Conversation with Prof. Ian O Donnell

Conversations with Criminologists

Doing Criminology, prisons and solitary confinement; Professor Ian O Donnell

Criminological research exposes academics to all walks of life, from prisons, to law offices and police stations to schools. The experience of Prof Ian O Donnell is no different and his research journey is marked by his time working on the issue of suicides in the London underground system, examining the issue of armed robbery in partnership with the flying squad in the Metropolitan police and developing a drug testing regime in British Prisons. While these may seem like diverse research undertakings, the unifying features of these projects are decision making processes and environmental design, and in this chapter Prof of Donnell explains how these theoretical approaches alongside the data collection processes have informed his work. In Prof O Donnell speaks about his more recent work on isolation in prisons and mirroring the sentiment of other contributors to this volume, acknowledges the need to ensure that the multiple audiences for criminological writing are served. In particular he speaks about the popularity of his book on isolation amongst the population of prison inmates and how this impacted on their own experience of and understanding of solitary confinement.