A Critical Analysis Of The Police-Prison Collaboration In Contrasting Organised Crime Groups

The UK Serious and Organised Crime Strategy sets out the governmental response to the threat of organised crime. This strategy acknowledges the role played by organised crime groups inside the prison setting and, in the attempt to tackle the proliferation of OCGs behind bars, it advocates for collaboration between police and prison forces. Using data from interviews with criminal justice practitioners involved in the enforcement of the strategy at national, regional, and local levels, and documentary analysis of regulations and public papers, this article addresses the enforcement of the strategy to fight against OCGs behind the prison walls. The results show that the implementation of prison-police collaboration is facing challenges in three core areas: the definition of what constitutes a prison gang; issues in creating effective data-sharing processes; and finally, an overall reliance on informal practices. To conclude the paper raises some questions on what could be the implications and risks of this strategy in the long term, in particular in prison settings.