Rendering Invisible Punishments Visible

Welsh, Megan; Rajah, Valli

doi:10.1177/1557085114524616

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…It is notable that many participants felt that the lack of resources ultimately set them up to return to prison or jail, emphasizing how social and structural factors influence criminal legal system involvement [ 37 ]. An element of Welsh and Rajah’s (2014) qualitative framework “re-entry work” is echoed in respondents’ stories—the difficulty of caring for oneself, establishing housing, and renewing family relationships [ 38 ]. In another qualitative study, people experiencing homelessness were afraid they would return to substance use after release [ 26 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Just fighting for my life to stay alive”: a qualitative investigation of barriers and facilitators to community re-entry among people with opioid use disorder and incarceration histories

Hoffman

Thompson

Gaeta

et al. 2023

Addict Sci Clin Pract

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Background During the period of community re-entry immediately following release from jail or prison, individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) face structural barriers to successful re-entry and high risk of overdose. Few published studies investigate experiences in the immediate period (i.e., first 24 h) of re-entry among people with OUD. Aim To understand the barriers and facilitators to treatment and reintegration of people with OUD during the initial transition from carceral settings back into the community. Methods From January–December 2017, we conducted 42 semi-structured qualitative interviews with patients with a history of incarceration who were receiving methadone at a not-for-profit, low-barrier opioid treatment program. Interviews probed participants’ community re-entry experiences immediately following incarceration. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a Thematic Analysis approach. Results The main themes described the experiences during the 24 h following release, reacclimating and navigating re-entry barriers, and re-entry preparedness and planning. Participants noted the initial 24 h to be a period of risk for returning to substance use or an opportunity to engage with OUD treatment as well as a tenuous period where many lacked basic resources such as shelter or money. When discussing the subsequent re-entry period, participants noted social challenges and persistent barriers to stable housing and employment. Participants overall described feeling unprepared for release and suggested improvements including formal transition programs, improved education, and support to combat the risk of overdose and return to substance use after incarceration. Conclusions In this study that qualitatively examines the experiences of people with incarceration histories and OUD enrolled in methadone treatment, we found that participants faced many barriers to community re-entry, particularly surrounding basic resources and treatment engagement. Participants reported feeling unprepared for release but made concrete suggestions for interventions that might improve the barriers they encountered. Future work should examine the incorporation of these perspectives of people with lived experience into the development of transition programs or re-entry classes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Just fighting for my life to stay alive”: a qualitative investigation of barriers and facilitators to community re-entry among people with opioid use disorder and incarceration histories

Hoffman

Thompson

Gaeta

et al. 2023

Addict Sci Clin Pract

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“…Our analysis of distancing and embracing strategies tells us that motherhood can operate as an invisible form of gendered punishment that many women experience during incarceration. As Welsh and Rajah (2014) argue, "feminist criminologists must be alert to the ways in which forms of invisible punishment continue to oppress and marginalize crime-processed women" (p. 323). Although suffering for motherhood is not a formal sentence, it is indeed part of the punishment for mothers who become incarcerated.…”

Section: Discussion and Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

"How can you live without your kids?": Distancing from and embracing the stigma of “incarcerated mother"

Aiello¹,

McQueeney²

2016

JPER

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This article examines how incarcerated mothers constructed moral identities in the face of stigma. Analyzing data from participant observation and 83 in-depth interviews with incarcerated mothers, we show that mothers claimed moral identities by distancing from the stigma of incarceration and/or embracing the identity of incarcerated mothers. Utilizing these strategies, women challenged the stigma of convicted felon/ bad mother and reinforced the assumptions that motherhood is compulsory and should be reserved for women with enough money and standing to give their children advantages. The implications for understanding motherhood as a mechanism of moral identity and social control are discussed.

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“…IE projects begin in the experiences of people who are subjected to oppressive institutional practices in their everyday lives, such as gay persons who experience police raids on bathhouses (Smith 1988), female servants in restaurants who endure sexualised comments from their customers (Matulewicz 2015) or women who attempt to re-establish their lives after they had been released from prison (Welsh and Rajah 2014). Welsh and Rajah (2014) argue that standpoint is a powerful way of drawing attention to the experiences of criminalised women and then exploring the textually mediated relations of legal and criminal justice agencies that rule over these relations. In their study, Welsh and Rajah (2014: 328) note that 'discourses on housing and prisoner re-entry tend to recognize housing for crime-processed people as important because it is a means through which to show compliance'.…”

Section: Criminal Justice and Law Shape Standpoint And Create A Bifurmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Doll (2017) adopted the standpoint of legal aid lawyers who represented persons in proceedings pertaining to involuntary admission to psychiatric facilities in Poland and whose knowledge, expertise and work involvement was ignored by judges making decisions. People start thinking about themselves and their lives and work through the ruling discourses, even subordinating their own experiential accounts to the dominant one when those two do not match (Welsh and Rajah 2014).…”

Section: Criminal Justice and Law Shape Standpoint And Create A Bifurmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notably, Marsden (2012) used IE to research migration law, Matulewicz (2015) to research workplace harassment, and Doll (2016Doll ( , 2017 to research mental health law. Cunliffe (2013) explored the production of court transcripts, Nichols (2018) investigated the regulation of youth, Walby (2005aWalby ( , 2005b researched surveillance practices, and Welsh and Rajah (2014) examined prison reintegration. However, IE is not taught and used as widely as it should, and has not been addressed in criminal justice research methods (Kraska and Neuman 2008) and legal research methods (McConville and Chui 2017; Watkins and Burton 2017) literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Institutional Ethnography as a Method of Inquiry for Criminal Justice and Socio-Legal Studies

Doll

Walby

2019

Int J for Crime, Justice & Social Democracy

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Institutional ethnography (IE) is a method of inquiry created by Canadian feminist sociologist Dorothy E. Smith to examine how sequences of texts coordinate forms of organisation. Here we explain how to use IE, and why scholars in criminal justice and socio-legal studies should use it in their research. We focus on IE’s analysis of texts and intertextual hierarchy, as well as Smith’s understanding of mapping as a methodological technique; the latter entails explaining how IE’s approach to mapping differs from other social science approaches. We also argue that IE’s terms and techniques can help examine the textual work undertaken in criminal justice and legal organisations, and reveal how people are governed and ruled by these organisational processes. In the discussion, we summarise how IE can productively contribute to criminal justice and socio-legal studies in the twenty-first century.

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Rendering Invisible Punishments Visible

Cited by 21 publications

References 57 publications

“Just fighting for my life to stay alive”: a qualitative investigation of barriers and facilitators to community re-entry among people with opioid use disorder and incarceration histories

“Just fighting for my life to stay alive”: a qualitative investigation of barriers and facilitators to community re-entry among people with opioid use disorder and incarceration histories

"How can you live without your kids?": Distancing from and embracing the stigma of “incarcerated mother"

Institutional Ethnography as a Method of Inquiry for Criminal Justice and Socio-Legal Studies

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