week 3 notes.docx

Probation as Rehabilitation? “Probation is primarily a rehabilitative sentencing tool.” (R. v. Proulx, [2000] 1 S.C.R. 61) Focus on treatment, rehabilitation, ‘second chances’ How do legal and official conceptions of probation relate to how probationers themselves feel about their probation order...

Probation as Rehabilitation? “Probation is primarily a rehabilitative sentencing tool.” (R. v. Proulx, [2000] 1 S.C.R. 61) Focus on treatment, rehabilitation, ‘second chances’ How do legal and official conceptions of probation relate to how probationers themselves feel about their probation order? By the end of this lecture, you should be able to… a) explain the importance of understanding people’s personal experiences of probation b) have a better sense of how we may be able to turn lose data into themes. Experiences of Probation – Overview Why are we interested in probationers’ experiences? Humanitarian and penological reasons Probation experiences are necessarily individual and subjective Focus on probationers’ narratives, experiences, perspectives. Corrections Manitoba is asking you to write a report on ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t work’ in current probation practice. They are particularly interested in getting a sense of what probationers “truly” think about probation so that probation order and programs can be tailored more effectively. They are also interested in policy suggestions. What do you do?!? Where do you start?!? Overview of Research Interviews and surveys with 200+ probationers in Manitoba Recruitment via probation offices Voluntary Confidential Compensation Interview portion Semi-structured interviews (recorded + transcribed) Questions about how people define probation; challenges; relationship with probation officer; access to community supports; prison experiences Coding + analysis What are people saying? What “themes” emerge from the data? How can we make sense of people’s experiences – theory generating Detour: G. Skyes – Pains of Imprisonment Pains of Imprisonment: Imprisonment = “painful” Due to lack of: Security Autonomy Privacy Sexual Relationships Material Possessions The “Pains” of Probation Pains of punishment = “a personal experience of physical, psychological or emotional suffering by a penal subject, arising from their punishment by agents of a criminal justice system” (Hayes 2010: 239). Durnescu (2011) Maier & Weinrath’s study: Fear of going/returning to prison Concerns about transportation/accessibility + making probation appointments Boredom and annoyance Lack of social connection + community McNeill, F. (2019): Mass supervision, misrecognition, and the ‘Malopticon’. Punishment & Society, 21(2) Research engagement with ‘Teejay’ – years of being supervised Photography and songwriting to understand people’s experiences of probation and penal supervision Song “Blankface” = Teejay to capture his feelings of being supervised; Part of a larger Scottish project on using creative methodologies to engage with people on probation Blankface The clock spins, zero hour begins This is the end, the end again Here sits Blankface and she spins my tale I’ve stopped listening now I know that I’ll fail Tick by tick and line by line Thread by thread now you weave mine A web of shadows, a silk spun tomb A windowless room, windowless room Sliding doors open and they welcome me in This is the place, the place we pay for sin These four seasons they reflect in glass Trapped in a jar here where the time will not pass Tick by tick and line by line Thread by thread now you weave mine A web of shadows, a silk spun tomb A windowless room, windowless room One day ending, a new day begins Tick says ‘he’ll do it’, again and again and again You see what you want but I know it’s not real Anyone out there who can feel what I feel? McNeill, F. (2019): Mass supervision, misrecognition, and the ‘Malopticon’. Punishment & Society, 21(2) McNeill’s analysis of Teejay’s lyrics: Forced performance to one’s PO/supervisor Having your history ‘spun’ by your supervisor = Feels draining Teejay feels the system sees him as “in need” of supervision + correction = Also feels draining Teejau feels misrecognized by the system; tries to resist this misrecognition. Probation painful? “All these previous studies provide empirical evidence that contrary to common perceptions, imprisonment is not the only painful sanction; community penalties can also be experienced as painful. Moreover the ways these pains are described demonstrates that they affect the way people feel about themselves and their reintegration aspirations” (Durnescu 2011: 532). The “Gains” of Probation Help with desistance from crime (= likelihood to stop offending) because of: Enforced order in one’s life (De Vos & Gilbert 2017; Fitzgibbon et al. 2017) Improvement of living standards and skill-sets (Mair & Mills 2009) Positive supervisory relationship with PO = more positive attitude towards probation + desistance (Barry 2013; Hayes 2015). ‘At least it’s not prison’ (Durnescu et al. 2013). How to Reconcile the “Pains” and “Gains” of Probation Probation is associated with “pain”, but also “help” and “rehabilitation” The “dual nature” of supervision Pains = lessened if probationers feel probation is: Helpful Legitimate Temporally limited (McNeill 2019) “Braided” Nature of Punishment Punishment (or control) and rehabilitation (or treatment) braid and blend together. In fact, most forms of community penalties combine elements of rehabilitation/treatment with elements of punishment/control (see e.g., Hannah-Moffat & Maurutto 2012; Kolind 2017; Maier 2021). Impact on families and loved ones?! What do we know?! ‘Collateral consequences’ of imprisonment = material/financial = social/emotional = “secondary prisonization” ‘Collateral consequences’ of ‘frequent’ (re-)incarceration + reentry back into the community = instability = material/financial = Affects entire communities/neighborhoods “Punishment Drift” (Richard Lippke, 2016) Summary: how do people experience their loved one’s probation? (Maier & Weinrath) Probation is more about help than punishment Physical and social distance between probationer + loved one = negative + positive effects Fearing punishment/imprisonment for their loved one = creates stress Importance of social supports Keywords… Gresham Sykes - Pains of imprisonment Pains of probation – Ioan Durnescu Misrecognition – Fergus McNeill Research overview – Maier and Weinrath Gains of probation Doing research with probationers Interviews Creative methods (e.g., songwriting) Probation impacts beyond the legal offender