Dr David Skarbek is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Political Theory Project at Brown University. He is the author of The Social Order of the Underworld (Oxford, 2014), which won the APSA's William Riker Award for best book in political economy and the Outstanding Book Award from International Association for the Study of Organized Crime.

His new book is called ‘The puzzle of prison order: Why life behind bars varies around the world’.

In this episode, David chats to Omar about prison gangs in the USA and his award-winning book, as well as his new book examining prison governance internationally. As well as asking how prisoners govern, discussions also cover transgender prison units, and prisoner of war camps, as well as thoughts on defunding the police.

Dr David Skarbek | @DavidSkarbek | http://www.davidskarbek.com/  

Omar Phoenix Khan | @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Alison Liebling is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre. Alison has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to embark on significant further research and took a moment to reflect on her career-to-date with Omar. 

Alison's work includes a series of successful books and publications on several topics including suicides and suicide attempts among adult prisoners, public-private sector comparisons, the work and role of prison officers, and the nature and quality of staff-prisoner relationships.

As well as reflecting on her inspirations and how she came to 'appreciative inquiry' as a research method, Alison discusses three of her papers, including some past and some present work:

Paper 1: Women in our own Right or ‘Honorary Men’? Reflections on a Professional Life in Prisons Research

Paper 2: Finding George Eliot In Prison: Reflections On Its Moral Life

Paper 3: Moral performance, inhuman and degrading treatment and prison pain

Prof. Alison Liebling | @AlisonLiebling | @PrisonsResearch | https://www.prc.crim.cam.ac.uk/directory/liebling 

Omar Phoenix Khan | @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Catherine Heard is a senior research fellow at ICPR - the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, based at Birkbeck, University of London. In this episode, she talks with Omar about ICPR’s World Prison Research Programme, which builds on the World Prison Brief, ICPR's online database providing details of the prison systems of over 220 independent countries and dependent territories.

Catherine discusses the real-world application of comparative criminology including two notable instances where ICPR data was directly used at the highest level - once where outgoing President Barak Obama referenced ICPR work and also when Catherine had to  fact-check the Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sérgio Fernando Moro.

Key Publications Discussed: 

- Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in ten countries

- Towards a health-informed approach to penal reform? Evidence from ten countries

Catherine Heard | @ICPRtweet | @ICPSLONDON | https://www.icpr.org.uk/

Omar Phoenix Khan | @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Kerry Carrington is a Professor at the School of Justice in the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

In this episode, Kerry chats to Omar about the paradigm shift that is ‘Southern Criminology’, which exposes dominant forms of knowledge production as distinctly Northern/Western and challenges their claims of universality.

Kerry also discusses her preference for co-authoring, the numerous David & Goliath battles that she has taken on, and her passion for open access – ending with a call to action to aid the democratisation of knowledge.

We discuss the recent paper, Carrington, K., Guala, N., Puyol, M. V., & Sozzo, M. (2020), which uses the Southern Criminology paradigm to explore How Women’s Police Stations Empower Women, Widen Access to Justice and Prevent Gender Violence

Prof. Kerry Carrington | @CarringtonKL| Preventing Gender Violence | International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy

Omar Phoenix Khan | @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Kanika Samuels-Wortley is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Carleton University in Canada.

Kanika specialises in race and racism, youth delinquency, policing, corrections, and critical race theory. Her current research explores how perceptions and experiences with racial discrimination by law enforcement officials may contribute to victimization and offending among Black and Indigenous youth, thus maintaining their oppression and marginalization in Canadian society. She chats to Omar about her recent paper:

Youthful Discretion: Police Selection Bias in Access to Pre-Charge Diversion Programs in Canada. Race and Justice (2019)

Kanika Samuels-Wortley: [email protected] | @KanikaSamuels

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Dr Jamie Bennett has a huge wealth of experience in senior management positions across a range of specialised prison settings. These include as Governor of high-security prison HMP Long Lartin,  and as Governor of HMP Grendon, the only prison across England and Wales to operate entirely as a series of therapeutic communities, among many others. 

Today Jamie is the Deputy Director of the Operational Security Group for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, AND also a research associate at Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology AND editor of the Prison Service Journal. He has published over 100 articles and in this episode he talks with Omar about his journey through prison management and how he has come to question managerialism in prison. He also talks about prisons in the media, his role in Gold Command response to COVID-19 and getting his hands dirty in search of real-world impact.

Extract from paper: Against Prison Management

Dr Jamie Bennett: @drjamiebennett | Prison Service Journal

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan

@Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Dr Martin Glynn is a Critical Race Criminologist at Birmingham City University – but that does not come close to telling the full story. Martin is a writer, a dramatist, a data storyteller, the Writer in Residence at the National Justice Museum, and much more besides.

In this episode he speaks to Omar about his alternative outlook to working within Criminal Justice, how he is able to produce so much work – academically and creatively – all without compromising on his goals. He also discusses the 'BME attainment gap' at universities and navigating white space.

Dr Martin Glynn: @msoulfires

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan 

@Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Nina Champion is Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), a coalition of over 160 member organisations working towards a fairer and more effective criminal justice system. In this episode, Nina talks with Omar about her vision for the CJA and about steps towards reform – especially in the areas of systemic racism in policing and the valuing the contribution of those with lived experience.

CJA New report: Twenty one years after Macpherson Report, systemic racism in policing continues

Nina Champion: @ninachampioncja | Criminal Justice Alliance @cjalliance | http://criminaljusticealliance.org/

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Dr Hannah Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Stirling.

She talks with Omar about 'pracademia' and being close to both the practitioner and academic worlds.  Hannah talks about her book:

‘Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery’, and as an expert in electronic monitoring, she gives her take on the use of technology in reaction to covid about the time she wore a tag herself!

Dr Hannah Graham: @DrHannahGraham | University Profile

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/

Andrew M. Jefferson is a senior researcher at DIGNITY the Danish Institute Against Torture. For the past two decades, he has been studying and writing about prisons and prison reform processes in the global South with a focus on countries undergoing transition. He aims to contribute to social scientific understandings of the conditions under which torture and inhumane treatment thrive with a view in the end to transforming such conditions and making the world a safer place for all. In this episode, he discusses two upcoming papers:

1) Prison Reform and Torture Prevention under Compromised Circumstances.

2) Prison Ethnography in the pursuit of imponderable knowledge

Andrew M. Jefferson: @AndyMJefferson |  DIGNITY - Danish Institute Against Torture @DignityDK

Omar Phoenix Khan: @OmarPKhan | @Justice_Focus | https://www.justicefocus.org/