Leicester-led study to explore mental health and drug use in colonial and post-colonial prisons

The University of Leicester has been awarded £3.3m, the largest ever single research project grant in the social sciences, arts and humanities in the University’s history, to research drugs and mental health in prison settings globally.

Prisons, Drugs and Mental Health: an interdisciplinary global study is led by Professor Clare Anderson, Professor of History and Director of the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies.

Building on the team’s previous collaborations, researchers will work on experiences of drugs cultures, mental health and incarceration in Guyana, the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, and Mauritius and Seychelles. A programme network will conduct related research on other British and European colonial and post-colonial contexts.

Combining work in historical archives with interviews, focus groups, surveys and creative outputs such as poetry, art and music, researchers will offer much-needed insights into experiences of drugs and mental health among prisoners, prison officers and their families.

Professor Clare Anderson said: “Our previous work has revealed the power of history for understanding criminal justice systems in the former colonies. We are grateful for this investment which will offer a model for research than can improve the lives of some of the world’s most marginalised populations.”

Professor Anderson will be working with Leicester co-investigators Dr Tammy Ayres, Associate Professor of Criminology; Dr Lucy Evans, Associate Professor in Postcolonial Literature; and Dr Kellie Moss, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Studies.

The University’s international co-investigators are Dr Mellissa Ifill, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Guyana; Dr Janeille Zorina Matthews, Deputy Dean (Graduate Studies and Research) at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill); and Dr Vijaya Teelock, Director and Founder of the Mauritian NGO Le Chantier. Collaborators are drawn from prison services and universities in the UK and overseas, and a wide range of NGOs.

Prisons, Drugs and Mental Health: an interdisciplinary global study has been funded by a Wellcome Discovery Award.