Ed Schreeche-Powell

Dr Ed Schreeche-Powell BSc, MA, PhD, SFHEA

Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Ed Schreeche-Powell is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Greenwich and Programme Leader for the BSc (Hons) Criminology and Criminal Psychology. His doctoral research provided an impact evaluation of peer-led intervention in prisons, exploring its role as a power-sharing initiative and its effects on the mental health and wellbeing of adult male prisoners. Building on this work, Ed has developed the concept of Intervention Iatrogenesis in penal contexts – highlighting the paradoxical and unintended harms of well-meaning peer interventions. His research interrogates deficiencies in programme theory, situating these within broader analyses of the pains of imprisonment, penal managerialism, staff cultures, knowledge management, and structural impediments to effective intervention.


Ed’s monograph, Navigating Mental Health in the Male Open Prison: Pains, Power and Peer Support (Emerald, 2025), offers the first sustained exploration of peer-led mental health support in open prisons and critically evaluates its iatrogenic potential. He is also co-editor (with Professor Caroline Chatwin and Professor Shadd Maruna) of a forthcoming edited collection on lived experience in criminal justice (2026). Alongside these major works, Ed has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes on themes including penal power, prisoner experiences, lived experience methodologies, and intervention evaluation. He is currently extending debates on power, responsibilisation, and institutional retreat in late modern imprisonment.


Ed draws on lived experience of imprisonment and is an active member of the British Convict Criminology Group, using his positionality to inform research design, analysis, and dissemination. His work seeks to shape best practice in intervention design, inform evaluation methodologies, and contribute to policy reform in criminal justice. Ed also acts as an expert witness regarding prison conditions in England and Wales and is a member of the HMPPS Lived Experience Engagement Network.

Criminology

Responsibilities within the university

Programme Leader for the BSc Criminology and Criminal Psychology

Medway Campus Link Tutor


Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Module Leader;

  • Crime Controversies and Critical Theory (Level 7)
  • Crime in the City, Crime and the State (Level 6)
  • Criminological Perspectives (Level 5)

Awards

Student Union ‘Above and Beyond Teaching Award’ (The University of Kent, 2021)

Student Led Teaching Awards 2025- Inspirational Teaching Award (Nominee)

Recognition
  • External Examiner Liverpool John Moores University (UG)
  • External Examiner London Metropolitan University (PG)
  • Peer Reviewer for The European Journal of Probation
  • Peer Reviewer for The Journal of Prison Education Research
  • External Examiner London Met University (Postgraduate)
  • External Examiner Liverpool John Moores University (Undergraduate)
  • Member of the British Society of Criminology
  • Member of the European Society of Criminology
  • Member of the British Convict Criminology Group
  • Associate Member of the British Psychological Society
  • Associate Lecturer in Social Psychology and Forensic Psychology for The Open University
  • Expert Court Witness (Prison Conditions)
  • Peer Reviewer- Incarceration
  • Peer Reviewer- BMC Psychology
  • Peer Reviewer- The European Journal of Probation
  • Peer Reviewer- Journal of Prison Education Research (JPER)
  • Peer Reviewer- International Criminal Justice Review
  • Peer Reviewer- the Howard Journal
  • Peer Reviewer- Criminology & Criminal Justice (CCJ)
  • Peer Reviewer- Critical Criminology
  • Peer Reviewer- Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology

Research / Scholarly interests

Ed is interested in all aspects of research surrounding prisons and penal policy, with particular focus on prisoner mental health and wellbeing, safer custody and power-sharing initiatives in prison. Ed is also interested in the programme theory and impact evaluation of interventions in custodial settings as well as a broader interest in punitiveness within the Criminal Justice System in Western Europe. Ed is also interested in the use of lived experience to offer new criminological perspectives and is an active member of the British Convict Criminology Group.

Media activity

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2020) ‘I’m an ex-prisoner and education saved my life’, The Conversation, 13 January [online], Available at I'm an ex-prisoner and education behind bars saved my life (theconversation.com)

Recent publications
Book

Schreeche-Powell, E. (Forthcoming) ‘Reframing the Open Prison: Structured Spaces for Desistance, Transition and Reform, Emerald Publishing Group Limited, York

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2025) ‘Navigating Penal mental Health in the Male Open Prison: Pains, Power and Peer Support’, Emerald Publishing Group Ltd, York

Book Chapters
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2026) “Embedding the Pain of Imprisonment: The iatrogenic Outcomes of Peer Intervention”,  The Routledge Handbook of Wellness and Wellbeing in Criminal Justice, Routledge
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2026) ‘‘Managing The Pain of Imprisonment: A Peer Support Approach’ , The Routledge Handbook of Prison Health and Wellbeing, Routledge
  • Earle, R., Davies, B., Honeywell, D., Darley, D., and Schreeche-Powell, E. (2023) ‘Convict Criminology: Cultivating another Criminology’, in The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (7th Edition), Oxford University Press, Clarendon
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2019) “Becoming me with the OU”, in Earle, R., and Mehigan, J. (Eds)  Degrees of Freedom: Prison Education at The Open University, Policy Press, Bristol
Articles
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2025) ‘Hollowing out Peer Support: Knowledge Conversion in Hostile Knowledge Environments of Open Prisons’, Criminology and Criminal justice (CCJ), SAGE
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2025) ‘ Peer Support and Iatrogenic Outcomes: Reinforcing the Pain of Imprisonment’ , Punishment and Society, SAGE
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2025) ‘Insecurity and Fragility: The perpetual duo of precarity for ‘Convict Criminologists’ in a Risk Averse Academy, Critical Criminology Springer
  • Stevens, A., Schreeche-Powell, E., Billingham, L. and Irwin-Rogers, K., (2025) ‘Interventionitis in the criminal justice system: three english cases’. Critical Criminology, pp.1-17.
  • Darley, D., Davies, B., Earle, R., Honeywell, D., & Schreeche-Powell, E. (2023). Creating convict criminology in the UK: a response to Aresti, Darke and Ross from members of the British Convict Criminology group. Justice, Power and Resistance, 6(3), 328-338
  • Schreeche-Powell, E. (2020) ‘Peer Support and Well-Being: Exploring the Impact of Peer-Led Induction on Male Prisoners’, The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Vol. 29 No. 1-2 (2020): General Issue, The University of Ottawa Press
Blog

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2020) ‘A Punishment with No End: The Journey of a Working-Class Criminal into Academia’, Working Class Perspectives, March 9 2020 [online], Available at A Punishment with No End: The Journey of a Working-Class Criminal into Academia | Working-Class Perspectives (wordpress.com)

Review
Edited Collection

Schreeche, Powell, E., Chatwin, C., and Maruna, S. (2026) ‘Lived Experience in Action: Applied Perspectives, Bristol University Press, Bristol

Newsletter

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2023) ‘Taking Greenwich University Students to Visit HMP Wandsworth’, in Chatwin, C., and Duggan, M. (2023), British Society of Criminology Newsletter: Prison University Partnerships, Number 91, Summer 2023, ISSN 1759-8354

Presentations

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2025) “Insecurity and Fragility: The Perpetual Duo of Precarity for ‘Convict Criminologists’ in a Risk Averse Academy”, ‘Identity, Vulnerability, and Resistance, The University of Athens, Greece

Panel Chair, “Experiences of Imprisonment: Social Control and Criminal Justice” , 2023, European Society of Criminology Conference, The University of Florence. Italy.

Schreeche-Powell, .E (2023) “The Iatrogenic Outcomes of ‘Well-Meaning’ Peer Led Penal Induction Interventions”, The Effects of Imprisonment, 2023 European Society of Criminology Conference, The University of Florence. Italy.

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2022) “Why convict criminology isn’t easy: Lived Experience and Status Fragility”, 2022 British Society of Criminology Conference, The University of Surrey

Schreeche-Powell, E. (2019) “Peer Support in Prisons: Crisis Point”, 2019 Common Studies Sessions, The University of Middlesex