Maycock, Meek and Woodall's edited collection Issues and innovations in prison health research is an invaluable handbook for anyone contemplating a participatory project with people who are living, or have lived, in prison. It consists of 13 substantive chapters, eleven of which are grounded in specific worked examples and all of which speak to the different challenges and opportunities of this kind of research. These insights range from prosaically practical, albeit vital, considerations like stakeholder management and rescheduling due to prison security issues, to complex psychological and theoretical considerations, like the formation of types of masculinities in prison and the efficacy for different methodologies of data analysis.
In the first of the substantive chapters (Chapter 2), Woodall sets the tone for the book by laying out the fundamental principles of establishing a participation project in prisons. It is well evidenced and deals with basic practical issues as well as more complex ethical ones. After this, each of the chapters are distinct and approach their topics in different ways; however, there are a few rough themes that connect chapters throughout the book.
Chapters 3 and 10 both focus on projects that seek to give people in prison agency in their own health education and that of their peers. In Chapter 3, Anita Mehay, Rosie Meek and Jane Ogden examine how peer-based health literacy education can work inside prison and includes an insightful interview-led exploration of the barriers to health literacy in prison. These range from structural barriers, to social problems, to the failures of the prison system itself. In Chapter 10, Ruth Freeman takes a similar peer-led health education model and compares it with a more traditional approach. In doing so she raises an interesting question about the nature of evidence in our discussions of evidence-based practice. By comparing two health education campaigns the chapter demonstrates the importance of using the evidence of prisoner's lived experience, as well as more traditionally scientific forms of evidence.
Chapters 4, 6, 7 and 8 each deal with different research methodologies for examining aspects of prisoners’ lives. Nasrul Ismail's Chapter 4 is a discussion of the use of a constructivist grounded theory methodology as part of a study of austerity in the prison system. This discussion would be useful to anyone considering using this methodological approach, and indeed it includes a number of innovative ideas. However, the chapter puts a lot of focus on the methodological detail, without spending enough time establishing the practical benefits or applicability of the method. The result is that the chapter feels quite heavy amid this accessible and practical book. In Chapter 6, James Fraser describes an interesting study of the experience of accessing health care in prison in Scotland. The experiences were related through a series of interviews with men w