Time after time: imprisonment, re-entry and enduring temporariness

McNeill, F. , Thomas, P. C. , Frödén, L. C., Collinson Scott, J., Escobar, O. and Urie, A. (2022) Time after time: imprisonment, re-entry and enduring temporariness. In: Carr, N. and Robinson, G. (eds.) Time and Punishment: New Contexts and Perspectives. Series: Palgrave studies in prisons and penology. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 171-201. ISBN 9783031121081 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-12108-1_7)

Abstract

This chapter aims to address the scant attention that has been paid to time and temporalities in re-entry and re/integration research. Drawing on data from the ‘Distant Voices—Coming Home’ project, which used creative methods to explore re/integration after punishment—we illustrate and analyse three ‘travails’ of penal time. We use the term travails here to stress the significant, difficult and active work involved in addressing these temporal challenges. Respectively, these travails concern the struggles caused by ‘de-synchrony’ between time inside and outside of prison and the problems of ‘re-synchrony’ that it creates; the contestation of ‘readiness’ for progression and release; and the problem of living with the paradox of ‘enduring temporariness’. In our conclusion, we argue that tackling these three challenges requires people re-entering society to travel not just through spaces and to places but also through time, both backwards and forwards. These journeys are fraught with both difficulty and danger.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McNeill, Professor Fergus and Thomas, Dr Phil and Urie, Ms Alison
• Authors: McNeill, F., Thomas, P. C., Frödén, L. C., Collinson Scott, J., Escobar, O., and Urie, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences; College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISSN: 2753-0604
• ISBN: 9783031121081
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2022
• First Published: First published in Time and Punishment: New Contexts and Perspectives 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

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