Anticipated citizenship in the shadow of imprisonment
| Author | Abigail D. Stark |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505221105392 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Anticipated citizenship
in the shadow
of imprisonment
Abigail D. Stark
University of Central Lancashire, UK
Abstract
This article explores imprisoned men’s anticipation of citizenship, when looking
towards release from prison. Based on the subjective meaning citizenship holds for
participants themselves, I explore men’s expectations of their citizenship status and
experience after release, considering how and whether imprisoned men expect sub-
jectively meaningful citizenship to be realised in their post-prison lives. I argue that
imagined future citizenship is not only inhibited by formal restrictions faced on
release, but also by the potential longevity of prison’s impact on the self, and percep-
tions of imprisonment as failing to prepare individuals for ‘normal’life as citizens.
Keywords
citizenship, imprisonment, reentry, identity, social exclusion
Introduction
Citizenship has long been intrinsically interwoven with punishment. Punishment is
used against those who –convicted of behaviour defined as criminal –are
deemed to have fallen below the standards expected of citizens, and a central
element of modern punishment has been its emphasis on changing individuals’
behaviour. Prisons are often seen as a tool to ‘mould’people into citizens as
opposed to ‘offenders’, with those undergoing punishment occupying a ‘purgatory’
position of ‘conditional citizenship’so this ‘moulding’might take place (Vaughan,
2000: 26). Official rhetoric around release from prison and rehabilitation is often
framed around returning ‘law-abiding citizens’to the community (Carlen, 2013),
Corresponding Author:
Abi Stark, School of Justice, University of Central Lancashire, Harris Building, Preston, PR1 2HE,
United Kingdom.
Email: astark@uclan.ac.uk
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2022, Vol. 69(3) 278–295
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505221105392
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
suggesting an implicit distinction between the ‘offender’experiencing punishment,
and the ‘citizen’who is returned. However, scholars have highlighted the many chal-
lenges faced in resettlement, with deprivations of punishment not limited to the ‘pains
of imprisonment’(Sykes, 1958) during incarceration. Both during and on release
from prison, individuals face a wide range of ‘collateral consequences’or ‘invisible
punishments’(Travis, 2002: 15) which may impact their formal citizenship status,
and ability to partake meaningfully in society. These restrictions on citizenship
have emerged while individuals are increasingly expected to take control of their
own rehabilitation, through responsibilisation (Garland, 2001).
While scholarship has explored formal and legal barriers to citizenship faced by
imprisoned and formerly imprisoned people, and the challenges of reentry, little is
known about prisoners’own perspectives on citizenship, and the subjective
meaning it holds for them. Similarly, there is limited understanding of prisoners’
expectations of what returning to the community as ‘citizens’might look like for
them. This article will explore expectations of life on release, in relation to imagined
future citizenship, from the perspectives of imprisoned men. It will be argued that, if
criminal justice agencies are to return ‘citizens’to communities, then we must under-
stand what citizenship means for imprisoned people themselves. The article will
demonstrate that expectations or aspirations of citizenship upon release do not
always align with legal or normative definitions of citizenship dominant in literature,
and that formal restrictions may interact with the circumstances of incarceration to
create a disconnect between aspirations of future meaningful citizenship, and
expectations of reality. While prisoners have been described as ‘conditional’
(Vaughan, 2000) or ‘sleeping’citizens (McNeill and Velasquez, 2017), for some
imprisoned people, future imagined citizenship is damaged, both by the experience
of incarceration, and their awareness of the many restrictions and hurdles faced on
release. This article will thus argue that subjectively meaningful citizenship is
shaped, tainted, hindered and, sometimes, destroyed by the effects of imprisonment,
which interact with formal and material restrictions anticipated on release to shape
future narratives of citizenship. Given the significance of the ‘imagined self’, both in
general (Maruna, 2001) and as citizens specifically (Farrall et al., 2014), for desis-
tance, understanding of participants’envisaged future citizenship may contribute to
furthering understanding of reentry and desistance narratives. In particular, under-
standing the barriers to envisaging a pro-social self through imagined future citizen-
ship, may help to inform how desistance can best be supported through enabling
anticipated future citizenship narratives amongst those in prison.
Citizenship, imprisonment and reentry
The connections between punishment and citizenship have long been discussed, with
a growing body of literature considering the implications of conviction, or indeed
imprisonment, for individuals’citizenship. Scholarship exploring citizenship for
those imprisoned, has focused predominantly on formal restrictions to citizenship
rights, for example through legal disenfranchisement (Easton, 2008). Looking
beyond the prisoncontext, research has demonstratedthe wealth of formal restrictions
Stark 279
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