Delivering cognitive skills programmes in Prison: a qualitative study

Cognitive or thinking skills programmes were first introduced into prisons in the early 1990s, and by 2003 they were running in over thre e q u a rters of all prison establishments in England and Wales. Earlier evaluations of these programmes have tended to rely on reconviction rates as the main measure of programme effectiveness. The study re p o rted here aimed to examine p rogramme processes and how these were experienced by programme participants in ord e r to inform our understanding of ‘what works’ in practice. 113 interviews were conducted with prisoners and members of prison staff from six prisons. The re s e a rch examined factors associated with successful and unsuccessful programme delivery and impact, and identified benefits other than non-reconviction associated with programme completion.