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Foreign National Prisoners in Flanders (Belgium): Motivations and Barriers to Participation in Prison Programmes

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Abstract

This exploratory study examines the experiences of foreign national prisoners and the motivations and barriers to their participation in prison programmes (e.g. educational courses, use of the prison library, prison work, sociocultural activities, sports). Data are derived from 15 individual interviews with foreign national prisoners in two Belgian prisons. During the interviews the strengths-based approach of Appreciative Inquiry was used. The results demonstrate that foreign national prisoners experience motivations and barriers that can be placed at the different levels of the ecological model of Bronfenbrenner (1979) which affect individual behaviour: micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-level. Foreign national prisoners were often motivated to participate in prison programmes to improve their health (micro-level) or to facilitate contact inside and outside prison (meso-level). The reverse was also possible; foreign national prisoners were limited in their participation in prison programmes by their social networks (meso-level) and a lack of knowledge and understanding of the available activities (exo-level). In conclusion, limitations, guidelines for further research and implications for practice and policy are considered.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the respondents and the support of the coordinators of the prison activities, the activity providers and the prison guards within the prisons, without which this study could not have been completed.

Funding

The author(s) declared receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This exploratory study is part of the research project FIP2 (Foreigners’ Involvement and Participation in Prison), which is funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO; Grant number: G026917N).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Flore Croux, Dorien Brosens & Liesbeth De Donder

  2. Department of Special Needs Education of Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Flore Croux & Stijn Vandevelde

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  1. Flore Croux
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  2. Dorien Brosens
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  3. Stijn Vandevelde
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  4. Liesbeth De Donder
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Correspondence to Flore Croux.

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Croux, F., Brosens, D., Vandevelde, S. et al. Foreign National Prisoners in Flanders (Belgium): Motivations and Barriers to Participation in Prison Programmes. Eur J Crim Policy Res 25, 171–188 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-018-9372-7

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