Professor Douglas, with co-directors Professor Rachel Condry and Professor Seena Fazel, leads the new Oxford Martin Programme on Decarceration.
The programme is one of four new Oxford Martin School programmes bringing Oxford researchers together with global partners to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues, from the health impacts of climate change on children to equitable medicine access, technological change, and criminal justice reform.
The successful four were chosen from more than 60 ideas put forward by researchers across the University of Oxford. Each was selected not just for academic excellence but for its potential for real-world impact — hallmarks of the School’s approach since it was founded two decades ago.
About the Programme
Over 11 million people are imprisoned worldwide, with incarceration rates continuing to rise. In England and Wales, more than half of prisons are operating over capacity, and projections suggest prisoner numbers could reach over 100,000 by 2029.
While prison is widely used to manage crime, research shows it often fails to reduce reoffending and can cause significant harms, including poor health, economic costs, and negative impacts on families and communities.
The Oxford Martin Programme on Decarceration seeks safer, fairer and more effective alternatives to imprisonment. With incarceration rates at record highs worldwide, including overcrowded prisons in England and Wales, the programme will bring together experts in psychiatry, criminology, law, economics and philosophy. Its aim is to evaluate alternatives such as community sentences, improve decision-making tools, and build evidence to guide sentencing policy. By working with policymakers and people with lived experience of the prison system, it will help shape approaches to justice that enhance public safety and community wellbeing. The programme will provide the evidence needed to guide safe and effective ways to reduce reliance on imprisonment.
UOI’s contribution to the programme will be focussed on analysing ethical and human rights issues raised by alternatives to carceral sentences (including the use of novel technologies to mitigate recidivism risk) and on contributing to the development of general principles to inform the safe and ethical reduction of prison populations.
The programme runs from October 2025 to September 2028.
More information on the programme and its team members can be found here: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/decarceration
