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Armstrong, Ruth --- "Recapturing Freedom, Dot Goulding, Hawkins Press, Sydney, 2007 ." [2008] CICrimJust 35; (2008) 20(2) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 317

Reviews

Recapturing Freedom, Dot Goulding, Hawkins Press, Sydney, 2007

The title of this book neatly encapsulates its essence. It is the story of a group of people so ensnared in the prison system that, even when released, any sense of freedom is by and large beyond their grasp, and, one way or another, they return to captivity behind the prison gates. Goulding draws the reader into the world of the imprisoned as they await their release. Vividly outlining the impact of prison on the people she works with, she uses their own words to describe exactly how prison life captures them and draws them back towards the institution in which they have learned survival, away from the ‘freedom’ of the streets which can seem frighteningly alien and isolating.

The substance of the book is drawn from interviews with 11 people, 10 of whom have been imprisoned on long term sentences. The remaining participant is a long term prisoner who was consulted for an ‘insider’ perspective on matters arising from analysis of the data. The original sample comprises 8 men and 2 women all of whom had served more than 3 years. Each of the participants was interviewed a few days before release, and then again 3-6 months after release; however 7 of the second interviews were not conducted in the free world as planned because the participants had returned to prison. Of the 10, one person could not be contacted after release, one person stayed out of prison, the other 8 people all returned to prison. As a result, a project which had intended to look at the concerns of long-term prisoners leaving prison and the realities of re-entry to society became a project about explaining the participants’ return to prison. Goulding’s analysis of the data in this context took her away from her pre-conceived research plan and into the world inhabited by the prisoner. This world she found to be disempowering (diminishing the ability to make even the most trivial of decisions), emotionally stunting (thus impacting inter-personal relationships), and violent (covertly through penal policies, and overtly both among and between prisoners and staff). The prison institution is depicted as one which has overwhelmed the participants’ lives, and as such, also overhauled the initial intentions of this study and demanded to be its main focus.

Goulding’s familiarity with prison life through both personal and professional links and her concomitant ability to inspire the trust and confidence of the participants in this research is evident throughout the text, in the quality of the data collected and her very deliberate commitment to expressing the study outcomes in the voices of the participants, Goulding presents rich and detailed examples in order to intricately outline the realities of the social situations she is portraying. Her intention is to use the information entrusted to her to empower the participants. She does this by presenting the private voice in a public sphere, and in doing so hopes to provoke public response to the story it tells in the form of policy change. It is a testament to the integrity of the data presented that, despite the quite significant time lag between when the data was collected and the publication of the book, the reality portrayed is one which still retains its pertinence.

In the opening chapters, Goulding explains the context of this work in terms of predominant penal and political philosophies and Australian penal history. The historical and political analysis presented is undoubtedly interesting in isolation and illuminating of the content, but might have been better integrated into the body of the research, rather than presented at the outset as a tunnel through which to view and understand the text. Doing so limits the analysis of data which has potential for application beyond the specific socio-political culture in which the research was undertaken. This is, however, to praise rather than criticise Goulding’s work: it is carried out in such a thorough manner that the analysis presented of a relatively small sample resonates far beyond the context in which the research was conducted.

Recapturing Freedom takes us further in outlining plainly what one might suspect intuitively – that many of the ‘outcomes’ of prison interventions, or the lack thereof, are the result of the negative emotional impact of imprisonment. However, in touching on such intangible harms, Goulding sets herself a difficult task in her stated aim to suggest radical changes to the prison system which could address these problems. While her argument for a change of focus in prisons from punitive to restorative processes is welcome, it is put forward with less of the depth of critical analysis one might have hoped and more as an all encompassing solution. The Belgian system Goulding refers to has not been such an overwhelming success that it justifies the uncompromised and unequivocal support she offers it. In fact, real concern has been expressed by academics that creating ‘restorative’ prisons is an attempt to paint a legitimating façade on a decaying institution (Aertson 2005). It seems to this reviewer that, while Goulding’s methodology was influenced by feminist, phenomenological, ethnomethodological leanings, her suggested reforms were positivistic in their slant: looking to structural solutions (transitional houses) and interventions (drug abuse treatment), rather than to the role individual agency might play in re-capturing freedom and how this might be harnessed by changes in the approach to incarceration. In this vein, some of the predominant literature on the role of agency in re-entry was notably absent and could have made an interesting contribution to the text.

Goulding’s work explicitly addresses many themes which are underlying assumptions of re-entry research, but the mere fact of their assumption means they are all too often overlooked in the literature. Her commitment to accurately portraying the experiences and concerns of her research participants means that, rather than skipping over these facts in order to assess her participants’ re-entry ‘success’ or ‘failure’, she focuses on explaining the matters which were important to them and which they felt were determinative of their success or failure. As a result, her book is informative reading for everyone interested in the area of prisoner re-entry, aiming to understand the revolving door phenomenon and the general failure of the prison system to assist people towards productive free lives following years of captivity.

Ruth Armstrong

Doctoral Researcher, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge

Reference

Aertson I (2005) ‘Restorative Prisons: A Contradiction in Terms?’ in Emsley C (Ed) The Persistent Prison: Problems, Images and Alternatives Francis Boutle Publishers London


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