Radio What's New? Someone Still Loves You: The Impact of Listening to Prison Radio

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855231200632
• Author: Tomer Einat,Maayan Nagar
• Date: 01 November 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Radio What’s New?

Someone Still Loves

You: The Impact of

Listening to Prison Radio

Tomer Einat

1

and Maayan Nagar

2

Abstract

This study examines the impact of listening to prison radio on the well-being

of inmates. Its main quantitative f‌indings are that listening to the radio had

no signif‌icant impact on inmates’anxiety, anger, emotional distress, or

self-esteem. The qualitative results found that listening to the radio has a

positive impact on inmates’well-being, their outlook, the atmosphere of

the prison, and peer relationships. We conclude that the practice of prison

radio ref‌lects sophisticated prison administration, reducing feelings of hostil-

ity and anger on the part of the inmates and promoting trust among inmates

and between them and the staff.

Keywords

prison, radio, inmates, well-being

Introduction

Multiple studies have indicated the extremely stressful nature of prison life,

whether due to the behaviors of inmates, most of whom have had a troubled

life prior to incarceration, or the prison environment (Block & Ruffolo, 2015;

1

Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

2

Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Tomer Einat, Department of Criminology, Bar Ilan University, Building 213, Room 437, Ramat-

Gan 5290002, Israel.

Email: einatt@biu.ac.il

Article

The Prison Journal

2023, Vol. 103(5) 586–609

© 2023 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855231200632

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Crewe, 2011; Haggerty & Bucerius, 2020). Many imprisoned persons come

from highly disadvantaged backgrounds (poor, undereducated, and chroni-

cally unemployed; Heidari et al., 2017), and suffer from poor physical and

mental health (Baranyi et al., 2019; Semenza & Grosholz, 2019). In prison,

their freedom is deprived (Holman & Zeidenberg, 2006; Jewkes, 2002b)

under conditions of overcrowding and a violent community (Bensimon

et al., 2015; Crewe, 2011). Their ongoing travails in that environment test

their mental resilience (Warr, 2016). Consequently, many inmates suffer

from high levels of distress, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and anger

(Liebling, 2007; Nagar, 2022).

Understanding prisoners’distress and its effect on their maladaptive and

criminal behaviors, particularly violent crimes in prison, is of paramount

concern for correctional services (Ireland et al., 2006; Mansoor et al.,

2015). Consequently, U.S. and European correctional services have proposed

various efforts to combat the high levels of stress and anger in prison (Bouw

et al., 2019), and heighten inmates’awareness of the potential consequences

of these and other negative emotions (Hughes & Wilson, 2018). Such mea-

sures include physical exercise (Battaglia et al., 2015; O’Toole et al., 2018;

Woods et al., 2017), recreational activities (Basaran, 2016; Edgemon &

Clay-Warner, 2018), and formal and informal educational programs (Flynn

et al., 2020; Heard et al., 2013).

One program proven effective in improving inmates’well-being is prison

radio (Bedford, 2016; Jewkes, 2002b). Radio stations in prisons expose all

inmates to contents relevant for their everyday life (Scifo, 2015). The assumption

is that listening to various radio programs that encourage inmates to abandon

criminal patterns of thought and behavior and to adopt normative ones instead

will help them rehabilitate and reintegrate in society (Anderson & Bedford,

2017b). Several studies (i.e., Bedford, 2016; Knight & Tighe, 2017) indicate

that radio programs in prison signif‌icantly contribute to promoting social

values and norms and to reducing facility antisocial and criminal behaviors.

Often employing terms and expressions from the inmates’own world and

addressing issues highly relevant to their lives, radio programming promotes pos-

itive change and helps inmates to desist from crime following their release.

Radio Focus—a station operated by and for inmates—was launched by the

Israeli Prison Service (IPS) in 2017 in Ayalon, a maximum-security prison

facility. Its objectives are to distribute internal knowledge (i.e., knowledge

regarding inmates’rights, rehabilitation programs in prison facilities, etc.),

to enable inmates who work in the radio to express themselves creatively

and practice normative social skills such as teamwork and interpersonal com-

munication, and to promote cognitive and behavioral processes among the

listeners.

Einat and Nagar 587