‘Cocooning’ in prison during COVID-19: Findings from recent research in Ireland
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708221132888 |
| Author | Joe Garrihy,Ian Marder,Patricia Gilheaney |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘Cocooning’in prison during
COVID-19: Findings from
recent research in Ireland
Joe Garrihy
School of Law and Criminology,Maynooth University, Co Kildare, Ireland
Ian Marder
School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, Co Kildare,
Ireland
Patricia Gilheaney
Office of the Inspector of Prisons, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Ireland
Abstract
The advent of COVID-19 prompted the enforced isolation of elderly and vulnerable populations
around the world, for their own safety. For people in prison, these restrictions risked compound-
ing the isolation and harm they experienced. At the same time, the pandemic created barriers to
prison oversight when it was most needed to ensure that the state upheld the rights and wellbeing
of those in custody. This article reports findings from a unique collaboration in Ireland between
the Office of the Inspector of Prisons –a national prison oversight body –and academic crimin-
ologists. Early in the pandemic, they cooperated to hear the voices of people ‘cocooning’–
isolated because of their advanced age or a medical vulnerability –in Irish prisons by providing
journals to this cohort, analysing the data, and encouraging the Irish Prison Service to change prac-
tices accordingly. The findings indicated that ‘cocooners’were initially ambivalent about these new
restrictions, both experiencing them as a punishment akin to solitary confinement, and under-
standing the goal of protection. As time passed, however, participants reported a drastic impact
on their mental and physical health, and implications for their (already limited) agency and relation-
ships with others, experienced more or less severely depending on staff and management prac-
tices. The paper also discusses the implications for prison practices during and following the
pandemic, understanding isolation in the penological context, and collaboration between prison
oversight bodies and academics.
Corresponding author:
Joe Garrihy, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, Co Kildare, Ireland.
Email: Joe.Garrihy@mu.ie
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 20(3) 996–1015
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14773708221132888
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Keywords
prisons, COVID-19, cocooning, shielding, prison oversight, prison life, isolation
Introduction
The global pandemic reshaped prison regimes and the experiences of people in custody.
New rules imposed to manage the spread of COVID-19 were felt most acutely by people
categorised as vulnerable due to their age (≥70) or underlying health conditions, with
many placed on long-term restricted regimes for their own protection (Byrne et al.,
2020). Given existing knowledge about the pains and deprivations of imprisonment
(Crewe, 2011a; Sykes, 1958), however, it was likely that this policy of ‘cocooning’–
the prolonged separation from the general population of those most vulnerable to
dying from COVID-19 –would exacerbate the isolation, lack of access to services and
diminished agency already experienced by those in custody.
Early in the pandemic, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) in Ireland collaborated
with academics to hear the voices of people required to cocoon in Irish prisons. They aimed to
overcome the barriers to prison oversight and establish how best to minimise the harms that
imprisoned ‘cocooners’experienced because of the public health restrictions. In April 2020,
they gave journals to most persons cocooning across Irish prisons. Out of 86 journals deliv-
ered, 72 were returned after two weeks, 49 of which contained writing and/or drawings. Upon
the journals’analysis, the group engaged with the Irish Prison Service (IPS) and civil society
stakeholders to discuss the findings and their implications for policy and practice.
This article reports their process and findings, exploring how people in prison (PIP)
experienced cocooning early in the pandemic, and situating the results in the literature
on experiences of imprisonment. The findings suggest that, while cocooners generally
believed that the policy was in place to protect them, their feelings of punishment,
boredom and despair greatly exceeded those in normal times, particularly among
people reporting existing mental or physical health conditions. Moreover, the study indi-
cates that decisions made by prison authorities, and by the staff with whom cocooners
interacted, could temper or exacerbate the problems they experienced.
Although compulsory cocooning has now ended in Ireland, the insights and implica-
tions of this research are of value across the prison studies field for several reasons.
Firstly, PIP can continue to cocoon voluntarily, and recent experience suggests that
public health measures, including quarantine periods for recent committals, may be
relaxed and reintroduced cyclically for some time. Secondly, as PIP globally are sub-
jected to prolonged periods of isolation for various medical and non-medical reasons,
these findings can inform responses to isolation in prisons generally. Thirdly, the study
represents an example of how prison services can listen to the voices of the most vulner-
able people in their care and how academics can support prison oversight.
The article commences by outlining the restrictions imposed in Irish prisons as the
pandemic commenced and the need for research to investigate their impact, in the
context of literature on the negative effects of isolation in prisons. The next section
describes the challenges of prison oversight during the pandemic, before detailing the
project’s initiation and, separately, the methodology. It then divides the findings into
Garrihy et al. 997
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