From Open University in prison to convict criminology upon release: mind the gap

Abstract

A long prison sentence leads Michael Irwin to a revelation that his experiences of studying criminology with The Open University and discovering classic prison research studies might offer him a new path. Convict criminology combines personal experience of imprisonment with conventional ‘book learning’ about prison. Irwin tells of his struggle to combine the two and contribute to the emerging work of British Convict Criminology.