From the Outside In: Narratives of Creative Arts Practitioners Working in the Criminal Justice System
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12318 |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Author | ELLA SIMPSON,LAURA S. CAULFIELD,CATHERINE MORGAN |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
The Howard Journal Vol58 No 3. September 2019 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12318
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 384–403
From the Outside In: Narratives of
Creative Arts Practitioners Working
in the Criminal Justice System
ELLA SIMPSON, CATHERINE MORGAN
and LAURA S. CAULFIELD
Ella Simpson is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Bath Spa University;
Catherine Morgan is Subject Leader, Criminology and Sociology, Bath Spa
University; Laura S. Caulfield is Founding Chair, Institute for Community
Research and Development, University of Wolverhampton
Abstract: The penal voluntary sector is highly variegated in its roles, practices and
functions, though research to date has largely excluded the experiences of frontline prac-
titioners. We argue that engaging with the narratives of practitioners can provide fuller
appreciation of the potential of the sector’s work. Though life story and narrative have
been recognised as important in offender desistance (Maruna 2001), the narrative iden-
tities of creative arts practitioners, who are important ‘change agents’ (Albertson 2015),
are typically absent. This is despite evidence to suggest that a practitioner’s life history
can be a significant and positive influence in the rehabilitation of offenders (Harris
2017). Using narratological analysis (Bal 2009), this study examined the narratives of
19 creative practitioners in prisons in England and Wales.Of particular interest were the
formative experiences of arts practitioners in their journey to prison work. The findings
suggest that arts practitioners identify with an ‘outsider’ status and may be motivated by
an ethic of mutual aid. In the current climate of third sector involvement in the delivery
of criminal justice interventions, such a capacity may be both a strength and a weakness
for arts organisations working in this field.
Keywords: alterity; arts interventions; narrative criminology; penal voluntary
sector; prisons
Introduction
Marketisation and the Ethos of the Voluntary Sector
The penal landscape has changed considerably in recent decades with
increasing numbers of voluntary sector organisations delivering inter-
ventions and services alongside public and private sector organisations
(Gojkovic, Mills and Meek 2011; Wyld and Noble 2017). Dubbed the pe-
nal voluntary sector in the UK (Carey and Walker 2002; Corcoran 2011;
384
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2019 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol58 No 3. September 2019
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 384–403
Tomczak 2014, 2017a, 2017b), volunteers and philanthropists have had an
established presence in modern penal systems. The creation of a mixed
economy of criminal justice in England and Wales over the course of the
last three decades has significantly boosted the involvement of the penal
voluntary sector (see Maguire 2012, pp.484–5).
Marketisation has raised concerns about conflicts of interest and depar-
ture from established ethics, values and practice in the voluntary sector
(Benson and Hedge 2009; Maguire 2012; Mills, Meek and Gojkovic 2011).
Research by Corcoran et al. (2018) suggests that the sector increasingly ‘ei-
ther outwardly complies with, or, in a minority of cases, actively embraces,
competitive marketized models’ in a manner that can cause conflict with
their founding ethos and values (p.188). Tomczak’s (2017a, pp.155,164)
study of voluntary sector involvement in payment-by-results (PbR)
schemes and post-custodial supervision concludes that these organisations
had a role in expansion of regulatory and carceral State power.The sector’s
strategic importance in the neoliberal programme of penal reform in Eng-
land and Wales has subjected it to ‘penal drift’ (Corcoran 2011) alongside
more control and discipline by the State (Corcoran et al. 2018; Tomczak
2017a). However, despite being imbricated in increasingly complex con-
figurations of resourcing in a largely unplanned and competitive mixed
market of penal provision, voluntary sector organisations have not entirely
abandoned established practice and values (Tomczak 2017a, p.166) nor
become ‘biddable agents’ of neoliberal policy and marketisation (Tomczak
2014, p.482). This appears to reflect a long-standing duality in the volun-
tary sector, identified by Kendall and Knapp (1996), Salaman (2012, p.3),
and Tomczak (2017a): it acts as a ‘reactionary force’ legitimising the status
quo and as a ‘channel for dissent’ (Kendall and Knapp 1996, pp.59–60).
Service provision coexists with: advocacy and campaigning (Hucklesby
and Corcoran 2016, p.2); philanthropy and ‘middle class patronage’
(Kendall and Knapp 1996, p.51) with an ethos of mutual aid (Smith,
Rochester and Hedley 1995); individual empowerment with social control
(Tomczak 2017a, p.153). Marketisation pushes this dualism further –
more formal, detached and depersonalised ‘case-processing’ practice
displaces the customary, informal and involved ways in which staff
interacted with service users (Corcoran et al. 2018, p.193; Maguire 2012,
p.491).
Much of the literature on this changing landscape focuses on struc-
tural organisation and strategic goals, with some exceptions (see Salole
2016; Tomczak 2017b). There is a scarcity of data which articulate the
complexities of the grass-roots operations of a sector which comprises sev-
eral thousand diverse organisations: varied in size, scope, roles, functions,
ambitions, service users, and relationships to the commissioning processes
and supply chains of the penal market (Tomczak 2014, pp.473–4, 479–80,
2017b, pp.76–80, 172, 175; Wyld and Noble 2017). Research is needed to
increase understanding of the motivations, practices of frontline workers,
and ‘below the radar activities’ (Soteri-Proctor and Alcock 2012) which are
poorly understood (Tomczak and Albertson 2016).
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