NCJ Number
236398
Journal
Women & Criminal Justice Volume: 21 Issue: 3 Dated: July-September 2011 Pages: 198-224
Date Published
July 2011
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article examines the challenges that women face when released from prison.
Abstract
The analysis presented in this article is derived from a larger longitudinal project that attempts to study the experiences of women being released from prison. A focus of this research is to better understand the challenges that women face in achieving sustainable financial, emotional, and familial lives after release. The data consist of baseline interviews with 41 women who were incarcerated in a prison system in the midwestern United States and were within 6 months of release. The purpose of this substudy is to investigate the ways in which women prepare for the reshaping of their identities as they approach their release dates. Women in this study have great difficulty describing who they are as individuals, and they often relate this difficulty to past experiences of trauma. Their descriptions of self are typically ill defined, unstable, and extremely fluid. Many report that their understanding of themselves as addicts helps them to develop a clearer, more stable sense of self. (Published Abstract)