Vicky Gadd - Biography

	Contact Details
	Email: vg250@cam.ac.uk

Research Assistant (Prisons Research Centre) / PhD Student

Vicky holds an Applied Psychology degree (Bsc. Hons.) from Cardiff University which she completed in 2004. As part of this degree Vicky spent a year (Sept 2002 – June 2003) volunteering at HMP Long Lartin as a psychological assistant and programmes coordinator. She was the coordinator for the CALM (Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage it) offending behaviour programme and worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team in order to ensure the smooth running of the programme. As part of her role she was responsible for assessing inmates’ suitability to complete the CALM programme, which involved conducting semi-structured interviews, psychometric tests and risk assessments with the potential candidates. Other duties included creating and maintaining a database of both past and present CALM programme members from which performance statistics are now produced, assisting on psychopathy (PCL-R) tests and conducting research with the CARATS drug team on institutional drug use and coping.
Vicky came to work at the Institute of Criminology in September 2005 as a research assistant working on developing a quality of life survey for prison staff. This involved piloting the survey at six establishments and refining the survey to its present form. The survey is currently being used by the Prison Service as part of its Performance Improvement Process for struggling establishments. Vicky is now undertaking a PhD entitled ‘Characteristics and Working Practices of Effective Senior Management Teams in Public Sector Prisons’, supervised by Prof. Alison Liebling. Through this research she aims to explore the roles, functions, attitudes, working relationships, practices and outcomes of senior management teams in public sector prisons.