A research project could lead to improved mental well-being for Missouri prison inmates and staff members.
By changing the space in which inmates live, along with their interactions and communication with staff, the University of Missouri and the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDC) are hoping to improve prison living and working environments.
MDC has turned to a five-year-long project that involves physical and emotional transformations.
The Missouri Prison Transformation Project is a collaborative effort between MDC and researchers to improve prison culture for staff and inmates. The project emphasizes physical and emotional transformations among residents and staff.
“We want to change the culture, and we want it to be a better place for people to go to work and for people to live,” said Dana Cafourek, the project manager for MDC. She also acts as a liaison for the research team, central office and the sites where the project will be implemented.
Phase One launched this spring, with the first of the renovations completed in April at Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia. Five female inmates (and staff members) renovated two housing wings in roughly a month.
Inmates at Moberly Correctional Center also renovated a wing as part of the project.
With a randomized control trial like that in the Missouri Prison Transformation Project, the selection of inmates to live in the renovated wings is like pulling names out of a hat, according to Kelli Canada, the project’s principal investigator.
“Both facilities gave (inmates) a little bit of autonomy to make some decisions for the wings,” Cafourek said. “So when they had a decision they made on their own, they were very happy to show us, and just so proud of it.”
She added those inmates had also been included in a special design process, which involved staff members.
Design phase
But staff members — a population sometimes forgotten about in prison environments — were confused why they were involved in the process at all, Canada said.
“We were like, ‘You work in here, though. You spend, some weeks, probably more time in here than you do in your own home,'” Canada said. “And that matters to just staff health and quality of life in and of itself, and so we really wanted them to be a part of (the design process).”
The two-day design workshop stimulated participants’ minds, said Cafourek, who participated in the workshop at Moberly. Researchers prompted participants to create their “perfect space” or “design a childhood memory,” she said. Themes of nature and serenity emerged, which informed the result — a housing unit filled with shades of green, wood furniture, rugs and ambient lighting.
At Vandalia, the women went through the same design process, and ended up with a cleaner look. Black metals, rich woods, checkered floors, red walls and patterned couch pillows create a more luxurious feel, which is what the women wanted, Cafourek said.
“The staff at Vandalia will tell you that — the women — they start to carry themselves a little different just having that living experience,” she said.
The presence of colored paint or textured rugs has helped generate a more humane environment, an essential element in improving the well-being and quality of life for inmates and staff. Both housing units are accompanied with amenities like televisions, kitchens and lounge spaces, giving inmates a higher level of autonomy.
The five-year research project not only involves physical renovations in prisons, but aims to transform the experience of both staff and inmates.
Staff mental health
To further fulfill this mission, the project is focused on transforming staff-inmate relationships. Staff members received supplemental training by Amend, a program developed by the University of California-San Francisco that specializes in dynamic security and international best practices.
“Now that people are living on the units for those two prisons that we had, staff are learning to work with the residents in a different kind of way, trying to build rapport, break down walls for people to be able to use resources that they need,” Canada said.
According to a 2013 study with a national sample of nearly 3,600 corrections workers, more than 25 percent suffered from depression, 27 percent suffered from PTSD and 17 percent suffered from both.
Canada and Cafourek both pointed out the mental health effects corrections workers are known to deal with because of the nature of their work, and Cafourek described how MDC is dedicated to supporting its staff.
“The Missouri Department of Corrections has definitely made strides in this direction prior to the research,” she said. “We’ve been extremely fortunate to have leadership that have focused on building relationships with our staff and getting our staff healthy. We’ve built on our teams here that focuses on staff and staff wellness, and trauma, and all these things. So we’re really trying to make a resilient staff, and now we’re at the phase where we can focus on the resident population as well.”
How the project began
The reformative project isn’t a first for MDC and the University of Missouri.
Five years ago, Missouri was one of five states selected to be part of the Prison Research Innovation Project (PRIN), a grant-funded research project which similarly works to develop a more rehabilitative, compassionate prison environment. Arnold Ventures (the philanthropic vehicle for billionaires John D. and Laura Arnold) awarded $100,000 to each state, funding the corresponding research.
Canada, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri, led the MU research team working on the effort.
During PRIN, researchers sorted inmates and prison staff into innovation advisory groups who assisted the researchers with developing surveys and collecting data that would ultimately identify “top priorities for innovation,” Canada said.
The innovation advisory groups gave both staff and inmates a voice — an important balance when improving prison culture — resulting in dozens of innovations, according to Canada. One innovation resulted in a garden providing fresh vegetables for inmates at Moberly Correctional Center. The garden was implemented nearly three years ago and still stands.
Canada said ideas from PRIN lingered as the project came to a close. A prison reform project in Philadelphia (Little Scandinavia) inspired the research team and corrections staff.
Little Scandinavia is a two-phase project in collaboration with Pennsylvania and Scandinavia research and corrections teams. The first phase involved a physical transformation of a Philadelphia prison housing unit, making it feel more like an outside space. The ongoing second phase focuses on adapting the unit’s policies and supporting its staff and inmates.
Canada said she and her colleagues simultaneously heard innovation advisers were interested in reformed housing, which would allow them to be as “autonomous as they can be in a prison.”
“As it is, you’re told when to eat, you’re told what to eat, you’re told when to get up,” she said. “You can’t do those things and practice those things that we have to do to be healthy, happy, productive neighbors.”
MDC and the MU research team were interested in exploring bringing a concept similar to Little Scandinavia to Missouri.
In 2024, Arnold Ventures awarded Canada and her fellow investigator Beth Huebner $2.8 million to pursue these efforts under the Missouri Prison Transformation Project.
As the project progresses during the next five years, Canada and her team will collect data and conduct surveys with staff members and inmates. The remaining prisons in the study, Farmington Correctional Center and South Central Correctional Center, will also be renovated in the coming year.
“I will speak for the department when I say they really are trying to make (prison) a better place,” Cafourek said. “They’re really trying to reduce recidivism, and they know that these types of projects is what it’s going to take because what we’ve done in the past hasn’t necessarily worked. So we’re very fortunate to have leadership that’s willing to try.”
