A Verbatim Film-Research Collaboration Seeking To Raise Awareness of Prison Suicide, 2020-2024

This is qualitative data collection of semi-structured interviews conducted between June-July 2023, and online surveys conducted throughout 2022, within a study that examined how the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (seek to) effect change in prisons following prisoner suicides and how verbatim film can help to increase the impact of research findings. The study ran from 2021-2023.

Prisoner suicide rates are consistently higher than rates among communities living outside. Between 2012 and 2016, England and Wales’s prison suicide rates more than doubled, hitting record numbers in 2016. Often those most invested in prison safety are those personally impacted, and campaigns by prisoners’ families can have material effects. This project included a collaboration between an academic research team, a bereaved parent and a theatre company, which aimed to raise awareness of prison suicide through verbatim film and communicate key messages to stakeholders across criminal justice.