Dr Ben Laws

Over the next three years Ben's ESRC grant will be used to explore the emotional dimensions of segregation units in England and Wales. The study is titled: 

Prisoner Emotions at the Margins: Understanding the pathways to destruction and healing among prisoners in solitary confinement

The main aims of the study are to:

(1) Examine the key dynamics of the emotional world of solitary confinement

Prisoners will be asked about the specific ways they manage emotions (levels of expression, suppression, and emotional ‘reframing’ etc.), and about the intensity and prevalence of different emotions—especially, fear, anger, sadness, anxiety; but also emotions such as joy, care and serenity. The inclusion of both men and women in this study, builds on Ben's previous comparative research, and revises the tendency to treat female prisoners as ‘correctional afterthoughts’.

(2) Explore the emotional ‘pathways’ of prisoners who experience segregation

Little is known about the patterns of emotional development of these marginalized sub-groups over time. In light of this, the study will examine how ‘cycles of infractions’ in situ can potentiate entrenched pathways of violence and long-term patterns of despair. Importantly, O’Donnell (2014: 283) discusses the need to explain ‘triumphs as well as tragedies’. This will be executed by measuring whether managing emotions in particular ways, or learning specific coping strategies, leads to differential developmental outcomes (e.g. ‘healing’, or ‘destructive’ pathways).

Ben’s PhD was supervised by Dr. Ben Crewe. It examined the emotional dimensions of prison life and investigated the ways in which male and female prisoners regulated their emotions. Using a combination of semi-structured interviews and prisoner shadowing, Ben conducted his research in HMP Ranby (a Category C men's prison in Nottinghamshire) and HMP Send (a closed category women's prison in Surrey). Ben hopes to transform these findings into a research monograph in the near future.