More Than Just a Game: The Impact of a Prison Football Team on Physical and Social Well-Being in a Welsh Prison

Abstract

This chapter is inspired by and draws from a larger project which culminated in a series of semi-structured interviews with the players who represented HMP Prescoed FC in the Gwent Central Division Two for the 2018/2019 season, in South Wales. The interest in the original project was stimulated by the first author’s own experience of playing as an amateur footballer in the 1990s against prison teams in the north of England. It promotes our broader conceptualisation of prison health, one which recognises the importance of the various forms of mental and physical health promotion that take place beyond a prison’s healthcare department. The impacts of these forms of health promotion may not be obviously observed and measured as a traditional health outcome, but they have the potential to have powerful and long-lasting effects both within and outside the prison walls.