Reducing Violence in Prisons: Involving the Prisoner Voice and Experience

ICPA2023 Presentation by Natalie Parett and Sam Smith (ICPA2023-PID186)

Authors

Natalie Parrett MSc, CPsychol, AFBPsS

Head of Custodial Psychological Servies, J&I, Serco, United Kingdom

Natalie Parrett (MSc, CPsychol, AFBPsS) is a Principal Forensic Psychologist with 21 years’ experience working in prisons and secure hospitals in the UK. She is now the Head of Custodial Psychological Services for the privately managed Serco prisons in the UK, providing the strategic leadership, oversight, is clinically responsible for the governance for Psychological Services and provides consultation and advice on psychological matters to the Prison Directors. She has a particular interest in innovating and developing psychologically-informed prison practice, is the Clinical Lead for Social Responsibility Units (bespoke units to manage and support prisoners with a history of anti-social and violent prison behaviour) and develops psychologically informed training for prison staff. Natalie is a peer reviewer for academic journals and her research includes: Assessing female sexual offenders’ motivations and cognitions: An exploratory study. Staff-prisoner interactions and readiness to change. An evaluation of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder screening assessment constructed for use in a prison setting. ‘Spokes of Commitment’: The development of theory for the premature withdrawal from prison based Therapeutic Communities. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of prison officer experiences when working with personality disordered offenders with intellectual disabilities. An evaluation of the Paro Seal with a vulnerable prison population in a UK Prison.

Sam Smith

Forensic Psychologist, Serco

Sam Smith (MSc, CPsychol, AFBPsS) is a Registered and Chartered Forensic Psychologist with nine years experience working in high security prisons in the UK. He has previously worked in the community in Youth Offending Services and as a Restorative Justice Practitioner. Sam currently practices as a Forensic Psychologist at a privately managed Serco prison. He is the clinical lead in providing psychological consultancy on Young Adults in custody and Men Convicted of Sexual Offences (MCoSO). He also oversees the clinical training and supervision of assessments for high intensity Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBP's). His research includes: “A different world” exploring and understanding the climate of a recently re-rolled sexual offender prison, Prisoner Perspectives of Prison-Based Violence: A Qualitative Grounded Theory Analysis, and Exploring the association between 'negative interpersonal relating' and attrition within a Democratic prison-based Therapeutic Community.

This resource is restricted to a higher membership level - please log in or upgrade your membership level to continue