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Limited visiting hours: not all would-be researchers can be admitted, says Prison Service, if prisons are to operate normally

A senior academic has accused the Prison Service of stopping researchers critical of government policy from working in UK jails.

David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said he ¡°would not be allowed in¡± to research the state of prisons ¡°because I write stuff that¡¯s critical of what is going on¡±.

But the Prison Service branded the suggestion ¡°nonsense¡±.

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Professor Wilson recalled that research for a 2003 paper he wrote on the life of black men in prison ¨C ¡°¡®Keeping Quiet¡¯ or ¡®Going Nuts¡¯¡± ¨C had been carefully managed, with interviewees and institutions pre-screened by the service. But it was still allowed to go ahead, despite criticisms from senior prison officers.

Suggesting that this would not be the case today, he said: ¡°I meet prison governors every single week. I meet prison staff every single week. It is quite clear to me that I would not be given access to the kind of research that I wanted to do. I think the people who are allowed access are those who have a less critical viewpoint.¡±

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His comments come as scrutiny of the prison system grows in light of a series of damning investigations.

Last month, Nick Hardwick, the chief inspector of prisons, published a report into HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Feltham, which found that daily life there was dominated by ¡°unpredictable and reckless¡± violence.

Professor Wilson described the report as ¡°the worst I have read¡±.

¡°The chief inspector actually says that if you had a child in Feltham, you would be terrified,¡± he said. ¡°And yet no scandal seems to be created by that.¡±

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the current system for vetting researchers and allowing them access to prisons was ¡°good¡±, but was sometimes undermined by ministerial interference.

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¡°A lot of people want to do research in prisons, [but] these [are] people¡¯s homes, they¡¯re a work environment. You cannot have people trampling round doing research all the time,¡± she added.

However, she referred to a recent research proposal looking at sex in prisons that had been turned down. Ms Crook said the bid was ¡°very robust¡± but ¡°we were given to understand¡± it had been rejected ¡°as a result of political interference¡±.

A former prison governor, Professor Wilson said research into the system was more vital than ever because of its current problems.

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The Howard League published research in 2014 showing that prison suicide levels had reached a six-year high, with Ministry of Justice data revealing that incidents of violence and self-harm were also on the rise.

Professor Wilson added that reoffending rates were ¡°scandalous¡­if a school failed to teach four out of five of its children to read, we wouldn¡¯t be trying to work at piecemeal programmes¡­we¡¯d be saying there¡¯s something fundamentally wrong¡±.

A Prison Service spokesman said: ¡°It is nonsense to suggest that those critical of the Prison Service are prevented from accessing prisons. Independent inspectors and legitimate campaigners have full access and report on their findings regularly.

¡°We have to balance openness with ensuring prisons continue to operate normally. Sometimes it will not be possible to give everyone access.¡±

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