Finding a safe place for the mind in prison. Kirstine Szifris discusses her work teaching philosopy in some of England‘s high secure prisons.

Kirstine is a criminologist with ten years experience in research and evaluation. Kirstine has been working with the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University since January 2021 and has a wealth of experience evaluating programmes in and around the criminal justice system. Prior to this, Kirstine completed her PhD at Cambridge University focusing on philosophy education in prison. She has recently published a book based on her PhD work entitled Philosophy behind bars: Growth and development in prison.  

 

Long-term prisoners need to be given the space to reflect, and grow. This ground-breaking study found that engaging prisoners in philosophy education enabled them to think about some of the ‘big’ questions in life and as a result to see themselves and others differently.

Using the prisoners’ own words, Kirstine shows the importance of this type of education for growth and development. She demonstrates how the philosophical dialogue led to a form of community which provided a space for self-reflection, pro-social interaction and communal exploration of ideas, which could have long-term positive consequences.