Marguerite Schinkel

The pains of desistance

Desistance is generally presented in a positive light, with themes of ‘making good’ and generativity recurring in the literature. This article reports on two qualitative studies exploring the desistance journeys of two different groups of ex-offenders, drawing attention to the pains of this process. It examines the possible consequences of these ‘pains of desistance’ and how they are linked to three spheres of desistance: act-desistance; identity desistance; and relational desistance. The attempt to achieve act-desistance often led to the pain of isolation for our interviewees, while the clash between the need to achieve identity desistance and a lack of relational desistance (especially on the meso- and macro-levels) meant that they suffered the pain of goal failure. The pains of isolation and goal failure combined to lead to the further pain of hopelessness. Those interviewed were indeed ‘going straight’, but taking this path led many to a limited and often diminished life.

Punishment as moral communication: The experiences of long-term prisoners

This article examines for the first time to what extent the lived experience of long-term prisoners matches the normative theory of criminal punishment as moral communication. The findings are based on 27 narrative interviews with men at different stages of a long-term prison sentence. The analysis suggests that Antony Duff’s normative vision of punishment as moral communication may be difficult to realise in practice because of the inevitable pressures on defendants in the courtroom and on prisoners during their incarceration. In the court, the men’s attention was focused on the length of the sentence imposed; they were often overwhelmed by emotion and did not interact with the court as a moral arena. Within prison the men tended to accept their sentence in order to make bearing their incarceration easier. Comparing these men’s lived experiences of punishment with Duff’s normative theory highlights problems with the theory’s potential implementation but also reveals normative problems with current practices of sentencing and sanctioning.

Hook for change or shaky peg? Imprisonment, narratives and desistance

Given the twin challenges of the fiscal costs of high levels of imprisonment and of high reconviction rates post-release, the question of whether imprisonment can (and does) contribute to processes of desistance is a crucial one. This article discusses the repeated, and controversial, research finding that some prisoners see themselves as transformed by imprisonment. It argues, with reference to the narratives of Scottish prisoners, that this is not owing to intentional rehabilitative input, but driven by the need to craft a positive future. The article explores under what circumstances a transformation narrative is most likely to emerge and whether such narratives have the power to make desistance more likely.

Experiences of parole in Scotland: stalled lives

This chapter examines the experience of nine men on parole in Scotland. In narrative interviews, they generally described a positive relationship with their parole officer (or Criminal Justice Social Worker -CJSWer in Scotland), who tended to be supportive, relatively non-judgmental and respectful. Most were committed to moving away from crime and felt their CJSWer helped with this. On the other hand, the major obstacles in the way of securing the life they aspired to meant that they were somewhat hopeless about their future. Notably, their inability to find employment, and thus secure a new identity as well as an income, meant that their lives had stalled. This affected their views of their CJSWers, because they had not managed to help them in this important respect.

Purposes Perceived in the Sentence

This chapter examines to what extent justifications of punishment find expression in prisoners’ accounts of their sentence. Consequently, the starting point for analysis is ‘etic’ (Silverman, 2001) — it largely draws on concepts originating from sources external to the research. In the next two chapters, these views will be put into context, drawing on the participants’ overall narrative of their sentence, within which perceptions of purpose did not always sit easily. For example, criticisms about prison failing in its aim to rehabilitate did not translate into critical accounts of imprisonment. Such tensions between purposes perceived and overall narratives will also be examined in the subsequent chapters.

Legitimacy and the Impact of the Prison Environment

The previous chapter examined to what extent normative purposes of punishment found expression in the men’s accounts, using an ‘etic’ level of analysis. This chapter focuses more closely on the men’s narratives, and the meanings of imprisonment contained within them, by examining how the men came to see their sentence as (un)fair. As not much in-depth work has been completed on offenders’ views of the legitimacy of their sentence, I draw on concepts from work in other areas, including Bottoms’ work on compliance with community penalties (2001), Beetham’s theory of the legitimacy of political power relations (1991) and research on prisoners’ views of the prison regime (Carrabine, 2004; Sparks et al., 1996).

Narrative Demands and Desistance

The previous chapter discussed how the prison environment impacted on the way the men saw their sentence. However, they were not only coping with the prison environment, but also giving prison a place in their life narrative. This equally had consequences for the way they framed their imprisonment and parole. As discussed in detail in Appendix II, narratives both draw on a wider life story, with consequences for identity, and are a situated performance. This chapter discusses how some of the men, by telling a certain story in the interview, were testing out as well as asserting their identity as a non-offender or a reformed character. In doing so, it moves away from the research questions about purpose and fairness, instead attempting to describe how sentences were given meaning in the context of whole lives.

Meanings and Experiences of Punishment

Many authors have recognised the importance of examining the views of offenders of the criminal justice process. Rex (2005) has argued for the need to see how well their views accord with justifications of punishment. Others have written that soliciting offenders’ accounts is necessary in order to describe the system accurately examine and possibly change it (Casper, 1972); to promote respect for the system (McGinnis and Carlson, 1981) because disrespect for the system may lead to further crime (Alpert and Hicks, 1977; Krohn and Stratton, 1980); and to make desistance or rehabilitation more likely (Larson and Berg, 1989). This chapter discusses what is already known about offenders’ perceptions and experiences of their punishments, and further justifies the research focus by pointing out limitations of the existing research and gaps in the literature.

Review of 'The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation, and Social Life in an English Prison' by Ben Crewe

challenging beginnings to their lives. For example, we meet Nasir, an asylum seeker from Somalia who was briefly enticed into a gang but found a more positive pastime in basketball, and Willie who had become involved with gangs and dropped out of school but who broke away from the negative influences in his life to get a job as a mechanic. These antecedents provide even the most militant members of the anti-youth brigade with food for thought regarding the challenges that face young people in contemporary society. Deuchar could have strengthened his position by forging tighter links between those individuals that have overcome the myriad issues that have dogged their lives and the approaches and strategies they have employed to do so. Although the book posits the argument that a lack of social capital amongst marginalized youth can make the status, identity and social bonding offered by gangs appear more attractive, it doesn’t explicitly explain the reasons why some of our young people managed to reject the pull of gangs. In presenting an overview of sport and youth mentoring initiatives, Chapters 8 and 9 read as being somewhat divorced from the lives of the 50 individuals that have navigated us through the book. Furthermore, the initiatives are presented to us as examples of ‘good practice’ (p. xvi) without any evidence of evaluation or objective scrutiny by independent researchers. Their success in tackling social exclusion and building social capital is ‘proven’ with a handful of quotes from youth workers, teachers and young people. A more rigorous and in-depth look at the objectives of these initiatives and the extent to which these are being fulfilled would be beneficial to youth workers and policy makers looking to implement strategies in the future. Gangs, Marginalised Youth and Social Capital contributes towards a welcome and thankfully growing body of literature that seeks to explore the views of young people in their own words. These voices are important and in echoing Deuchar’s concluding plea, it is indeed time that ‘politicians, journalists, members of the establishment and the general public around the world stop demonising young people and start listening to them’ (p.156).