Evaluations
An evaluation of The Irene Taylor Trust’s Sounding Out programme 2016-2018
Sounding Out is a music traineeship which provides former prisoners with longer-term opportunities upon their release, to bridge the gap between inside and outside prison. The evaluation takes a qualitative approach to explore the views and experiences of participants, staff and family members to understand if and how Sounding Out ... read on →
Applied Performance Arts Interventions within Justice Services: Moving 'Forward' Toward an Integrated Sustainable Evaluative Approach
This report evaluates the impact of a resettlement programme using forum theatre and therapeutic creative delivery in prisons, adult resettlement centres and secure units. It focuses on the impact good partnership has on effective projects as well as the need for long-term sustained work in prisons to ensure the highest ... read on →
Art on the Inside: How Do Prison Art Teachers Maintain Their Professional Practice as Artist?
This evaluation asks the question: how do prison art teachers actively seek out opportunity for development and advancement in their specialist field? It empowers the voice of eight prison art teachers as artists working within a broad context of custodial settings including young offender’s institutes, adult male prisons and a ... read on →
Write to be Heard: Supporting Offender Learning through Creative Writing
The report explores the impact of a creative writing programme developed to engage ‘hard to reach’ learners in prison. The mechanism was a creative writing competition, incorporating a schedule of workshops in 28 prisons, encouraging entrants to write pieces for broadcast on National Prison Radio (NPR). Using qualitative and quantitative ... read on →
Musical Pathways: an exploratory study of young people in the criminal justice system, engaged with a creative music programme
118 young people engaged in a participatory music programme across eight youth justice settings in England and Wales. The research objectives were to [1] investigate meanings and values young offenders attribute to music, their relationships with music, and its significance to their health, wellbeing, lifestyle and social status; [2] observe ... read on →
Sounding Out - Jim Cartwright
The report followed Music in Prisons as they ran a pilot ‘through the gate’ project which, through music, aimed to provide longer-term rehabilitative opportunities to previous project participants in order to help bridge the gap between life inside and out prison. The key aims were to assist reintegration; impact on ... read on →
Re-imagining futures: Exploring arts interventions and the process of desistance
Carried out by Northumbria University and Bath Spa University, this report highlights examples of how the arts can support positive changes linked to personal agency, efficacy and identity, which are linked to the highly individualised journey of desistance from criminal behaviour. Key findings show that participation in arts activities enables ... read on →
Developments in the HM Prison Service and Safe Ground Family Man programme, and the Safe Ground Network during 2007-8: An independent review
The purpose of this evaulation was to examine the developments Safe Ground had made to one of its prison interventions, Family Man, and to the Safe Ground network during the period 2007-08 following recommendations made in previous reviews. It utilised semi structured qualitative face to face interviews, telephone interviews and questionnaires ... read on →
Serious Play: an evaluation of arts activities in Pupil Referral Units and Learning Support Units
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to conduct research into the effects and effectiveness of arts projects in PRUs and LSUs. The study was also to consider the distinctive contribution that arts activities (as compared with other curriculum experiences) might make to pupils’ educational, ... read on →
