Voices of Quiet Desistance in UK Prisons: Exploring Emergence of New Identities Under Desistance Constraint
| Author | CHRIS HOLLIGAN,ROBERT McLEAN,DEV MAITRA |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12213 |
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 4. December 2017 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12213
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 437–453
Voices of Quiet Desistance in UK
Prisons: Exploring Emergence of
New Identities Under Desistance
Constraint
ROBERT McLEAN, DEV MAITRA and CHRIS HOLLIGAN
Robert McLean is Lecturer and Researcher in Criminology, University of the
West of Scotland; Dev Maitra is Doctoral Researcher in Criminology,
University of Cambridge; Chris Holligan is Professor of Education, University
of the West of Scotland
Abstract: The article explores desistance dynamics within prison, and what gang members
say about its phenomenology. Qualitative methodology was adopted with research partic-
ipants in English and Scottish prisons. The findings indicate that desistance-oriented
dispositions develop gradually once gang ties, originating in the street gang, lose the
resonance they once exercised on conformity to offending behaviour. This liberation from
oppression means not merely that gang members are de facto left to fend for themselves,
but also to find a liminal space in which to thrive. It gives them an opportunity to
learn and develop prosocial values. Spirituality, a source of personal meaning, supports
progression to desistance and fosters distance from the street self. Gang members’
loyalties and conflicts pre-dating incarceration challenge the potential of prison to break
criminogenic ties and foster desistance.
Keywords: desistance; gangs; learning; spirituality
Men make their own history . . . but under conditions encountered, given, and
transmitted from the past. (Marx 1854/1995, p.1)
Orientation
The sociology of masculinities and the prison confirm prison as a volatile
and hostile environment (Sykes 1958). Criminal justice sanctions fos-
ter custodial circumstances that at first blush deny space for desistance.
Levi-Strauss (1968), reworking Marx, says: ‘men make their own history
but they do not know they are making it’ (p.23), an insight about the
role of foresight and the human condition. This article traces this empha-
sis, tensions of structure over agency, through data and argument. The
437
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 4. December 2017
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 437–453
severity of adversity including substance abuse and mental health issues
experienced by many prisoners prior to incarceration is unlikely to create
a co-operative, peaceful and calming carceral environment (Maitra 2013).
But does this importation warrant pessimism about agency for desistance
trajectories in prison? If street gang membership structure on the outside
is burdensome, then incarceration, ceteris paribus, is potentially liberating.
It might offer space and time to allow mellowing of the self. Our research
questions are: first, if custodial incarceration supports desistance how is
this manifested?; second, what factors undermine a dynamic towards de-
sistance, inside prison? Our argument is that incarceration can provoke
conditions for desistance but, as prison experience is gripped by crimino-
genic phenomena, change may be suppressed.
Our knowledge of how imprisonment impacts the desistance of gang
members is under-researched. On the one hand escape from the gang on
the outside may erode gang solidarity. On the other hand pressures of
threat and violence inside may compel inmates to rely on bonds of gang
affiliation (Worrell and Morris 2012). Our contribution aims to illuminate
not only the dynamic between desistance from the gang and being in-
carcerated, but also explain why prison can impose contrary trajectories.
Dooley, Seals and Skarbek (2014) report that prison gang membership in
the US increases recidivism greatly; those in our sample, however, are not
members of a prison gang formed inside prison, but rather they are mem-
bers of gangs outside prison. The importation perspective on the sources
of a violent prison culture argues that inmates’ criminogenic biographies
underlie its dangerously hostile environment (Dooley, Seals and Skarbek
2014; Gaes et al. 2002).
Desistance is a cessation of criminal offending. Periods of incarceration
can introduce identity change, a feature of desistance, but processes of
identity work can, however, impede prosocial constructions of self (Phelan
and Hunt 1998). What constitutes the exact point at which offending stops is
a heavily-contested notion (Maruna and Immarigeon 2004); the role that
incarceration plays in this is highly debatable, yet there is a steadily-growing
body of research on the process of desistance among offenders. While this
typically focuses on offenders following their release from prison (Glynn
2014; Maruna 2001), there has been less attention paid to individuals who
begin the process of desistance while serving custodial sentences suggesting
that incarceration may help desistance. In this regard, limited attention has
been given to the process of desistance during incarceration, as opposed
to afterwards, as prison is rarely viewed as an arena where desistance may
emerge. The traditional focus is on the effects of prison on the post-release
lives of prisoners (Maruna 2001).
This article attempts to augment a limited body of work about desistance
(Deuchar et al. 2016; Maruna 2001), with specific focus on imprisoned gang
members and how the apparent lack of gang presence in prison can aid de-
sistance, drawing upon qualitative findings from two larger studies, which
explored desistance among gang members. In doing so, the article aims
to not only give a voice to offenders from a variety of regional and ethnic
backgrounds, but also seeks to use such findings to recommend future
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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