Mental Health in Prisons

Alice Mills is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where she moved in 2011. Prior to this she worked at the Universities of Cardiff and Southampton and the Open University. Alice has extensive experience of researching mental health in prisons. She completed her doctorate on facilities for prisoners with special needs in 2003 and has since conducted quantitative and qualitative research evaluating mental health in-reach teams and the effect of the prison imprisonment on mental health, and examining adherence to anti-psychotic medication in prisons. As a Samaritan volunteer, she also ran peer Listener schemes in prisons for four years. More recently, she has completed research on the role of non-governmental organisations in criminal justice in the UK and New Zealand and housing for vulnerable populations. She is currently examining the use of Tikanga Maori in indigenous youth courts and community sector housing support for ex-prisoners

Kathleen Kendall is an Associate Professor in Sociology as Applied to Medicine at the University of Southampton, UK. She was a research associate in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, from April 1989 to April 1992. This was a joint position between the University of Saskatchewan and the Regional Psychiatric Centre (Prairies). During this time she conducted research on mental health issues with prisoners and staff inside the Regional Psychiatric Centre (Prairies) and Pine Grove Correctional Centre, Prince Albert. She then worked as a program evaluator/researcher at the Prison for Women in Kingston Ontario from May 1992 to March 1993. During this time she carried out a program evaluation of therapeutic services at what was then the only federal women's prison. From April 1993 to September 1993, Kathy worked as a Special Advisor on Female Offenders at Correctional Service of Canada's National Headquarters in Ottawa. She then moved to the UK to undertake her PhD. Since arriving in the UK, Kathy has continued to undertake various research projects related to mental health in prisons including critical analyses of the psy-sciences, offending behaviour programmes and gender-responsive penal practices and policies. Her research has resulted in a number of published journal articles and book chapters. She is currently completing historical research on the first 'criminal lunatic' asylum in Canada.