Through Hope and Struggle: The Impact of “Gaisce – The President's Award” on Young Adults in Irish Prisons

• Author: Silvia Gagliardi,Orlaith Rice
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855231154807
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Through Hope and

Struggle: The Impact of

“Gaisce –The President’s

Award”on Young Adults

in Irish Prisons

Silvia Gagliardi

1

and Orlaith Rice

1

Abstract

This article is an exploratory study of young adult incarcerees’perspectives

on the impact of “Gaisce,”a self-development program for youth in Irish cus-

tody. Drawing on 10 semistructured interviews with male participants and a

review of previous studies of this cohort, the article highlights their percep-

tions of Gaisce’s strengths and weaknesses, paving the way for further ref‌lec-

tion on self-development programs in custodial settings. Taking place during

COVID-19, the investigation provides unique insight into the experiences of

young adults participating in such a program during a pandemic.

Keywords

youth, prison, Gaisce program, Ireland, COVID-19

Introduction

Building on f‌indings from an Irish-based study by Clarke MacMahon and

O’Reilly (2015), this article contributes to the under-researched area of

“what it feels like to do time in the Republic of Ireland”(O’Donnell, 2008,

p. 122) for young adults participating in educational and self-development

programs.

1

The current investigation was developed as an exploratory,

1

UCD Sutherland School of Law, Dublin, Ireland

Corresponding Author:

Silvia Gagliardi, UCD Sutherland School of Law, Belf‌ield Campus, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Email: silvia.gagliardi@ucd.ie

Article

The Prison Journal

2023, Vol. 103(2) 258–279

© 2023 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855231154807

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

participant-centered, qualitative evaluation of a self-development program in

Ireland, “Gaisce–The President’s Award”(thereafter: Gaisce)

2

. As incarcer-

ated young adults have not evaluated the program to date, much is still

unknown about the impact of program participation for this specif‌ic group.

This evaluation can be used as a tool to inform the future direction of

similar programs in prison settings, both in Ireland and elsewhere.

The article addresses two key questions: f‌irst, what is the experience and

impact of participating in a noncompetitive, nonformal learning program

for young adults in prison? Second, does the program impact their attitudes,

behaviors, future plans, and/or pathways?

Young people who wish to participate in Gaisce must be at least 15 years

old and apply before the age of 26. Gaisce “has been proven to enhance con-

f‌idence and wellbeing through participation in personal, physical and commu-

nity challenges”

3

(Gaisce, 2021). Gaisce is a nonformal educational tool

(Gaisce, 2015) that has been shown to strengthen a range of positive psycho-

logical attributes and social and emotional competencies (including hope,

self-eff‌icacy, self-esteem, happiness, and psychological wellbeing) (Clarke

MacMahon & O’Reilly, 2015, p. vi).

While many extant youth justice interventions operate in the community

and aim to keep young people out of prison (IPRT, 2015), there are also

opportunities for youth development during incarceration. Gaisce is available

in prison as well as in the community, and has been undertaken by young

adults in custody since 2004. During this time, almost 300 awards have

been achieved by youth in prison (MJMU, 2021, p. 19). For many of these

youthful offenders, a Gaisce Award is the f‌irst positive recognition they

have ever received (Healy, 2018).

There are four challenges to achieve a Gaisce Award: community involve-

ment, personal skill, physical recreation, and an adventure journey (Gaisce,

2015). While the adventure journey cannot be undertaken in a closed prison, a

similar version of it is possible in an openprisonsetting.Inclosedprisons,

Gaisce participants are asked to undertake a group or team project instead of

the adventure journey, meeting the principles of the adventure journey, that is,

teamwork and co-operation toward a common goal. Once they submit their appli-

cation, Gaisce participants can take as long as necessary to complete the chal-

lenge required for each award. While the Bronze and Silver Awards take a

minimum of 26 weeks to complete, the Gold Award requires at least 52 weeks

(Gaisce, 2021). During the COVID-19 lockdowns, however, Bronze and

Silver participants did not partake in group or team challenges.

Against this backdrop, it is important to note that “data from Ireland on

prisoner prof‌iles reveals a picture of social and educational disadvantage”

(Carrigan & Maunsell, 2014, p. 401). Illustrating the “intergenerational

Gagliardi and Rice 259