Time Well Spent: Misery, Meaning, and the Opportunity of Incarceration
| Author | KEVIN A. WRIGHT |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12352 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
The Howard Journal Vol59 No 1. March 2020 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12352
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 44–64
Time Well Spent: Misery, Meaning,
and the Opportunity of Incarceration
KEVIN A. WRIGHT
Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State
University, USA
Abstract: People often leave prison worse than when they arrived; sometimes, they leave
the same. People could leave prison better than when they arrived througha reimagined
response to crime. They could be set up to live sustainable, fulfilling, and meaningful
lives after prison. This approach could be informed by research on what makes for a
meaningful life – regardless of whether a person has come into contact with the criminal
justice system. A reimagined corrections could view time spent in prison as an opportunity
rather than solely as a punishment; an opportunity to repair harm, empower people, and
promote public safety.
Keywords: earned redemption; meaning; prison; rehabilitation
I would be dead if not for prison. Varrone White proclaims that with certainty.
It is truth. Varrone has spent his last two decades behind bars and is
sure prison interrupted his descent into the violence of gang life. Varrone
escaped death on the streets, paid in full by the social death brought on by
his incarceration. In 2022, he returns to those streets. What happened in
the last 20 years to the 21-year-old young man who became a 41-year-old
adult? Varrone has no blemishes on his prison record; he never got into a
fight, never brought in contraband, and never stood in a place he should
not be standing. He has supplied over 20,000 hours of prison labour,
progressing from work in the kitchen through various assignments to his
current role as clerk for the chaplain at 40 cents an hour. He graduated
top of the class from the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, co-founded
the Arizona Transformation Project, and co-authored an academic article
(Thrasher et al. in press). He also graduated from, and then clerked for,
the Impact of Crime on Victims Class – and he embodies the restorative
principles of that class better than anyone.1But mostly he is ‘not dead’.
Prison life is a stagnant existence for most people on the inside in the
United States (US). It is mundane and repetitive. Prison may halt the bad,
like violence on the outside, but it also halts the good, like the development
of responsible and mature behaviour (Dmitrieva et al. 2012). People in
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2020 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol59 No 1. March 2020
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 44–64
prison are medically older than they should be (Binswanger, Krueger and
Steiner 2009), and they leave prison at an increased risk of early death
(Binswanger et al. 2007; Patterson 2013). Much of re-entry preparation is
accounting for the deficits created by removing people from society for
a significant length of time. This stands in stark contrast to the earliest
penitentiaries in the US, resting upon the idea that productive time spent
in prison could produce productive people that lead productive lives on
the outside. What happens in prison matters for what happens after prison,
and time well spent ensures that this time contributes toward a productive
and meaningful life for people who are incarcerated.
What has been learned over the last 20 years? Too many people are un-
der correctional supervision for too long, and the management of groups
of people takes precedence over the treatment of individual men and
women (Austin and Irwin 2012; Feeley and Simon 1992). This leaves de-
partments of correction scrambling for how to best rehabilitate with limited
resources, and the US answer has been to reduce the risk of reoffending
by addressing needs. Risks and needs assessments are intended to guide
programming designed to replace antisocial attitudes and behaviours with
prosocial attitudes and behaviours. The last 20 years, and the 20 years
before that, have shown what works best for whom and under what condi-
tions. But this knowledge coexists alongside findings that one of two people
released from US prisons are reincarcerated within three years (Durose,
Cooper and Snyder 2014), that gold-standard programming to reduce
recidivism struggles at scale (Parsons, Weiss and Wei 2016; Visher et al.
2017), and that Second Chance Act programmes fall short of creating sec-
ond opportunities (D’Amico, Geckeler and Kim 2017). Some scholars have
made the uneasy conclusion that prison may increase future criminal be-
haviour (Cullen, Jonson and Nagin 2011), and many others have grappled
with the uncomfortable reality that the imprisonment of individuals affects
families, children, and communities (Clear 2007; Wakefieldand Wildeman
2013; Western 2018). The last two decades of correctional research have
advanced knowledge on individual treatment that are overshadowed by
the mass removal of people from society.
What could be learned in the next 20 years? People often leave prison
worse than when they came in; sometimes, they leave the same. People
could leave prison better than when they arrived through a reimagined
response to crime. They could be set up to live sustainable, fulfilling, and
meaningful lives after prison. This approach could be informed by research
on what makes for a meaningful life – regardless of whether a person has
come into contact with the criminal justice system. People who do come into
contact with the system have unique perspectives and experiences that lend
well towards creating a meaningful life for themselves and others. The goals
of rehabilitation could shift from ensuring that people are not something –
not dead, not recidivated – to ensuring that people are something – a loving
parent, a successful business owner. A reimagined corrections could view
time spent in prison as an opportunity rather than solely as a punishment;
an opportunity to repair harm, empower people, and promote public
safety.
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2020 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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