{"id":106,"date":"2026-10-22T11:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/?page_id=106"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:32:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:32:04","slug":"inside-the-prison-researching-drugs-mental-health-and-wellbeing-in-mauritius","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/?page_id=106","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Prison: Researching Drugs, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Mauritius"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tammy Ayres1<\/sup>, Rasidali Issa Beekun2<\/sup>, Angel Angoh3<\/sup>, Josian Babet2<\/sup>, Ashwin Banerjee2<\/sup>, Lucy Evans1<\/sup>, Elodie Laurent Volcy4<\/sup>, Ravind Lugun2<\/sup>, Kellie Moss5<\/sup>, Mahesh Ramassur2<\/sup>, Vijaya Teelock4<\/sup> and Joel Valerie4<\/sup><\/strong> |<\/strong> October 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A team from the Prisons, Drugs and Mental Health<\/em> (PDMH)<\/a> project, which includes the NGO Le Chantier, undertook a recent research visit to Mauritius and Rodrigues<\/a> that followed on from a trip in July 2026, which brought the different methodological elements of the project together. Over several weeks, we interviewed prisoners, distributed reflective journals, participated in art workshops and worked with prison staff in a health and wellbeing symposium. The visit was an important stage in developing a research project that seeks not simply to study prisons, but to work collaboratively with prison communities to understand their experiences and identify possibilities for change. A project that involves co-creating the data collection tools, listening to and learning from people whose lives are shaped by imprisonment, understanding the experiences of those who work within prison and creating spaces in which people can reflect on their experiences in ways that go beyond conventional research interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to Experiences of Imprisonment and Co-Creating Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following two previous workshops – one in December 2025<\/a> – and one earlier this year (July, 2026), this workshop with prison staff focused on their health and wellbeing. In the July 2026 workshop, MPS helped us to co-create the consent and information sheets, as well as the health and wellbeing questionnaire that was piloted on this visit.  As part of the July 2026 trip, we also piloted interview questions with incarcerated people who then fed into the questions to be asked and suggested amendments alongside questions relevant to the Mauritian context. They also suggested we introduce reflective journals for prisoners in both English and French so they could express themselves more freely whether it be through writing, poetry or drawing. The journals were designed to give participants a different way of recording their thoughts, experiences and reflections. Rather than asking people to articulate everything within the formal setting of an interview, the journals provide an opportunity for reflection over time, which is important because experiences of imprisonment, drugs and mental health are not necessarily linear. Another distinctive element of the Mauritius visit was our engagement with art workshops, delivered by Angel Angoh<\/a> of Carpe Diem Art Therapy<\/a>, which is an NGO made up of a group of dynamic volunteers. Recently, they released a song called \u2018We Are Powerful<\/a>\u2019 that draws on words gathered from incarcerated women in Mauritius during a year-long art therapy programme led by Carpe Diem Art Therapy NGO<\/a> where the women\u2019s reflections on emotional growth and healing became the foundation for the lyrics. We were able to attend an art session with women prisoners, take part in the sessions and view artwork produced by participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Interviews and Traditional Data Collection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arts-based approaches are particularly valuable when researching experiences that can be difficult to express through conventional language creating safer spaces for expression and allowing non-verbal communication, which can help people articulate complex emotions and experiences (Tucker and Luetz, 2025<\/a>). This is particularly important among prisoners who globally have low-levels of literacy, with approximately 50\u201370% of prison populations having difficulties reading and writing (Jones and Manger, 2019<\/a>), as well as high levels of multifaceted trauma, loss, addiction, violence, separation from family and profound changes in identity (Liu et al. 2021<\/a>). Asking people simply to describe these experiences can sometimes place considerable demands on participants. Drawing, painting and other creative practices, however, can allow participants to communicate experiences indirectly, symbolically and emotionally. They can also create opportunities for participants to exercise creativity and agency within an institution in which their everyday choices are highly constrained. For PDMH, this is not an additional activity sitting alongside the ‘real’ research. It is part of how we understand knowledge. The people who live and work within prisons possess knowledge about prisons that researchers cannot obtain from policy documents, statistics or academic literature alone. Arts-based methods provide another way of accessing and communicating that knowledge. Angel Angoh<\/a>, a painter herself created Carpe Diem Art Therapy<\/a>, which originated inside the Beau Bassin women’s prison in the 1990s. We were privileged to experience the art workshops and share the experiences of those who get to participate in these workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The PDMH Team outside Bau Bassin Prison, Mauritius, photo courtesy of Kellie Moss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healthy Prison Workforce Workshop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most significant event of the visit was our prison staff health and wellbeing workshop, bringing together approximately 100 prison officers from Mauritius Prison Service<\/a>. The event Stronger Together: Promoting Staff Wellness and Resilience in the Prison Service<\/em><\/a> workshop built on the previous workshop held in July 2026 and formed part of our wider work on prison staff health and wellbeing. \u00a0Attended by Mrs Kan Oye Fong Weng-Poorun the Secretary for Home Affairs from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, the British High Commissioner to Mauritius, His Excellency Mr Paul Brummell and Najah Abdulla Ahmed from the Mauritius Human Rights Commission, with an excellent SLAM \u2018Stronger Together\u2019 (a Mauritian form of spoken-word poetry) by MPS officer Doris Perrine; the workshop launched our Prison Staff Survey. The questionnaire was co-designed with MPS to explore prison staffs’ experiences of health and wellbeing alongside their working lives and conditions of service. Bringing experienced staff together with new recruits also provided an opportunity to think about whether experiences of prison work change over time. Prison research can sometimes position prisoners as the primary holders of experience and focus on their health and wellbeing, the health and wellbeing of the people who work there are also fundamental to understanding how prisons function and the challenges facing both staff and those incarcerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Workshop Photos courtesy of Vijaya Teelock and Tammy Ayres<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison staffs work in environments characterised by responsibility, uncertainty and often considerable emotional and physical demands. They are responsible for security, but they also work alongside people experiencing mental health difficulties, addiction, withdrawal, trauma and crisis. Working in prisons therefore can be rewarding but also emotionally and psychologically demanding, meaning their experiences also matter, as does the relationship between staff wellbeing and prisoner wellbeing. Prisoner and prison staff wellbeing cannot be treated as separate issues as the prison is a social environment. Staff experience the pressures of imprisonment alongside prisoners. Prisoners experience the consequences of institutional decisions made by staff and management. Drug use, mental health crises, violence, healthcare, rehabilitation and security are all interconnected. If we want to understand the mental health of prisoners, we also need to understand the environment and conditions in which prison staff work. Also, if we want to improve rehabilitation, we need to consider the wellbeing of the people responsible for delivering it, which is why the PDMH project brings together research with prisoners and research with prison staff. Understanding the reciprocal relationships between prisoners and prison staff is essential because their wellbeing, behaviours and experiences are all interconnected, shaping prison cultures, the use and supply of drugs, mental health, the possibilities for meaningful rehabilitation and to develop more holistic, culturally sensitive solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Data Collection: A Collaborative Research Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This visit to Mauritius reinforced something fundamental about how we think about research, which reflects our aim to develop a co-produced understanding of prison life, drawing on different forms of knowledge and methods, including historical records, policy documents, interviews, questionnaires, reflective journals, artistic expression and the lived experiences of prisoners and staff. This is particularly important in a project concerned with the historical relationship between colonialism, imprisonment, drugs and mental health, as the contemporary prison does not exist outside history.Institutions, policies and practices have histories. So do understandings of substance use, addiction, mental illness, punishment and rehabilitation. Understanding those histories can help us ask different questions about the present.Mauritius provides an especially important setting for this work because it allows us to examine these questions within a postcolonial context while also listening to the experiences of people living and working in the contemporary prison system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit involved collaboration between the University of Leicester, the Mauritius Prison Service<\/a>, Carpe Diem<\/a> and Le Chantier, with prison leadership, staff and local research colleagues contributing to the organisation and delivery of the research. The visit was formally planned by Le Chantier with the Mauritius Prison Service<\/a>, including arrangements for prisoner interviews, staff participation, arts activities and the distribution of journals.This collaborative infrastructure matters.Research in prisons is only possible when researchers, prison services and participants work together to create the conditions for meaningful participation.It also reminds us that research relationships are not simply logistical; they are relationships of trust.A successful research trip does not necessarily leave you with all the answers, but instead, sometimes it leaves you with better questions. It also gave us something less tangible. A deeper understanding of the importance of listening to prisoners, prison staff, NGOs as it helps the PDMH project, which is ultimately concerned with understanding prisons as human environments. It showed that behind every statistic about drug use, mental health, rehabilitation or prison issues and staffing are people with histories, relationships, experiences and hopes for the future.Those are the stories that this research is trying to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to download the song \u2018<\/strong>We Are Powerful<\/strong><\/a>\u2019 written by US Board Certified Music Therapist and Singer-Songwriter Rachael Rose, 100% of proceeds go directly to support Carpe Diem\u2019s work in arts-based rehabilitation and therapy inside the Mauritian prison system.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would like to thank everyone that made this trip possible, especially those who took the time to talk to us and participate in the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1<\/sup>University of Leicester; 2<\/sup>Mauritius Prison Service; 3<\/sup>Carpe Diem; 4<\/sup>Le Chantier, 5<\/sup>University of Birmingham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tammy Ayres1, Rasidali Issa Beekun2, Angel Angoh3, Josian Babet2, Ashwin Banerjee2, Lucy Evans1, Elodie Laurent Volcy4, Ravind Lugun2, Kellie Moss5, Mahesh Ramassur2, Vijaya Teelock4 and Joel Valerie4 | October 2026 A team from the Prisons, Drugs and Mental Health (PDMH) project, which includes the NGO Le Chantier, undertook a recent research visit to Mauritius and … Continue reading Inside the Prison: Researching Drugs, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Mauritius<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-106","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellcomepdmh.bham.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}