The Pains of Life Imprisonment During Late Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Wright, Serena; Hulley, Susie; Crewe, Ben

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68759-5_22

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The ongoing feeling of uncertainty generated by these specific penal features is often compounded by the 'total arbitrariness' and opacity that many indeterminate sentenced prisoners feel governs their existence (Crewe, 2011: 513). Yet while these feelings of ambivalence pervade the entirety of an indeterminate sentence, the magnitude and nature of this challenge appears to vary over time (see, for example, Crewe et al, 2020Crewe et al, , 2017Hulley et al, 2016;Leigey and Ryder, 2015;Liem, 2016;O'Donnell, 2014;Wright et al, 2017Wright et al, , 2021. According to O'Donnell (2014), for example, prisoners approaching the tariff endpoint of an indeterminate sentence-the earliest possible release date for this group-experience this not with hope but considerable stress and 'trepidation'.…”

Section: Hope and Life Imprisonmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of hope/lessness among men and women in the late stage of a life sentence

Wright

Hulley

Crewe³

2022

Theoretical Criminology

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Drawing on Snyder's ‘hope theory’ as a conceptual framework, this article examines the hope narratives of men and women at the ‘late stage’ of a life sentence. The article aims to bridge the existing gap between jurisprudence and sociological accounts on hope and life imprisonment by extending this debate to men and women serving reducible life sentences in England and Wales, for whom release is not guaranteed but assumed to be attainable. Through focusing on the individual ways in which the spectre and procedural elements of release shape narratives of hope and hopelessness, this article agrees with Vannier that recent human rights debates have fallen short in terms of subjectively understanding the complex relationship between ‘hope’ and ‘release’ for life-sentenced prisoners. It concludes by highlighting the necessity of procedural legitimacy in reducing uncertainty and promoting and maintaining hope among this group.

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