PIP-PROJECT

Peer support Innovating Prisons: towards reintegration and desistance from crime (PIP-project)

At the end of 2025, the strategic basic research “Peer support Innovating Prisons: towards reintegration and desistance of crime” (PIP) started. This research project is funded by the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) and is a collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Antwerp, Ghent University, and Odisee University of Applied Sciences. The goal of this research project is to gain insight into how, why, for whom and under which circumstances peer programs in prison work. Within this four-year project, we focus on four domains of peer support: 

1. Emotional peer support: The prevalence of mental health challenges in prison populations far exceeds that of the general population. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, psychosis, and trauma are widespread. Suicide particularly presents a global crisis in prisons, with five times more suicide (attempts) in Belgian prisons. The limited availability of mental health support systems during imprisonment exacerbates these risks. In this study, we want to uncover how, why and under which circumstances people in prison can emotionally support each other.
2. Enhancing agency from prisoner-led peer support programs: Even in an environment that is often perceived as inhumane and controlling, peer support networks emerge in which people in prison support each other. This support is practical, emotional, … and gives people a sense of meaning and a certain degree of ownership over their lives in prison. The potential of initiatives where people in prison themselves shape how peer support take form have hardly been researched.
3. Peer support around serious illness, death and loss: Serious illness, death, and grief are profound experiences, and perhaps even more so in prison. With this research, we want to investigate how, why, and under what circumstances people in prison support each other during these difficult moments in life.
4. Peers supporting to bridge life inside and outside of prison: The transition from prison to the society is often complex and full of challenges. This study examines how lived experiences and mutual support among people with experience of imprisonment can be used to support this transition to society. 

Throughout this research a realist science lens is applied to focus on the underlying mechanisms that trigger change, as well as the contextual factors behind peer programs. We do this by using a multi-method approach (e.g., realist synthesis, theory-gleaning interviews, participant observations, right-now surveys). We also focus on the overarching similarities between the different types of peer programs to develop a general understanding of how, why, for whom and under which circumstances peer programs work. For more information, contact Dorien Brosens.