“You have to want it:” women’s desistance processes in a short-term provincial prison

• Main Author: Sheppard, Amy
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2022
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/15385/; https://research.library.mun.ca/15385/1/thesis.pdf

My research examines how provincially sentenced women in Newfoundland and Labrador engage in the desistance process when imprisoned and released into the community. Desistance is the cessation of criminal behaviour. There remains a lacuna in knowledge tied to understanding how women’s experiences both within and outside prisons shape their ability to engage in crime-free living after the experience of prison. Thus, I focus on women’s cognitive shifts toward desistance and services that may help with the desistance process. Furthermore, I examine the impacts of mental disorders and addiction on women’s desistance processes. To examine formerly incarcerated women’s processes of desistance, I have interviewed 17 formerly incarcerated women and 16 service providers who work with them. Women interviewed for this study shared their reentry experiences into the community and recommendations to improve the reentry process for other women leaving prison. Furthermore, they share how release from prison into the community informed their ability to engage in desistance. Additionally, formerly incarcerated women share how experiences of being in prison, including accessing services offered, impact their decision and ability to engage in desistance. Service providers have experience working within systems and with a heterogeneous population of women and thus have valuable knowledge that furthers discussion around women’s desistence processes. Service providers share their experience of working with criminalized women in prison and on release. They elucidated systemic barriers that hinder women’s ability to engage in desistance after release from prison, My core research questions are: How do incarcerated women in Newfoundland and Labrador plan to make changes in their lives after prison? What do women interpret as the impacts of addiction on their ability to make changes or, simply put, desist? I seek to understand (i) if released women are informed about services that met their unique needs (i.e., substance use histories, ...