Prisons and their communities: testing a new approach. An account of the Restorative Prison Project 2000-2004.

Source: (2005) London: King’s College London, International Centre for Prison Studies.

The International Centre for Prison Studies works to deepen understanding of prisons, their use and their potential contribution to the well-being of the wider society. In the course of the project described in this document we began the long process of changing radically the way we think about prisons. Part of such change is likely to be a completely new perspective on the role of those who work in prisons. It will undoubtedly also involve a profound change in the experience of imprisonment for prisoners. This document is not intended to be a report on the details of the project, nor a theoretical analysis of the idea of the restorative prison. Rather, it is an account of an idea, of how that idea was taken up by people who understood it and found it inspiring and of the places where the idea was put into practice for all to see. (excerpt).