Congratulations to Professor Graham Towl who has been appointed the new Chair of a regional network of experts in prison and offender health and social care.
PORSCH (Prison and Offender Research in Social Care and Health) brings together researchers and service practitioners based in the North East of England and Yorkshire.
It is dedicated to promoting research aimed at improving the health of offenders, enhancing the wellbeing of the communities they live in and reducing offending behaviours.
Prof Towl, who is a Professor of Forensic Psychology in our Department of Psychology, will be the Chair of PORSCH for the next three years.
Prof Towl is a leading expert in his field.
Before he joined Durham in 2008 as Principal of St Cuthberts Society, he held the role of Chief Psychologist at the Ministry of Justice
Formerly he was peer nominated by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as the most influential forensic psychologist in the UK and in 2015 he contributed to the influential Harris Review into prisoner suicide.
He has practical experience of working in hospitals and prisons, and between 2011 and 2016 he was our Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Colleges and Student Experience.
In his Pro-Vice-Chancellor role, Prof Towl chaired our groundbreaking Sexual Violence Task Force which received a Times Higher Education awards commendation.
Prof Towl also Chairs the Scottish Advisory Panel on Offending and Rehabilitation which is a Ministerial appointment
Prof Towl said he was delighted to be appointed the new Chair of PORSCH.
He added: “The key thing is that we continue to bring together practitioners, researchers and policy makers in the region to work more efficiently together.
“I want to be a pro-active Chair and I’m really looking forward to getting started and bringing more people into the network.
“I’m excited to see what we can achieve together.”
PORSCH runs workshops and conferences across the region, facilitates research and development projects, and provides an information exchange.
Thanks to funding provided by its supporter organisations, membership of the network is free to those with an interest in offender health.
The appointment of Prof Towl is timely, as having now presented over 100 events on offender health in the North of England, PORSCH is approaching its 20-year anniversary in 2025.
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