Reentry, Desistance, and the Responsibility of the State

Let Them Back In

Stephen C. McGuinn

Emerald

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Paperback / softback

9781787693227

21 September 2018

$71.99

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9781787693197

21 September 2018

$53.99

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9781787693210

21 September 2018

$53.99

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This work asks readers to reconsider punishment contracts in the United States. It illustrates the importance of state accountability and responsibility to those who are punished, while also focusing on the dual importance of desistance and re-entry. Looking across current criminological desistance literature, Stephen C. McGuinn shows the value of empowerment, meaning and, most of all, assimilation.

Woven throughout the text, the work also captures the actual experiences of a man returning to society after eleven years in prison. He details his experiences in a daily journal, providing an honest and forthright account of the confusion and struggle of those who come home after lengthy prison stays. Through this account, readers are reminded of the importance of human connection and compassion.

As researchers, as scientists, we must provide a map, or a language and narrative, on how to consider punishment in the US. In developing a new way to consider the process of desistance, this book champions the humanity in forgiveness and the compassion of justice.

Introduction: Let Them Back InChapter 1. InclusionChapter 2. Isolation Chapter 3. Powerlessness Chapter 4. Normlessness Chapter 5. Meaninglessness Conclusion: Acceptance and, Perhaps, Assimilation Afterword: Punishment Revisited

The author considers punishment in the US in terms of reentry, desistance, and the responsibility of the state to those who are punished, illustrating the importance of empowerment, meaning, and assimilation for former prisoners. He argues that justice practices should be about people and not about populations and illustrates the need to reconsider the criminal desistance literature as assimilation in terms of meaning, empowerment, hope, and relationships. He discusses processes of desistance, the role of isolation in antisocial behavior, the role of powerlessness, the role of norms in reducing criminal behavior, and the need to counter meaninglessness, incorporating parts of an incarcerated man's journal throughout.
- Annotation ©2018

Stephen C. McGuinn is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Quinnipiac University, USA. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a mental health professional and as an Assistant Unit Chief on Rikers Island in New York City. Every year, he teaches an Inside Out Prison Exchange seminar in a maximum-security prison in Connecticut.