Impact case study database

Moran’s work on the design considerations of carceral spaces has led to a two-fold impact:

1. Changes to policies and processes such that all new prisons in England and Wales that are under construction in the ongoing £1.3bn PETP (such as HMP Wellingborough, opening 2021, £235m) are designed to deliver rehabilitation, with rehabilitative design elements (such as green spaces) integral to their designs.

2. The retrofitting of rehabilitative design elements in existing prisons in England, Wales and the Netherlands which has already delivered improvements to over 80,000 prisoners’ wellbeing.

Taken together, these impacts have led to improved in-custody and post-custody outcomes. These significantly benefit individual prisoners and wider society by helping to address high rates of prison self-harm and violence. As a result, they reduce the annual c.£3m cost of hospital treatment for self-harming prisoners, the c.£30m paid annually in litigation to prisoners and prison officers involved in violent assaults and the c.£4m annual cost of training new prison officers to replace those leaving the prison service (in England and Wales).

These improvements will translate into reduced rates of reoffending which presently costs the UK £7–10bn/year. This is evidenced by expert HMPPS/NOMS testimony, which highlights the positive impact of the inclusion of rehabilitative design elements on prisoners’ wellbeing: they “reduce the stressfulness of the environment, opening up headspace for [prisoners] to think about their futures” (S1). Similarly, cited in S1, the CEO of HMPPS noted that at HMP Berwyn such changes “make a real difference to the ‘feel’ of the prison” (S1).

Impact on the Design of New Prisons

Confidential briefings to policymakers and architects at MoJED (2015–16, based on pre-prints of R1), advised that rather than simply delivering ‘on budget’ and in line with technical and security specifications, the design of new prisons should focus on delivery of rehabilitative outcomes (KF1) and draw on the research evidence of the therapeutic effects of natural light and green spaces (R2 and R3; KF2). Described by MoJED as a “turning point” in PETP thinking, this advice proved “an impetus to policy formulations” and “a key part of the development of the architectural brief” (S2). It “provided a starting point for developing the designs” (S2) for these new prisons, with design features such as natural light and nature contact enabling wellbeing and rehabilitation (S3). Provision of green spaces is now a key principle of the PETP programme, with PETP Executive Architect and Chief Engineer Bryden Wood stating that their final designs for these new prisons “put her [Moran] research evidence into practice” (S4).

Impact on the Physical Environment of Existing Prisons

In England and Wales, following confidential briefings (2016 onwards to HMPPS/NOMS (supported by drafts of R2 and R3 identifying the benefits of natural light and nature contact for prisoners’ wellbeing), HMPPS committed to “transform physical environments” (S1). This commitment is “spreading fast across the entire organisation and entering into thinking at every level” (S1), influencing wellbeing for >80,000 prisoners (and >20,000 prison officers), most of whom live and work in austere built environments lacking in green space.

An HMPPS Evidence Summary which “drew heavily on” this research was “disseminated across the entire organisation and read by every Governor and operational leader” (S5). It was also used in: “prison reform design workshops” (S5) and “countless presentations and workshops with […] prison governors”. It features heavily in the Rehabilitative Culture Handbook for all prison governors, where the research underpins HMPPS’ Rehabilitative Culture Project promoting rehabilitative physical environments throughout the prison estate (S1).

More specifically, confidential advice (based on R2 and R3) tailored to individual prisons via site-visits and reports, led directly to changes affecting >5,000 prisoners in the UK. For example:

1. HMP Berwyn have made “rehabilitative physical environment” a strategic goal and introduced non-standard interior colour schemes, whole-wall nature images and exterior landscaping (KF2; R9; S5 and S6; Figure 1a and 1b).

2. The Teeside Reform Prisons Strategy took direct guidance from “transformed physical environment” (S7), to inform a package of interventions. These included: “change of colour scheme, better soft furnishings, illuminating the concrete walkways with coloured recycled plastics, […] colour coding to help people locate specific areas within the prison, and building a pond by one of the houseblocks” (KF2; S1); and a successful application to the Woodland Trust for a grant to plant 340 trees on the site.

3. HMP Stocken created a keyworker garden (KF2; S1; R9).

4. HMP Lincoln committed to every cell window having a view of green space (KF2; R9; S8)

The impact has also reached an international audience, with Prof. Moran engaged with prisons across the EU as well as in Colombia and New Zealand. The most notable outcome of this to date has been an extension of the work to existing prisons in the Netherlands. Having read R4, policymakers at the DCIA invited Moran to Nieuwegein prison in 2017 to give confidential advice about how prison visiting rooms’ spatial layout can enable supportive visits, and enhance wellbeing, rehabilitation and desistance from reoffending. Based on early drafts of R5 and R6, her advice led to a complete redesign of the visiting room. An independent evaluation found that as a result, prisoner wellbeing improved, without any increase in ingress of contraband such as phones or drugs (KF3; R8; S9; Figure 1c).

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Figure 1: Interventions at HMP Berwyn (a and b) and Nieuwegein prison (c).