Abstract
Prison does not promote desistance. Statistics around reoffending following a custodial sentence demonstrate that the penal system is not effective in curtailing recidivism despite repeated government aims to reduce reoffending. Much desistance research has demonstrated that a cessation in offending is the outcome of a complex interaction between subjective/agency factors and social/environmental factors. However, desistance research has failed to engage with more radical arguments around prison abolition. This chapter therefore aims to examine this gap in the literature and advocates for scholarship and research into a ‘critical desistance’. Utilising the Real Utopias work of Erik Olin Wright (2006, 2010) as the basis for a more radical approach, this chapter suggests a framework for a critical desistance based on principles of social justice, emancipatory alternatives to punishment and engagement with wider social change. The reformist trajectory of most desistance research and criminal justice practice has led to the continued notion that prison could work under certain circumstances. A critical desistance approach is grounded in the abolition of prisons and punishment, rather than the reform of a system that serves to restrain desistance trajectories. This chapter argues that prison and penal punishment are a contributing cause of recidivism and, therefore hinder the process of desistance. Crucially, desistance research needs to engage with abolitionist theory, as the dismantling of the prison industrial complex would have the greatest desistance promoting potential of all.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baldry, E. 2010. ‘Women in Transition: From Prison to.’ Current Issues in Criminal Justice 22(2): 253–267.
Barry, M. 2016. ‘On the Cusp of Recognition: Using Critical Theory to Promote Desistance Among Young Offenders.’ Theoretical Criminology 20(1): 91–106.
Brown, M., and S. Ross. 2010. ‘Mentoring, Social Capital and Desistance: A Study of Women Released from Prison.’ The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 43(1): 31–50.
Burnett, R. 2004. ‘To Reoffend or Not to Reoffend? The Ambivalence of Convicted Property Offenders.’ In After Crime and Punishment: Pathways to Offender Reintegration, edited by S. Maruna and R. Immarigeon, 152–180. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Carlen, P. 1998. Sledgehammer: Women’s Imprisonment at the Millennium. London: MacMillan Press.
Carlen, P., and J. Tombs. 2006. ‘Reconfigurations of Penalty. The Ongoing Case of the Women’s Imprisonment and Reintegration Industries.’ Theoretical Criminology 10(3): 337–360.
Carlton, B., and M. Segrave, eds. 2013. Women Exiting Prison: Critical Essays on Gender, Post-Release Support and Survival. Oxon: Routledge.
Christie, N. 1981. Limits to Pain, The Role of Punishment in Penal Policy. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Cid, J. 2009. ‘Is Imprisonment Criminogenic? A Comparative Study of Recidivism Rates between Prison and Suspended Prison Sanctions.’ European Journal of Criminology 6(6): 459–480.
Cohen, S. 1985. Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification. New York, NY: Basil Blackwell.
Condry, R., A. Kotova, and S. Minson. 2016. ‘Social Injustice and Collateral Damage: The Families and Children of Prisoners.’ In The Handbook on Prisons, edited by Y. Jewkes, J. Bennett, and B. Crewe, 622–640. London: Routledge.
Cooper, V., and J. Sim. 2013. ‘Punishing the Detritus and the Damned: Penal and Semi Penal Institutions in Liverpool and the North West.’ In Why Prison? edited by D. Scott, 189–210. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crewe, B. 2011. ‘Depth, Weight, Tightness: Revisiting the Pains of Imprisonment.’ Punishment and Society 13(5): 509–529.
Davis, A. 2003. Are Prisons Obsolete? New York, NY: Seven Sisters Press.
Fader, J.J., and L.L. Traylor. 2015. ‘Dealing with Difference in Desistance Theory: The Promise of Intersectionality for New Avenues of Inquiry.’ Sociology Compass 9(4): 247–260.
Farrall, S. 2002. Rethinking What Works with Offenders: Probations, Social Context and Desistance from Crime. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Farrall, S. 2004. ‘Social Capital and Offender Reintegration: Making Probation Desistance Focused.’ In After Crime and Punishment: Pathways to Offender Reintegration, edited by S. Maruna and R. Immarigeon, 57–82. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Farrall, S., and A. Calverley. 2006. Understanding Desistance from Crime. New York, NY: Open University Press.
Fitzgerald, M. 1977. Prisoners in Revolt. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Fitzgerald, M., and J. Sim. 1979. British Prisons. Oxford: Blackwell.
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Garland, D. 2001. The Culture of Control. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Giordano, P.C., S.A. Cernkovich, and J.L. Rudolph. 2002. ‘Gender, Crime and Desistance: Toward a Theory of Cognitive Transformation.’ The American Journal of Sociology 107(4): 990–1064.
Hannah-Moffat, K. 2001. Punishment in Disguise: Penal Governance and Federal Imprisonment of Women in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hannah-Moffat, K., P. Maurutto, and S. Turnbull. 2009. ‘Negotiated Risk: Actuarial Illusions and Discretion in Probation.’ Canadian Journal of Law and Society 24(3): 391–409.
Hart, E.L. 2016. ‘Women Prisoners and the Drive for Desistance: Capital and Responsibilisation as a Barrier to Change.’ Women and Criminal Justice (Advance Online Publication). doi: 10.1080/08974454.2016.1217814.
Hart, E.L., and R. Schlembach. 2015. ‘The Wrexham Titan Prison and the Case Against Prison Expansion.’ Critical and Radical Social Work 3(2): 289–294.
Healy, D. 2010. The Dynamics of Desistance: Charting Pathways through Change. Cullompton: Willan.
Healy, D. 2013. ‘Changing Fate? Agency and the Desistance Process.’ Theoretical Criminology 17(4): 557–574.
Hough, M., S. Farrall, and F. McNeill. 2012. Intelligent Justice: Balancing the Effects of Community Sentences and Custody. London: Howard League for Penal Reform.
Howard League for Penal Reform. 2014. Breaking Point: Understaffing and Overcrowding in Prisons Research Briefing. London: Howard League for Penal Reform.
Joliffe, D., and C. Hedderman. 2015. ‘Investigating the Impact of Custody on Reoffending Using Propensity Score Matching.’ Crime and Delinquency 61(8): 1051–1077.
Kemshall, H. 2002. ‘Effective Practice in Probation: An Example of ‘Advanced Liberal Responsibilisation?’ Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 41(1): 41–58.
King, S. 2013. ‘Assisted Desistance and Experiences of Probation Supervision.’ Probation Journal 60(2): 136–151.
LeBel, T., R. Burnett, S. Maruna, and S. Bushway. 2008. ‘The “Chicken and Egg” of Subjective and Social Factors in Desistance from Crime.’ European Journal of Criminology 5(2): 131–159.
Liebling, A., and S. Maruna, eds. 2005. The Effects of Imprisonment. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Listwan, S.J., C.J. Sullivan, R. Agnew, F.T. Cullen, and M. Colvin. 2013. ‘The Pains of Imprisonment Revisited: The Impact of Strain on Inmate Recidivism.’ Justice Quarterly 30(1): 144–168.
Maruna, S. 2001. Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
McNeill, F., and B. Weaver. 2007. Giving Up Crime: Directions for Policy. Edinburgh: Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice.
Meek, R., and G.E. Lewis. 2014. ‘Promoting Well-Being and Desistance Through Sport and Physical Activity: The Opportunities and Barriers Experienced by Women in English Prisons.’ Women and Criminal Justice 24(2): 151–172.
Ministry of Justice. 2014a. Offender Management Statistics Bulletin, England and Wales. Jan-March 2014. London: Ministry of Justice.
Ministry of Justice. 2014b. Safety in Custody Statistics England and Wales, Update to March 2014. London: Ministry of Justice.
Ministry of Justice. 2015. Proven Reoffending Statistics Quarterly: October 2012 to September 2013. London: Ministry of Justice.
Moore, J.M. 2015. ‘Reframing the “Prison Works” Debate. For Whom and in What Ways Does Prison Work?’ Reclaim Justice Network, 10 March. Available at: https://downsizingcriminaljustice.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/reframing-the-prison-works-debate-for-whom-and-in-what-ways-does-prison-work/.
Morizot, J., and M. Le Blanc. 2007. ‘Behavioral, Self and Social Control Predictors of Desistance from Crime: A Test of Launch and Contemporaneous Effect Models.’ Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 23(1): 50–71.
Nagin, D.S., F.T. Cullen, and C.L. Jonson. 2009. ‘Imprisonment and Reoffending.’ In Crime and Justice: A Review of Research (Vol. 38), edited by M. Tonry, 115–200. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Nieuwbeerta, P., D.S. Nagin, and A.A.J. Blokland. 2009. ‘The Relationship Between First Imprisonment and Criminal Career Development: A Matched Samples Comparison.’ Journal of Quantitative Criminology 25(3): 227–257.
Nugent, B., and P. Barnes. 2013. ‘Desistance and Young People: Includem’s Work with Children and Young People and the Limitations of Desistance Theory.’ Scottish Justice Matters December: 21–23.
Nugent, B., and M. Schinkel. 2016. ‘The Pains of Desistance.’ Criminology and Criminal Justice (Advance Online Publication). doi: 10.1177/1748895816634812.
Palmer, E., R. Hatcher, J. McGuire, and C. Hollin. 2015. ‘Cognitive Skills Programs for Female Offenders in the Community: Effect on Reconviction.’ Criminal Justice and Behaviour 42(4): 345–360. doi: 10.1177/0093854814552099.
Ryan, M., and J. Sim. 2016. ‘Campaigning for and Campaigning Against Prisons: Excavating and Reaffirming the Case for Prison Abolition.’ In The Handbook on Prisons, edited by Y. Jewkes, J. Bennett, and B. Crewe, 712–733. London: Routledge.
Schinkel, M., and F. McNeill. 2016. ‘Prisons and Desistance.’ In The Handbook on Prisons, edited by Y. Jewkes, J. Bennett, and B. Crewe, 607–621. London: Routledge.
Scott, D. 2013. ‘Visualising an Abolitionist Real Utopia: Principles, Policy and Praxis.’ In Crime, Critique and Utopia, edited by M. Malloch and B. Monro, 90–113. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sered, S. 2014. ‘Suffering in an Age of Personal Responsibility.’ Contexts 13(2): 38–43.
Sim, J. 2009. Punishment and Prisons, Power and the Carceral State. London: Sage.
Spohn, C., and D. Holleran. 2002. ‘The Effect of Imprisonment on Recidivism Rates of Felony Offenders: A Focus on Drug Offenders.’ Criminology 40(2): 329–358.
Sykes, G. 1958. The Society of Captives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Travers, R., H.C. Wakeling, R.E. Mann, and C.R. Hollin. 2013. ‘Reconviction Following a Cognitive Skills Intervention: An Alternative Quasi-Experimental Methodology.’ Legal and Criminological Psychology 18(1): 48–65.
Van Ginneken, E.F.J.C. 2016. ‘Making Sense of Imprisonment: Narratives of Posttraumatic Growth Among Female Prisoners.’ Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 60(2): 208–227.
Vaughan, B. 2007. ‘The Internal Narrative of Desistance.’ British Journal of Criminology 47(3): 390–404.
Wacquant, L. 2009. Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Wacquant, L. 2010. ‘Prisoner Reentry and Myth and Ceremony.’ Dialectical Anthropology 34(4): 605–620.
Wacquant, L. 2013. ‘Crafting the Neoliberal state: Workfare, Prisonfare and Social Insecurity.’ In Why Prison? edited by D. Scott, 65–86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, E.O. 2006. ‘Compass Points: Towards a Socialist Alternative.’ New Left Review 41: 93–124.
Wright, E.O. 2010. Envisioning Real Utopias. London: Verso.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hart, E.L. (2017). Prisoners Post Release: The Need for a ‘Critical Desistance’. In: Hart, E., van Ginneken, E. (eds) New Perspectives on Desistance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95185-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95185-7_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95184-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95185-7
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)