Reality shock : returning to the community after serving a prison sentence

Abstract

Returning to the community after serving a prison sentence is not a one-and-done event; rather, it is a process wherein the individuals concerned face a multitude of challenges. Such challenges include the stigma associated with seeking employment, as well as emotional challenges, such as, repairing the harm done to relationships with family members and the community at large. This study set out to identify the difficulties that individuals face when reentering society, conceptualised within two contrasting ideologies: retributive justice and restorative justice. The study used a focus group design with four individuals serving their prison sentences at the Rehabilitation In Society Malta Foundation (RISe) programme. Using thematic analysis for the focus group discussion, four dominant themes emerged: family, successful reentry, unsuccessful reentry, and the Criminal Court process. Reentry into society does not happen by itself, nor should efforts to promote successful reentry begin during the final phase of an individual's prison sentence. The study findings highlighted the reality that, on reentering society after living in prison, one faces immediate and long-term challenges, especially in terms of finding work and socialising with others. A prison sentence alters not only the individual’s life, but also their entire system, with their family members suffering the consequences throughout the long criminal proceedings, during the prison sentence, and thereafter. Within the limitations of the research, this study offers several recommendations, including that prison policies and practices are reviewed from the perspective of families' rights and potential to support the restorative reentry process, that all prison training focuses on the restoration of broken relationships as an integral part of the reentry role of prison, and that the pre-sentencing period is kept to a minimum and possibly used to begin the sensitive restorative journey that would eventually contribute to successful reentry.