Creativity and Effectiveness in the Use of Electronic Monitoring as an Alternative to Imprisonment in EU Member States
PI: Professor Gillian McIvor
Funded by: European Commission
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Dr Hannah Graham
Senior Lecturer
Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology Level 4, Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK, FK9 4LA.
About me
Dr Hannah Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling. She joined the university in January 2015 after working as an academic in Criminology and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
As a criminologist and social scientist, Hannah works with governments and parliaments, practitioners, citizens, communities and civic society to help inform real world change and collaboratively build more just societies. She has made contributions in Scottish, European and Australasian contexts. Working with fellow University of Stirling criminologist Professor Gill McIvor, Hannah co-led the Scottish component of a European comparative research project on the uses of electronic monitoring technologies in criminal justice, funded by the EU and working with an international team of experts from Belgium, England & Wales, Germany and the Netherlands. This comparative research project is recognised as one of the first of its kind in Europe, with resources available in English, French, Dutch and German. Also, Hannah is developing a growing research agenda on innovation and justice, which she has researched, written and spoken about in different countries.
Hannah has written three books, published internationally by Routledge: Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery (Graham, 2016); Innovative Justice (Graham and White, 2015) and Working with Offenders: A Guide to Concepts and Practices (White and Graham, 2010). She is an editor of a large forthcoming edited collection, the Routledge Companion to Rehabilitative Work in Criminal Justice (2019), with fellow editors Professors Pamela Ugwudike, Peter Raynor, Fergus McNeill, Faye Taxman and Chris Trotter. Hannah is an Editor of the European Journal of Probation (SAGE), together with Professors Ioan Durnescu, Fergus McNeill and Martine Herzog-Evans.
Within the Faculty of Social Sciences at Stirling, Hannah is the Research Leader of the Crime and Justice research group, and a member of the Faculty Research Committee. In relation to doctoral research supervision, she welcomes enquiries about supervising PhD research in the areas of: punishment and society; criminal justice work; probation and community sentences; technology and digital justice; desistance from crime; rehabilitation theories, processes and practices; comparative penology; problem-solving justice and therapeutic jurisprudence; the arts, creativity and justice; and responsiveness to vulnerability and diversity in criminal justice contexts.
In addition to her individual Twitter account @DrHannahGraham, Hannah tweets for @Innovative_Just, the University of Stirling Criminology team account @StirlingUniCrim and the European Journal of Probation account @EuroJProbation
Award
Faculty Innovation Fellowship recipient (2017-2018)
The aim of the Faculty Innovation Fellowship is to support innovative practice in relation to learning and teaching, and the student experience. Dr Hannah Graham was awarded a Faculty Innovation Fellowship for the teaching year 2017-2018 to undertake a project, in collaboration with others, titled 'creative (ex)change: giving voice to imaginative insights in Criminology and Sociology.' This innovation fellowship project seeks to infuse the core research methods modules at Honours and Masters-level within the Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology (SSPC) teaching programme with a more explicit emphasis on creativity, participation in the arts (poetry, narrative, songwriting, visual methods), reflexivity and innovation in scholarly teaching and learning.
Divisional / Faculty Contribution
Student Recruitment, Marketing and University Open Day team, Faculty of Social Sciences
Academic team member of the Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology Student Recruitment and Marketing team in the Faculty of Social Sciences, contributing to University Open Days, Applicant Days, and influencing/informing the design of student recruitment and marketing materials and activities.
Research Leader convening the Crime and Justice Research Group in the Faculty of Social Sciences
REF Unit of Assessment working group co-leader -- C20 Social Work and Social Policy -- in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Member of the Faculty of Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee
Honours Coordinator for Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology Programme in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Adviser of Studies for Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology (SSPC) Programme in the Faculty of Social Sciences
Event / Presentation
Confederation of European Probation (CEP) European Electronic Monitoring conference: App technologies, electronic monitoring and probation
Confederation of European Probation (CEP)
http://www.cep-probation.org/…-zagreb-croatia/
Digital justice technologies and interventions are becoming increasingly used in criminal justice settings. The versatility of electronic monitoring (EM) is evident in how it is used for different offender groups, to achieve different penological purposes and across different modalities. App technologies are also becoming more prominent in the field of probation and community justice. Thinking about the uses and effectiveness of a particular technology needs to incorporate deep consideration of the ethics and purposes of how, why and by whom or with whom it is used. Reflection on what makes a certain technological approach innovative, effective and ethical and in what social context is important, as there are no panaceas or universally effective approaches in criminal justice. In this conference plenary, Dr Hannah Graham from the University of Stirling in Scotland presents alongside Deborah Thompson from Reclassering NL, the Dutch Probation Service in Utrecht, on app technologies, electronic monitoring and probation, posing ethical and practical questions for discussion in the associated conference workshop which follows the plenary.
Electronic Monitoring - Scottish and International Insights and Questions. Private Symposium on Electronic Monitoring in England and Wales
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/…ronic-monitoring
On 18th January 2018, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies held a symposium in London on the future of electronic monitoring of those under a criminal justice sanction in England and Wales. The symposium heard from Dr Hannah Graham, from the University of Stirling and Professor Mike Nellis, from the University of Strathclyde. Dr Graham spoke about the Scottish experience of electronic monitoring, as well as international evidence on impact and effectiveness. Professor Nellis spoke about how electronic monitoring might be used, and about the risks of its inappropriate use. The symposium was held a week before the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published a damning assessment of the government's failed attempt to introduce a new generation of GPS-enabled tags.https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/news/what-future-electronic-monitoring
The Dynamics of Innovation and Influencing Change in Probation and Criminal Justice. 3rd World Congress on Probation
United Nations Asia and Far East Institute, Ministry of Justice and Confederation of European Probation (CEP)
http://www.moj.go.jp/HOGO/WCP3/
This paper presentation considers some of the forms and functions of innovation in probation and community justice. It draws on applied examples and aspects of recent international research investigating ‘innovative justice’ (Graham and White, 2014, 2015, 2016; White and Graham, 2016; Graham, 2015a; 2015b) and is informed by aspects of a forthcoming (December 2017) Special Issue on innovation of the European Journal of Probation, a journal and Special Issue of which I have the privilege of being an Editor. Interdisciplinary conceptual insights are harnessed to critically reflect on the ethics of innovation in probation and community-based contexts, including work with charities and social enterprises. Not all that is new or seeking to influence change in criminal justice is effective, ethical or just, underscoring a critical need to analyse what is considered to constitute penal innovation – above and beyond consideration of novelty, popularity, visibility or managerialist notions of efficiency. For whom or according to whom is an idea or initiative innovative? What are its collateral consequences? How might an innovation not only promote community and civic engagement, but be more transformative in renewing the civility of civil society towards people with criminal convictions, ‘returning citizens’? How do innovative initiatives engender and build trust, cooperation, perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy?Charting the contours of emerging innovations in the field of probation and community justice should not be divorced from considerations of professional ideological, penological, cultural and social influences that gave rise to such changes.
Electronic Monitoring and Justice: Uses, Purposes and Questions. Digital Justice Scotland 2017
Holyrood Communications
https://digitaljustice.holyrood.com/
Electronic Monitoring and Justice: Uses, Purposes and Questions
- Overview of current uses and purposes of electronic monitoring in Scottish criminal justice and selected international jurisdictions;
- Featured findings from cutting-edge comparative research on electronic monitoring in the EU, including in Scotland;
- Exploration of the interfaces of digital justice, criminal justice and social justice, raising reflexive questions.
Graham, H. (2017) 'On being tagged and tracked: A narrative, visual and poetic autoethnographic exploration'. Narrative Criminology Symposium
University of Oslo
http://www.jus.uio.no/…y-symposium.html
Abstract: In this paper, narrative, photographic and poetic inquiry illuminate the experience of being GPS tagged and tracked, taking part in an experimental trial in Scotland. It is a reflexive tale of the teller, mediated by personal and professional biography, context and time. Drawing upon creative methods and personal narratives from a field diary, experiential insights are infused with empirical and theoretical insights to make sense of electronic monitoring and its collateral consequences. This is an account offered from the standpoint of working as a criminologist researching electronic monitoring, having shadowed electronic monitoring field officers and observed tagging in curfewed people’s homes, as well as interviewing a range of criminal justice actors about it. My own stories, emotions and meaning-making are juxtaposed against those of others to critique the pains and the possibilities of electronic monitoring and ‘embodied carcerality’. Challenges and opportunities inherent within unorthodox participatory approaches and practice-based storytelling in the penal field are explored – as a method of inquiry and a vehicle to influence penal policymaking and decision-making.
Graham, H. (2017) 'Doctors outwith borders: Activism, influence and academic citizenship' presentation. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) PhD conference
The Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research
Doctors outwith borders: Activism, influence and academic citizenship
McIvor, G., & Graham, H. (2016) 'Electronic Monitoring in Scotland' Plenary research presentation at the international conference 'Electronic Monitoring in Europe', on 18th February 2016 at the International Associations Centre, Brussels, Belgium.. Electronic Monitoring in Europe
University of Leeds, The Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research and European Commission
http://emeu.leeds.ac.uk/…russels-belgium/
McIvor, G., & Graham, H. (2016) 'Electronic Monitoring in Scotland' Plenary research presentation at the EU-funded international conference 'Electronic Monitoring in Europe', on 18th February 2016 at the International Associations Centre, Brussels, Belgium.
Graham, H. (2016) 'Innovation at the interfaces: Supporting desistance and reintegration' invited keynote presentation. Reintegration: Throughcare to What? Symposium
University of Tasmania and JusTas
http://justas.org/
Innovation at the interfaces: Supporting desistance and reintegration
Electronic Monitoring in Scotland: Current Outlooks, Different Futures?. Alternatives to Custody: Making Effective Use of Electronic Monitoring
Glasgow Community Justice Authority (CJA)
Electronic monitoring in Scotland: Penological purposes, practices and professional ideologies in a season of change’. Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) annual conference
University of Tasmania and Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC)
http://www.anzsoc2016.com/
Electronic monitoring in Scotland: Penological purposes, practices and professional ideologies in a season of change
McIvor, G., & Graham, H. (2016) 'Electronic Monitoring in Scotland: Current Uses and Key Recommendations' Plenary research presentation at the international conference 'Electronic Monitoring in Europe: UK and European Perspectives', on 17th March 2016 at Woburn House, London, UK.. Electronic Monitoring in Europe: UK and European Perspectives
The Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research and European Union
Electronic Monitoring in Scotland: Current Uses and Key Recommendations
Electronic Monitoring in Scotland: Current Outlooks, Different Futures?. Alternatives to Custody: making effective use of electronic monitoring
South West Scotland Community Justice Authority and Scottish Government - Community Justice Services
Electronic Monitoring as an Alternative to Custody in Scotland. Women and Remand in Scotland
Prison Reform Trust
Electronic Monitoring as an Alternative to Custody in Scotland
Rehabilitation Work and Cultures: Valuing Practitioner Perspectives. Alternatives to Detention in Central and Eastern European Countries
Confederation of European Probation (CEP)
http://cep-probation.org/…tries-dubrovnik/
Conference plenary abstract: Dr Hannah Graham
Conversations about rehabilitation and supporting desistance have been dominated by academics and policymakers, without due recognition of the experiences and knowledge of practitioners. Not enough is known about the cultures and conditions in which rehabilitation and criminal justice work occurs. This presentation draws on the findings of research conducted with different types of practitioners, the researcher's observations and rehabilitation and desistance literatures to reveal compelling differences between official accounts and what practitioners actually do in practice. Applied examples of how practitioners collaborate, lead and innovate in the midst of challenging work are complemented with evocative illustrations of practitioner humour, creativity and resilience. The presentation considers the influence of professional ideologies and cultures in probation and other criminal justice work. It includes an analytical critique of the issues and implications involved in narrow technical portrayals of practitioners as single-mindedly focused on reducing criminogenic risk, even in contexts where the Risk-Need-Responsivity model of offender rehabilitation is used. There is much more to their work than the tools and models that they use. The importance of valuing practitioner perspectives is underscored as an essential element for changing rehabilitation cultures in probation and community justice, including better supporting those who support rehabilitation and desistance.
Conference organiser assisting the Chair of the COST Action Offender Supervision in Europe. 'Bridging Research, Policy and Practice Conference' Third International Conference of the COST Action IS1106 Offender Supervision in Europe
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, The Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research and European Union
http://www.offendersupervision.eu/events
The Sociology of Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery. European Society of Criminology Community Sanctions and Measures Working Group (9th Annual Seminar)
European Society of Criminology
The Sociology of Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery
Conference organiser assisting the Chair of the COST Action Offender Supervision in Europe. 'Compliance, Enforcement and Breach' Second International Conference of the COST Action IS1106 Offender Supervision in Europe
The Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research, European Union and European Commission
http://www.offendersupervision.eu/…onference-athens
Understanding Desistance from Crime: Engaging the Critics. Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2014 (8th Annual)
Monash University
http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/critical-criminology/
Understanding Desistance from Crime: Engaging the Critics
Innovative Justice: Reintegration Done Differently, Making a Difference. Reintegration Puzzle Conference Singapore 2014
Deakin University
http://www.reintegrationpuzzle.com.au/…-singapore-2014/
Innovative Justice: Reintegration Done Differently, Making a Difference
Innovative Justice: Restoring Futures, Enabling Change. European Forum for Restorative Justice 8th International Conference
Queen's University Belfast
http://www.euforumrj.org/events/belfast/
Innovative Justice: Restoring Futures, Enabling Change
Greening Justice: The ecology of social and environmental rehabilitation. Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) Conference: Testing the Edges: Challenging Criminology
University of Sydney and Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC)
http://www.anzsoc.org/cms-conferences/2014.phps
Greening Justice: The ecology of social and environmental rehabilitation
Promising Practices from the Tasmanian Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs and Justice Sectors. Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Council of Tasmania (ATDC) 'Challenging Conversations: Creating an Inclusive System' 2012 Conference
http://atdc.org.au/…nch-Campaign.pdf
Promising Practices from the Tasmanian Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs and Justice Sectors
Subject to Change: Identity, Culture and Change in the Alcohol and Other Drugs Sector in Tasmania. Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2012
University of Tasmania
Subject to Change: Identity, Culture and Change in the Alcohol and Other Drugs Sector in Tasmania
Conference Organiser. Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 'Changing the Way We Think About Change: Shifting Boundaries, Changing Lives'
University of Tasmania
Other Academic Activities
Giving evidence in person as a witness and submitting a co-authored evidence submission (with Dr Beth Weaver) to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee
The Scottish Parliament
https://www.youtube.com/…zC&v=lIojGqdoy5w
Dr Graham co-authored a written evidence submission to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee with Dr Beth Weaver, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), University of Strathclyde, in response to their call for evidence about the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Bill. Dr Graham was invited to appear as a witness and give evidence in person before the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee on Tuesday 15th May 2018, based on her research with Prof Gill McIvor on electronic monitoring technologies and criminal justice and sharing important findings from Dr Beth Weaver's research on disclosure, employment and desistance from crime. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL4l0q4AbG0mmGY7j9bAirWMI0w4DqhozC&v=lIojGqdoy5w
Media contribution to 'Force warned over widening the use of electronic tags on offenders' article by Chris Marshall in Scotland on Sunday (Scotsman) newspaper, 30 July 2017.
The Scotsman Newspaper
Article about the potential introduction of GPS electronic monitoring in Scotland, privacy law and data protection, and the implications of Police Scotland access to GPS tracking data for the purpose of criminal investigation and surveillance.The article is available online at: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/police-warned-over-widening-use-of-gps-tagging-on-offenders-1-4517641/amp
Media contribution: 'Smarter justice: Scotland has been praised for its efforts to move towards more community sentences'
Holyrood Communications
Media contribution to article by Jenni Davidson in Holyrood Magazine on 26 October 2017 on 'Smarter justice: Scotland has been praised for its efforts to move towards more community sentences.'
http://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/smarter-justice-scotland-has-been-praised-its-efforts-move-towards-more
Media contribution: 'Criminals to be satellite tracked and electronically tested for alcohol by new tags', Holyrood Magazine, 4/10/2016.
Available online at https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/criminals-be-satellite-tracked-and-electronically-tested-alcohol-new-tags
Media contribution: 'Criminologists recommend improvements to prisoner tagging'
Scottish Legal News
Full text of media contribution can be found here: http://www.scottishlegal.com/2016/07/01/criminologists-recommend-improvements-to-prisoner-tagging/
Media contribution: 'Scotland urged to take European approach to tackle reoffending'
Stirling University researchers say electronic tagging could be used to greater effect. Scotland should follow the example of its European neighbours and introduce more electronic tagging to helpreduce its swollen prison population, according to research. The country has one of the highest proportions of prisonersin western Europe,withone in every 700 people in jail. Curfews enforced by putting monitoring equipment in offenders' homesareoften imposed by courts as an alternative to custody butStirling University criminologists say tagging could be used to even greater effect. A report by Professor Gill McIvor and Dr Hannah Graham says tailored approaches, as used in the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, could be more effective in tackling reoffending.Full text available at: http://stv.tv/news/stirling-central/1359301-electronic-tagging-to-reduce-scotland-s-swollen-prison-numbers/
Media contribution: 'Scotland urged to take European approach to tackle re-offending' STV News, Scotland, 1 July 2016.
Full article can be found here: http://stv.tv/news/stirling-central/1359301-electronic-tagging-to-reduce-scotland-s-swollen-prison-numbers/
Media contribution: ‘GPS Tracking could be used to Monitor Sex Offenders’ The Scotsman newspaper, 26/08/2015
International Advisory Board Member of 'Probation Journal: The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice'
NAPO
Editorial Board member for Scottish Justice Matters journal
An Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Probation (SAGE Criminology)
SAGE Publications
Probation; community sanctions and measures; community justice; offender supervision; parole; therapeutic jurisprudence and problem-solving approaches; community service; community payback; electronic monitoring; criminal justice voluntary sector/third sector; desistance from crime; reducing reoffending.
Professional membership
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
Higher Education Academy
Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC)
Member of the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance
National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance
https://www.artsincriminaljustice.org.uk/
European Society of Criminology
European Society of Criminology
http://www.esc-eurocrim.org/