Bruce Western, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison
| DOI | 10.1177/14624745211010226 |
| Author | Robert Werth |
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
(p. 104). Subsequently, this leads to an increase in poor long-term outcomes in terms of
mental health, educational attainment and ongoing involvement with the criminal justice
system (p. 105).
In summary, this book prompts wider discussion about the use of prison and the extent
to which it loses its legitimacy when penal power is used in punitive and thoughtless
ways. Jardine’s research highlights some of the hardships and negative consequences
which can arise out of these actions or inactions. Jardine’s book is rich in its ethnographic
observations and is carried further by her empathetic approach as a researcher. Crucially,
she demonstrates the importance –in academic discourse, policy and practice –of how
prisoners’supportive relationships are framed. Developing services that meet the specific
needs of the diverse range of families affected by imprisonment and training prison staff
can be viewed as a welcome and meaningful step towards improving families experiences
of imprisonment. More fundamentally, in order to mitigate the harm that imprisonment
visits upon prisoners and their families, and as Jardine concludes, custodial penalties
must be used sparingly (p. 137).
ORCID iD
Lisa Mary Armstrong https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5374-2329
References
Condry R and Minson S (2020) Conceptualizing the effects of imprisonment on families :
Collateral consequences, secondary punishment or symbiotic harms? Theoretical
Criminology. Epub ahead of print 28 January 2020. DOI: 10.1177/1362480619897078.
Power K (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and fam-
ilies. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy 16(1): 67–73.
Sparks RHay WBottoms A (1996) Prisons and the Problem of Order. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Lisa Mary Armstrong
University of Strathclyde, UK
Email: lisa.armstrong.2018@uni.strath.ac.uk
Bruce Western, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison, Russell Sage
Foundation, 2018. New York. $29.95. 210 pages. Paperback.
Bruce Western’sHomeward: Life in the Year After Prison examines the lives of a group
of individuals immediately following release from prison. The book grew out of the
Boston Reentry Study, and is based on multiple interviews with 122 men and
women throughout their first year after release from state prisons in Massachusetts. It
represents an attempt to explore –and represent –what happens in the lives of these
individuals. In addition to the empirical questions this entails, Western endeavors to
center the book within an “ethical framework”that addresses both empirical and
298 Punishment & Society 24(2)
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