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Drawing from interviews with individuals on parole, this chapter explores experiences of and responses to penal misrecognition. It documents that participants feel fundamentally misrecognised by the parole agency and penal state. They believe that the penal state views them as dangerous, defective and incapable of virtuous self-governance. Yet this is not how they perceive themselves. This leads to a delicate balancing act where participants refuse certain aspects of the penal state while accommodating others. On the one hand, individuals refuse parole’s misrecognition of them and reject the state’s authority to define who they are. On the other hand, they largely acquiesce to parole’s authority to supervise and regulate conduct. Turning to the concept of refusal highlights that individuals do not just attempt to resist penal power; rather, they flatly reject the state’s epistemic constructions. They do this by turning away from parole and by turning towards other forms of sociality beyond the penal state. This creates material and affective distance from parole and opens up space for self-recognition and for receiving positive recognition from others. In this way, individuals seek to minimise, move away from and/or bypass a penal intervention that is ostensibly designed to assist and support them.

This paper aims to shift from the male offender perspective in attempts to explore the stories and lived experiences of five females on parole in Nelson Mandela Bay, as most correctional research in South Africa focuses on the male offender experience. The experiences of females are largely ignored both in terms of reform and in research, and while only a few South African studies on female criminality have emerged, little is known about the impact of incarceration and reintegration on their livelihoods.

This paper makes use of an ethnographic approach as the narrative follows the complex realities of females on parole to include their voice, depth and experience in the debate within the parole experiences measure framework. This study made use of five individual interviews and observations, which were complemented by existing literature.

This paper provides insights on the experiences, vulnerabilities, challenges, fears and concerns of females on parole and the relative social costs of their incarceration. The experiences allow for a deeper understanding of the shades of their experiences of powerlessness, gender-specific sexualisation and exploitation, economic vulnerability and destitution and social alienation and exclusion which uniquely influences behavioural and emotional deficits.

Because the number of females on parole in Nelson Mandela Bay is few, this study could only interview five female offenders. Yet, as this study is ethnographic in nature, it offers a deep understanding of these five female offenders.

This research offers an insight into the social ills faced by female on parole. This work highlights the effects of incarceration are often felt by females long after their release since their experience of imprisonment affects their future prospects, damaging and debilitating. This paper suggests self-reclamation that could lead to positive reactions towards rehabilitative and reintegration. This research opens up the larger debate and does not offer tangible recommendations.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study parole amongst female offenders.

The current study examines the prevalence, perceived effectiveness, and potential antecedents (e.g. departmental culture) of law enforcement agencies in collaborating with probation and parole agencies. Specifically, the study reveals how the leaders (i.e. police chief, sheriff) in law enforcement view police-community corrections partnerships.

Data were collected from a state-wide survey of all sheriffs’ offices and a random sample of municipal police departments in Texas.

Findings indicated information sharing and specialized enforcement partnerships were the most common partnership types, partnerships were more common with adult and juvenile probation than with adult parole, and partnerships remain predominantly informal. Finally, police chiefs/sheriffs in the departments with a culture supportive of offender reentry were more likely to support and engage in partnerships with adult/juvenile probation and adult parole agencies.

Even without formal programs, it seems that police-probation/parole partnerships are, in one form or another, practically inevitable. The positive evaluation of law enforcement personnel leaves room for hope for expansions of such partnerships in the future.

In recent decades, the use of capital punishment has declined, but in its place, a ‘new death penalty’ has arisen: life without parole (LWOP), which is being used far more frequently and for more crimes than capital punishment ever was. Yet, LWOP has received far less scholarly attention than the death penalty. Because of its greater scale, assessing the effects of LWOP on crime has important policy implications and is a better test of extreme penalties. Existing studies of LWOP focus on humanitarian issues and ignore its potentially reciprocal relationship with crime. Therefore, we use available LWOP data to fill these gaps in the literature, using models specifically designed to control for potential reciprocal effects. The results indicate there is no reciprocal causation between LWOP and violent crime and, at best, LWOP’s impact on crime is small, temporary, and, most importantly, no greater than the impact of life with parole.

The purpose of this paper is to explore supposed inevitable personal decline for long-term prisoners, particularly those serving a sentence of life without parole.

Using the prison records of a life without parole sentenced prisoner.

Findings suggest that prisoner deterioration is not inevitable in a whole life prison sentence.

Findings are based on one account, of a female prisoner.

Distinct services and support are required for those with a natural life prison sentence.

To date, there is limited research of prisoners serving life without parole, particularly the mental health implications of denying a prisoner future parole.

Persons in the USA who are incarcerated for drug offenses are increasingly being released into the community as a way to decrease prison and jail overcrowding. One challenge is finding housing that supports compliance with probation and parole requirements, which often includes abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Sober living houses (SLHs) are alcohol- and drug-free living environments that are increasingly being used as housing options for probationers and parolees. Although a few studies have reported favorable outcomes for residents of SLHs, little is known about resident experiences or the factors that are experienced as helpful or counterproductive. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study conducted qualitative interviews with 28 SLH residents on probation or parole to understand their experiences living in the houses, aspects of the houses that facilitated recovery, ways residence in an SLH affected compliance with probation and parole, and ways the houses addressed HIV risk, a widespread problem among this population. Interviews were audiotaped and coded for dominant themes.

Study participants identified housing as a critically important need after incarceration. For residents nearing the end of their stay in the SLHs, there was significant concern about where they might live after they left. Residents emphasized that shared experiences and goals, consistent enforcement of rules (especially the requirement of abstinence) and encouragement from probation and parole officers as particularly helpful. There was very little focus in HIV issues, even though risk behaviors were fairly common. For some residents, inconsistent enforcement of house rules was experienced as highly problematic. Research is needed to identify the organizational and operational procedures that enhance factors experienced as helpful.

Data for this study are self-reported views and experiences. Therefore, the study may not tap into a variety of reasons for resident experiences. In addition, the data set was small (n=28) and limited to one city in the USA (Los Angeles), so generalization of results might be limited. However, SLHs represent an important housing option for criminal justice involved persons and knowledge about resident experiences can help guide organization and operation of houses and identify areas for further research.

This paper is the first to document the views and experiences of persons on probation or parole who reside in sober living recovery houses. These data can be used by SLH operators to develop houses that are responsive to factors experienced as helpful and counterproductive. The significance of this paper is evident in the trend toward decreasing incarceration in the USA of persons convicted of drug offenses and the need for alcohol- and drug-free alternative living environments.