The Life in Custody Study: the quality of prison life in Dutch prison regimes

Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Ahead of Print. Purpose The Life in Custody (LIC) Study is a nationwide prospective cohort study examining the quality of prison life in the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to describe Dutch prisoners ’ perceptions of prison climate, as well as differences across regimes. Design/methodology/approach The target population of the study consisted of all male and female adult prisoners in the Netherlands who were incarcerated in various regimes in a total of 28 prisons, between January and April 2017. An intensive and personal recruitment strategy was employed. Participants completed a detailed survey, the prison climate questionnaire (PCQ). Self-reported information on a variety of topics was collected, including perceived prison climate, well-being and self-reported behaviour. Findings In total, 4,938 prisoners participated in the survey, which amounts to a high response rate of 81 per cent. Analyses show that respondents’ characteristics are almost identical to those of non-respondents. Ratings of prison climate vary across domains and regimes, with more positive scores for min imum-security regimes. Practical implications A detailed methodological approach is described that can be adopted to achieve a high response rate with survey research among prisoners. The paper alerts researchers and practitioners to a large ongoing study and first findings on prison climate in th e Netherlands. The PCQ can be re...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Source Type: research