Only one way to swim? The offence and the life course in accounts of adaptation to life imprisonment

Abstract

Recent studies of long-term imprisonment describe a largely invariant pattern of prisoner adaptation. Using data from a qualitative study of men serving life sentences in England, I argue that adaptation may in fact vary more than these studies imply both because of the prisoner’s age when sentenced and because of the circumstances of particular offences. Participants’ engagement with the prison’s rehabilitative ‘offer’ depended on how the sentence affected their life course and what they understood to be the moral ramifications of the offence. These findings refine understanding of adaptation and suggest that a renewed focus on moral reflexivity may bear fruit in future prison research. [This preprint is the author's original version of an article that has been accepted by the British Journal of Criminology, published by Oxford University Press on 4 May 2020]

Radical hope and processes of becoming: Examining short-term prisoners’ imagined futures in England & Wales and Norway

“…Until now, it has mostly been researchers of long-term imprisonment who have shown interest in the relationship between ethical selfhood, normativity and the right to hope (see Crewe et al, 2020;Jarman, 2020;Seeds, 2021;Vannier, 2016), whereas I wish to insert the hopes of short-term 3 prisoners into this analytical landscape. The series of disruptions and stresses of life transitions caused by short-term imprisonment wear people down and each of the sentences come to represent tiny 'moral breakdowns' (Zigon, 2007), in which our interviewees questioned their lives and priorities.…”

Mental and Physical Health of Older Incarcerated Persons Who Have Aged in Place in Prison

“…Long-termers are in the position to provide mentorship and contribute to the rehabilitation of younger prisoners (Kazemaian & Travis, 2015). As the prison is their de facto home, long-termers can provide stability in the often stressful prison environment as they are likely adapted to the system, are more likely to exhibit self-control compared with “short-termers,” and rarely engage in misconduct (Hebert, 2019; Jarman, 2020; Kazemaian & Travis, 2015). Thus, maintaining their health and well-being may have beneficial effects on the prison milieu.…”

Book review: Normalizing Extreme Imprisonment: The Case of Life Without Parole in California

“…In Chapter 4, the letters from incarcerated persons serving LWOP add the human voices and depth that may have been lost through a sole reliance on archival research. Although some readers may be left wanting more of these narratives, this chapter makes a particularly strong theoretical contribution to research on the experience of long-term imprisonment (see, for example, Crewe et al, 2020; Jarman, 2020; Wright et al, 2022). The author specifically explores how LWOP prisoners confront a range of “deaths” related to their limited means of appealing their sentence, their exclusion from rehabilitative programs, and their embodied experience of physical decline in a prison environment characterized by neglect and one where care for aging and ill bodies is scarce.…”