Returning Citizens: A quiet revolution in prisoner reintegration

Abstract

(First paragraph) THIS ARTICLE offers a brief overview of a desistance-oriented approach to supporting community reintegration in the state of Tasmania, Australia. While community service is typically discussed in terms of ‘payback' as a form of punishment, it can be harnessed in creative ways to support prisoner reintegration and desistance processes. Compelling contributions from desistance scholars (see, for example, McNeill and Weaver, 2010; Schinkel, 2014) advance the recognition that people with offending histories benefit from multi-faceted supports over time to change their lives, living conditions and life chances. Through this lens, the remit of supporting reintegration extends from a traditional blinkered focus on securing essential items to aid survival post-release, to include pursuit of identity change, relationships and resources which enable sustained desistance and human flourishing.