Eighteen interviewees self-identified as heterosexual, four as gay, and four as bisexual. The former prisoners interviewed by Dr Stevens had been jailed for a wide range of offences. Her report concludes that a national survey of both the serving prison population and former prisoners, fully supported by but independent of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), is “urgently required” to understand better the scale of consensual and coercive sex in prison. However, Dr Alisa Stevens, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton, was able to interview 26 former prisoners during the summer of 2014 – 24 men and two women.
The Commission sought permission to interview current prisoners about their experiences of sex in prison, but this approach was blocked by the Ministry of Justice. Recommendations from the Commission’s two-year inquiry will be presented today (Tuesday 17 March) at a conference in London. Sex in prison: Experiences of former prisoners is the fifth and final briefing paper published by the Commission, which was established by the Howard League for Penal Reform and includes eminent academics, former prison governors and health experts. The Commission on Sex in Prison’s final report, published today (Tuesday 17 March), features accounts from former prisoners speaking for the first time about their experiences of sex behind bars.
