Visit to detainee prisons in Kurdistan

Dr. Elaine Crawley, Director of the University's Centre for Prison Studies (SUCPS) recently returned from Kurdistan in Northern Iraq where she spent three weeks conducting research with prison officers.

The aim of the project (made possible by an award from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) and by the granting of formal access into prisons by Judge Qader, Director of General Security (Asayish) Kurdistan Region-Sulaimaniyah) was to explore the experience of prison work for officers working in detainee prisons. In Kurdistan, prisons for prisoners awaiting a court appearance are under the authority of the Asayish, the security and intelligence agency for the region. Detainees held by the Asayish are generally held under suspicion of either terrorism, drug smuggling or fraud.

Inevitably, the political, economic and cultural past of Kurdistan has had a significant impact not only on prison policy and practice in the region but also on the character of the prisoner population and, ultimately, on the role of the prison officer itself. Through interviews with male and female officers working in 6 detainee prisons (Sulaimaniyah city; Kani Goma; Raparin; Garmian; Halabja and in Maskar-Salam) Elaine sought to identif:

i) The key challenges for officers working in detainee prisons
ii) Officers' perceptions of their work role and their expectations/needs with regard to training and
iii) The ways in which prison officer training, working practices and, ultimately, the role itself might be enhanced.

Elaine is currently drafting a report on her findings to present to Judge Qader, who has given his support to further research. She hopes to return to Kurdistan in the near-future to conduct research with prison officers working with sentenced prisoners.