Women Disrupting a Marginalized Identity: Subverting the Parolee Identity through Narrative

Opsal, Tara

doi:10.1177/0891241610384995

Cited by 81 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…One dominant strand of Western societal stories positions prisoners and ex-prisoners as irredeemable − as people who are always and necessarily different from 'us', and therefore culpable and suspect (LeBel, 2012;Opsal, 2011). For their part, prisoners' sense of their stigmatized status is sealed by formal degradation ceremonies, such as court proceedings and convictions.…”

Section: Identities Stigma and Identity Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

Stigma, identity and power: Managing stigmatized identities through discourse

2013

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We analyse how men incarcerated in Helsinki Prison managed, through talk, their stigmatized identities as prisoners. Three strategies are identified: 'appropriation' of the label 'prisoner'; claiming coveted social identities; and representing oneself as a 'good' person. The research contribution we make is to show how inmates dealt with their self-defined stigmatized identities through discourse, and how these strategies were effects of power. We argue that stigmatized identities are best theorized in relation to individuals' repertoires of other (non-stigmatized) identities that they may draw on to make supportive self-claims. Prisoners, like other kinds of organizational participants, we argue, often have considerable scope for managing diverse, fragile, perhaps even contradictory, understandings of their selves.

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Section: Identities Stigma and Identity Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

Stigma, identity and power: Managing stigmatized identities through discourse

2013

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“…Also, many states have policies and legislation regarding regulating access to criminal records and employment of formerly incarcerated people (Holzer et al, 2003). In particular, access to jobs that pay more than a living wage or that are oriented toward a career are often offlimits to those with a criminal record (Opsal, 2011;Uggen et al, 2006;Western, Kling, & Weiman, 2001). Sociologist Devah Pager (2003) refers to this as the "mark of a criminal record" in which former incarceration limits future employment opportunities for individuals and continues to stigmatize them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Want a Second Chance”

et al. 2016

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With over 700,000 people on average released from prison each year to communities, greater attention is warranted on the experiences and needs of those who are parents and seeking to develop healthy relationships with their children and families. This study seeks to explore the experiences of African American fathers in reentry. Qualitative data from 16 African American men enrolled in a fellowship program for fathers were collected from a focus group and analyzed for common themes and using standpoint theory. Four themes emerged that focused on fathers’ commitment toward healthy and successful reintegration postincarceration: redemption, employment, health care, and social support. Focus group participants actively strive to develop and rebuild healthy relationships with their children through seeking gainful employment and through bonding with like-minded peers. Barriers in accessing health care are also discussed. Research findings may inform future programs and policies related to supporting fathers and their children in reentry.

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“…The flexibility is in turn extended to residents, allowing for open, individually tailored programming that contrasts with residents' prior experiences. Ethnographers have theorized how even within a structure like parole, characterized by intensive regulation of everyday activities, former prisoners exercise considerable agency by resisting stigma and repairing damaged identities (Opsal 2011) and by negotiating the terms of parole itself (Werth 2012). Rather than try to suppress this agency, an approach Werth notes is "frequently met with subversion, resistance, and hostility" (2012:329), Burton tries to support it.…”

Section: Supports Individual Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)entry from the Bottom Up: Case Study of a Critical Approach to Assisting Women Coming Home from Prison

Burch

2016

Crit Crim

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Despite decades of critical reframings, policy and practice on prisoner (re)entry often remains situated within a framework of individual responsibility that fails to acknowledge the structural drivers of criminalization. Attending to individual symptoms rather than root social, political and economic causes, such approaches may ultimately reinforce the inequalities and injustices that fuel imprisonment. This article presents a case study of an alternative approach. It examines A New Way of Life Reentry Project, a nonprofit organization in South Los Angeles, California, that offers housing and support to women coming home from prison through a critical and holistic framework-one that attends simultaneously to the physical, mental and social contexts that shape lived experiences before, during and after prison. Drawing from seven years of observation and participation, supplemented by ten in-depth interviews, I argue that a critical, holistic approach can have a significant positive impact for people returning home from prison.

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Women Disrupting a Marginalized Identity: Subverting the Parolee Identity through Narrative

Cited by 81 publications

References 50 publications

Stigma, identity and power: Managing stigmatized identities through discourse

Stigma, identity and power: Managing stigmatized identities through discourse

“I Want a Second Chance”

(Re)entry from the Bottom Up: Case Study of a Critical Approach to Assisting Women Coming Home from Prison

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