Anton Symkovych

Homerton

Power Relations in a Ukrainian Prison

Anton’s PhD thesis is based on the material that was collected in a medium-security correctional colony for men in the capital region of Ukraine in 2008. The research involved extensive periods of observation, shadowing, informal conversations and formal interviews with prisoners, frontline staff and prison managers. The analysis is also informed by data that were collected in HMP Wandsworth in London in 2007. The study’s main aims were to: (1) explore main forms of power used by prison authorities and prisoners; (2) examine mechanisms of sustaining order and compliance; and (3) identify forms of resistance. The examination of methods of sustaining order and control has implications for policy development, and can contribute to theories of power. In addition, this is the first study of the Ukrainian prison in the English language of its kind, and one of the first to examine the dramatic transformations within the prison system following the collapse of the Communist régime.

Start Date: 2005/10.

End Date: 2011/07.

• MPhil in Criminological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
• MSW (with Distinction), California State University-Fresno, USA
• Diploma (with Distinction) in Social Work and Certificate in Applied Psychology, Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine
• BA (with Distinction) in Sociology, Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine

• Order, power and resistance in prison
• Bureaucracy and organizations
• Prison administration
• Cross-national research
• Methodological issues in conducting sensitive research
• Prison social work
• Prison law
• Juvenile justice

Professor Roy King

Professor Alison Liebling, Professor Andrew Coyle