1. Desistance, Imprisonment and Release
Fergus McNeill
Professor of Criminology & Social Work

2. Desistance Expanded conceptions of EBP
Desistance is a process of personal, human development
That takes place in and is shaped by its social and cultural contexts; hence also a social transition
That involves movement away from offending (volume, frequency, severity)
And movement towards successful social integration, citizenship and participation

4. Behaviour Identity Belonging Primary (Act) Secondary (Identity)
Tertiary
(Relational)

5. Desistance and reciprocity
Weaver, 2014
“Those social relations [intimate relationships and family, friendship, faith or work groups] which were most causally influential in the desistance process were characterised by… solidarity and subsidiarity, or in other words, a sense of ‘we-ness’.
Put simply, subsidiarity is a way to support and help another person without making him or her passive or dependent...
Subsidiarity cannot work without solidarity (which means sharing a responsibility through reciprocity and which implies interdependence).
These principles confer mutual responsibilities on each person for supporting change and in taking responsibility for personal change” (Weaver, 2013, p13).

6. The pains of desistance
Nugent and Schinkel (2016) Criminology and Criminal Justice
Pains of isolation +
Pains of goal failure =
Pains of hopelessness

7. Four forms of reintegration
Desistance
Personal Re/Integration
The re-development of the self
Capacity building
Social Re/Integration
Desistance supporting communities
Collective efficacy and reciprocity
Judicial Re/Integration
Formal de-labeling
Certification and ritual
Moral Re/Integration
Negotiating shared values
Building solidarity

8. Reentry Social positions Individual dispositions
Legal rights and status
Moral and political standing
Social acceptance
Individual dispositions
Motivations
Capacities/Capabilities
[Opportunities and networks]

9. Distant Voices
A follow up project to ‘Discovering Desistance’ and ‘The Road from Crime’ (a move to KPU?)
That project highlighted the need to move beyond reforming practice models:
The importance of social rehabilitation and civil society engagement
DV is an attempt to find a way to turn rehabilitation on its head…
In research and in practice

10. The process Distant Voices 1 (deliberation)
Preparatory Workshops leading to 5 songs based on one scenario as the basis for a deliberative public event… and a gig
Distant Voices 2 (dialogue)
In-prison and community-based sessions
Active engagement and dialogue through song-writing
High profile public events and extensive print and broadcast media coverage
Vox Unbound as a community hub (weekly gathering)
Distant Voices 3 (in planning stages)

12. Pixellated Pictures
Farewell my co-pilot, tell me what its like outside
I forgotten how it feels to be at home my friend
Farewell my co-pilot, I remember what it’s like inside
My heart is heavy, lock the door, open your mind, my friend
Press pause on this repeating scene
Help me remember how to dream
Those pixellated pictures I have seen
In my imagination
So long my co-pilot
Drift away into the blue
Flying solo ain’t so nice
Long lonely nights now without you, my friend

13. Systems, regimes, relationships
Relationships change positions
Legal, moral and political
Social (multilateral re/integration)
Relationships change dispositions
Motivations
Capacities
[Opportunities and networks]
The problems of offending and of punishing are relational problems; so are the solutions

14. Websites
Discovering Desistance:
Distant Voices:
Seen and Heard: Music
Seen and Heard: Photography
Download the ‘Distant Voices – Silent Seconds’ EP by Vox Liminis on iTunes, Spotify, etc… and support the work!