How to Listen Through a Wall: Lessons From Conducting Participatory Action Research in an Urban Prison

• Published date: 01 November 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241272304
• Author: Emalie Rell,Daniel O’Connell,Darryl Chambers,Christy Visher,Mackenzie Niness,Paige Brakeley
• Date: 01 November 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241272304

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2024, Vol. 40(4) 601 –618

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862241272304

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Original Article

How to Listen Through

a Wall: Lessons From

Conducting Participatory

Action Research in an Urban

Prison

Emalie Rell1, Daniel O’Connell1, Darryl Chambers1,

Christy Visher1, Mackenzie Niness1,

and Paige Brakeley1

Abstract

This project sought to understand the present-day experiences of individuals housed

in prisons by utilizing Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods that partnered a

university research team with individuals incarcerated in an urban correctional facility.

The team assessed perceptions of the current environment by surveying people

incarcerated in an urban prison. This article discusses the role of PAR methodologies

from project initiation to finalization, explicitly focusing on coordination with prison

and Department of Correction (DOC) administrative leadership and the value

of including incarcerated individuals on the research team for successful change.

Throughout the process, the team identified areas for improvement and innovations

to improve the prison environment. This article provides a road map, lessons learned

from conducting PAR in prison environments, and the power of partnering researchers

and members of the researched population on one collaborative research team.

Keywords

street participatory action research, innovation, incarcerated

1University of Delaware, Newark, USA

Corresponding Author:

Emalie Rell, Center for Drug and Health Studies, University of Delaware, 257 East Main Street, Suite

110, Newark, DE 19716, USA.

Email: erell@udel.edu

1272304CCJXXX10.1177/10439862241272304Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeRell et al.

research-article2024

602 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 40(4)

Walls often hamper the study of prisons and those living within prisons, not the obvi-

ous physical ones, but barriers established by regulative regimes of prison policy, uni-

versity human subject’s review boards, and the perception of prisons as undesirable

places to conduct research. Generally, an outside entity, like a university, has difficulty

approaching a correctional system and requests to conduct research on the climate and

culture of the prison and the experiences of those living in it. This is due to the hidden

nature of the prison environment, as well as the emotional strain some researchers’

experience (Jewkes, 2012; Reiter, 2014; Wacquant, 2002). Furthermore, the research

that does occur tends to be evaluative, assessing the impact of a program or the validity

of an assessment tool, or even further removed, such as the impact of legislation on the

daily bed count within the system.

While all these lines of inquiry are legitimate, these approaches treat people as data

or as a means to obtain data and not as active participants studying the institution or

system. The result is that the institutions are described and interpreted by outsiders.

Changes in the types of research approaches to understanding the hidden environment

of a complex correctional structure are emerging. However, more work is needed to

develop a standard or method by which the study of prisons can become more nuanced.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a growing methodology used by multiple

fields to effectively understand prisons and to provide a voice to those who live and

work in them (Fine & Torre, 2006; Payne & Bryant, 2018). PAR focuses on involving

the researched population in the research process, as well as making changes to

improve the inequalities of the researched population (Baum et al., 2006).

This article reports on a project in a Delaware prison that utilized a PAR approach

to studying the institution. The project is part of the more extensive Prison Research

and Innovation Initiative (PRII), intended to utilize PAR methods to create and study

innovations in the Prison Research and Innovation Network (PRIN) sites (described in

this volume). This article utilized a case study approach to the employment of the

Street PAR methodology (see Payne, 2017) in a Delaware prison. We explore how the

PAR approach operationalizes and interprets data with more validity than an outside

research team or prison administration, using an observed change among incarcerated

individuals in reported sexual assault by staff across two waves of survey data as an

example. Utilization of PAR approaches in understanding the prison environment can

lead to refined interpretations of data from the lens of those most keen on the environ-

ment or population observed.

What Is PAR?

PAR derives from the conceptualization of action research, first used by social psycholo-

gist Kurt Lewin (1946). There are various action research methodologies with multiple

iterations of tenets, approaches, and standards (Payne & Bryant, 2018). PAR refers spe-

cifically to the methodology and practice of including community members in the

research process and providing a voice to participants who are typically underrepre-

sented and undervalued in the studied community. According to Baum et al. (2006):