Skip to main content

Ms Zinat Jimada

Positions held:
  • Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences
Address

Room 102, 16 Gower Street

  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Zinat joined the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) in February 2025 as part of the World Prison Research Programme. She has a background in international human rights law.

    Before joining ICPR, Zinat worked for three years at the University of Nottingham’s Human Rights Law Centre, contributing to various human rights projects, including prisonDEATH and Life Imprisonment Worldwide Revisited (LIW). As part of LIW, which examines the use of life imprisonment globally, she co-authored Informal life imprisonment: A policy briefing on this harsh, hidden sentence , exploring sentences which are not explicitly called ‘life imprisonment’ but which can nevertheless result in lifelong detention.  

    Zinat has previously worked at Rights and Security International, contributing to policy-oriented research and advocacy on the use of citizenship-stripping and (non)repatriation in national security policies, and at REDRESS, where she supported projects on the prohibition of torture as a fellow of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

    Qualifications

    • Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), University of Oxford, 2021
    • LLB (Hons), Queen Mary University of London, 2019
    • BSc Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, 2014

    Web profiles

  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    Zinat is currently researching prison labour and the provision of work and employment training for prisoners and prison leavers, with a specific focus on the UK, USA and Brazil.

    For more information on this project, please see under 'Research Projects' below.

    Research Centres and Institutes

    Research projects

    Towards effective, sustainable and ethical provision of employment opportunities for incarcerated people

    Abstract

    In this international comparative project, which will conclude by January 2027, we are researching prisoner labour and the provision of work, employment and training for prisoners and prison leavers. The jurisdictions comprised in the study are the the UK, USA and Brazil.

    Context

    Reoffending rates among ex-prisoners worldwide have been high for decades, placing a heavy economic burden on societies. One of the main drivers of reoffending is unemployment, but ex-prisoners face many challenges finding a job on release. People with prior histories of disadvantage, social and educational exclusion, and unemployment are over-represented in prison populations.

    Recent research by the ICPR World Prison Research Programme has revealed the value that prisoners in many countries place on work and training in custody. Yet prisons rarely receive the necessary resources to prioritise training and employment. Work in prisons is usually in short supply and is either low-paid or unpaid.

    This project will produce an evidence base to inform and promote better policy and practice and improved collaboration between public, private and voluntary sectors in the provision of effective, sustainable and ethical work in prisons. This will contribute to a reduction in reoffending, by virtue of greater numbers of prisoners gaining skills and working in paid jobs during their time in custody; and more ex-prisoners receiving support to gain skills and employment on release.

    Funded by
    Porticus Global