Abstract
Purpose – This article is concerned with exploring the experience of black prisoners at HMP Grendon, the only prison in the country that operates wholly as a therapeutic community (TC).Design/methodology/approach – The study involved undertaking semi‐structured interviews with 11 prisoners, all identifying themselves as “black”, who had committed a range of offences, as well as representing several geographical locations from the UK, Africa and the Caribbean. An adapted form of grounded theory was used to code the data collected from these interviews.Findings – In total, four main themes emerged from the interviews undertaken: Grendon; Father deficit; Self‐concept; and Desistance.Research limitations/implications – Grendon may be the recipient of a culture of mistrust amongst black prisoners within the wider prison estate. Consequently, black prisoners' narratives could provide some much needed clarity on black prisoners operating from an “outsider within” perspective in the predominantly white TCs at Gre...
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