work they are required to undertake which necessitates both physical and emotional strength. The traits associated with such performances are captured in the Masculinity Contest Culture framework which describes working environments with this characterisation as ‘dog-eat-dog’ where employees put work first, show strength and stamina and mask any emotions and behaviours that could be interpreted as weakness (Berdahl et al., 2018). In contrast to these kinds of masculine ideals and workplace performances, creative activities in the prison setting, such as writing, appear to contradict the nature and character of the prison space. One of the project's creative writing tutors recounted his previous experiences of staff resistance to the inclusion of creative writing in the purposeful activity of prisoners: ‘I’ve met awful, awful resistance [from staff], rude . . . sometimes aggressive and I didn’t feel wanted at all. The first two or three months [as a Writer in Residence in one prison] I just thought everybody wanted me out of the place’.
Despite creative or ‘divergent’ thinking being historically depicted in popular exemplars of men, particularly in popular culture through artistic and musical figures (Proudfoot et al., 2015), dominant masculine culture in the prison can relegate creativity through writing to the domain of feminine pursuit. This is consistent with research from the 1960s, which found creative men scoring highly on femininity scores indicating an ‘openness to their feelings and emotions, a sensitive intellect and understanding self-awareness’ (MacKinnon, 1966: 154). MacKinnon's work identified that for some men the balance between masculine and feminine traits is precarious. While this work is dated and does not account for contemporary developments in gender discourse, identity and performance, it nonetheless draws parallels with the sentiments of those reluctant to take part in the creative writing course and with existing literature on contemporary prison officer culture which is frequently described as hypermasculine (Arnold, 2005; Crawley and Crawley, 2008; Crewe, 2012; Liebling et al., 2010; Nylander, 2011).
Creativity and masculine culture: An opportunity for detox?
A ‘macho’ culture was particularly evident through the project's recruitment process during which the investigators visited the prison sites to promote and encourage staff engagement. Staff were approached at the prison gates and inside the prisons with information about the course. They were able to ask questions about the course such as its duration, any educational pre-requisites, and the independent reading and writing work that would be involved. Despite reassurance that the course was open to all members of staff, the authors were acutely aware of participation reluctance on many occasions. In some cases, there was hesitancy due to a lack of previous experience of writing or having not tried to write creatively since being at school. There was also a lack of understanding about how creative activities could be of significant value to people serving prison sentences. Further, and aligned to the discussion of culture, the perception of creative writing as a feminine activity endured among many male members of staff we encountered who held strong preconceptions. During a recruitment walk inside one of the prisons, one of the authors was repeatedly confronted with negative banter about the course from male officers. Laughing and joking about the prospect of engaging with such a course was overtly ‘macho’ with the few male officers showing an interest in the course facing ridicule from their colleagues. The gender and job role distribution of the course participants was demonstrative of such sentiments, with only comparatively few prison officers signing up to participate.
During the course delivery at one of the prison sites, the creative writing tutor reported a participant's comment on the issue of the cultural acceptability of engaging with the course and the requirement of resilience to continue: I said what was it like coming to here, did you get any stick off your mates and one of them went [..] “every Thursday I’ve had crap off the lads”. He said “you know, it's a bit of banter but really they’re interested as well”.
Importantly, the nature of the environment that was created in the creative writing groups provided a barrier between the participants and the cultural imperatives of the wider prison climate. Thus, in relation to the potential impact of the creative writing course on the wellbeing of prison staff, there is a clear cultural dimension. Through the creation of a safe, interactive space where staff were able to be open, vulnerable, and willing to take personal risk through the sharing of thoughts, values and reflections, there is scope for such spaces to alleviate staff of the requirement to wear a ‘macho’ mask and engage in the emotional labour required to maintain a tough façade.
Conclusion
This creative writing course was the first of its kind designed to support the wellbeing of prison staff. Feedback from participants evidenced the capacity of such an initiative to have a positive impact on their wellbeing through its ability to forge meaningful relationships across working roles, create empathy and detox prison working culture.
This work provides valuable insight into the importance of the nature of wellbeing initiatives for prison staff including the value of opportunities for individual reflection in a supportive, face-to-face group setting. As in many contemporary workplaces, wellbeing initiatives are now often relegated to digitised platforms and completed in isolation, inhibiting opportunities for meaningful human interaction. While it is clear from this research that wellbeing courses have the potential to improve the wellbeing of prison staff, the findings of this work says something significant about the way that creative arts can facilitate a safe forum within which personal struggles and traumas can be shared, discussed and processed. Crucially, this gives control of the extent of personal disclosure to the individual. Through creative writing, individuals can select a medium they are personally comfortable with to actively reflect on their experiences, whether in personal narrative form or through the development of fictitious representations.
Through the creative writing course, participants reported a range of benefits, and they appreciated the opportunity to process difficult experiences in a confidential space where trust and support were established and valued, and support was provided by tutors who encouraged them to work at their own pace within their own parameters of comfort. Importantly, the course's design facilitated a space where negative ‘macho’ culture could be left outside the group environment and open discussions could be had about sensitive issues without the fear of being viewed negatively by colleagues. The continued facilitation of such courses therefore has implications for challenging toxic workplace culture which, like high workloads, can have negative implications for the wellbeing of people working in prisons.
While this article has taken an evaluative approach to report on the findings of the course in relation to its impact on the wellbeing of people working in prisons, the now published original writings by participants (Metcalf et al., 2023) provide further insight into the challenges faced by this group and how their experiences can be processed in a supportive way through a creative outlet. The publication of these original pieces gives an important platform of transparency to the lived realities of processing the impact of prison work and complements the originality of the findings presented in this article. Thus, we draw to a close with an excerpt from a moving poem by Anonymous in Words Behind Walls: What would Jesus do? He walked with the lowly, was crucified between thieves. Even as he hung, dying, he gave one of them a promise of paradise. A change of redemption. The Prison Service says we have to help them lead law-abiding, useful lives. The voices in my head say they are beyond help. My heart says they just need help to be better. Who am I to judge? […] help me to be a human being in this necessary but inhumane place.
Supplemental Material
sj-docx-1-icn-10.1177_26326663241310334 - Supplemental material for ‘Strengthen Them Inside’: Supporting prison staff wellbeing in England through creative writing
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-icn-10.1177_26326663241310334 for ‘Strengthen Them Inside’: Supporting prison staff wellbeing in England through creative writing by Helen Nichols, Josephine Metcalf, Fiona Earle and Léa Fréour in Incarceration
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to give sincere thanks to all prison staff members who took part in the creative writing course. They would also like to thank the creative writing tutors who delivered the course at the two prison sites.
Consent to participate
Informed consent for participation was obtained from all participants involved in the project evaluation. Consent was gained through the signing of digital consent forms.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical approval
The research reported in this article received ethical approval from the University of Hull Ethics Committee and the NRC.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the University of Hull via the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
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References
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