What we do         Our Research Team         Our Steering Group       To contact us

 

 

 

 

 

funded by the Dawes Trust

What we do

Understanding Conversion to Islam in Prison (UCIP) is an interdisciplinary research programme hosted by Birkbeck, University of London.

UCIP is using robust mixed-methods, criminological-theological research to generate the most detailed and extensive dataset yet about:

1. the socio-demographic and religious nature of Muslim converts, including those Muslims who change Islamic affiliation, in British and continental European prisons;
2. the types of Islam that Muslim convert inmates follow;
3. the effects of their conversion to Islam on prison life and on their rehabilitation, including the effects of prison chaplaincy and religious occasions in prison.

Driven by this data, UCIP will then design a practical intervention to improve prison outcomes for inmates who convert to Islam called PRIMO (Prison-based Religious Interventions for Muslim Offenders).

UCIP aims to bring about an enduring improvement in the way that Muslims are understood in British and continental European prisons to the benefit of prisoners' lives and of British and continental European society more widely.

This UCIP ground-breaking programme is an academic partnership with our host institution, Birkbeck, University of London and in partnership with The McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life, a research centre of the University of Oxford, the University of Salford and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

   

 

A research centre
of the University
of Oxford

Our Research Team

The UCIP Research Team is an interdisciplinary group of researchers with a rich and broad experience of researching the practice and understanding of Islam in public institutions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Steering Group

UCIP is guided by an interdisciplinary team of internationally renowned criminologists, theologians, scholars of Islam and legal practitioners including:

Professor Anna Sapir Abulafia
Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
University of Oxford

Mr Maqsood Ahmed
Former Muslim Advisor to HMPPS

Mrs Batool Al-Toma
Director, Convert Muslim Foundation

Mr Mohammed Amin MBE
Jewish-Muslim Forum of Greater Manchester

Professor Irene Becci
Professor of Religious Emergences & New Spiritualities
Institute of Social Sciences of Religions
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland

Professor James Beckford
Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Religion
University of Warwick

Professor Nigel Biggar
Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology
University of Oxford

Professor Ben Bradford
Professor of Global City Policing
Jill Dando Institute of Security & Crime Science
UCL

Sir David Calvert-Smith QC
The Parole Board for England & Wales
Former Director of Public Prosecutions

Professor Andrew Coyle
Emeritus Professor of Prison Studies
University of London

Professor Sophie Gilliat-Ray
Professor in Religious & Theological Studies
Director, Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK (Islam-UK)
University of Cardiff

Ms Jane Haberlin
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
Balint Consultancy

Ms Catherine Heard
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
Director, World Prison Research Programme
Birkbeck, University of London

Professor Jessica Jacobson
Professor of Criminal Justice
Director, Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
Birkbeck, University of London

Professor Alison Liebling
Director, Prisons Research Centre
University of Cambridge

Mr Eoin McLennan-Murray
Howard League for Penal Reform, former Chair
Prison Governors' Association, former President
Former Prison Governor, HMP Coldingley and others

Ms Baljit Ubhey OBE
Director, Prosecution Policy & Inclusion
Crown Prosecution Service

To contact us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs Lucy Wilkinson

Project Director, Understanding Conversion to Islam

Birkbeck, University of London

T: 07930 413 841

E: