‘Shining a Light in Dark Spaces’: Challenges, Rewards and Recommendations for Studying Human Rights and Prisons

ABSTRACT

As Western countries continue to adopt human rights regulations within prisons, there is an open question as to how well these rights are integrated. While access to conduct research in prisons is generally difficult, research seeking to examine the implementation of human rights principles potentially raises additional concerns. As this paper shows, access to conduct such studies is indeed difficult. Drawing on interviews with scholars in Australia and Great Britain who study human rights in prisons, I examine the challenges of conducting such research, the benefits of such research and recommendations for improving the process for conducting such research.