ABSTRACT

This chapter calls for the development of a ‘community-led model of desistance’ that would critically assess how the racialization of the social structure post release enhances or impedes the functioning of returning black offenders, in relation to offenders as a whole. Maruna argues that reintegration of prisoners back into the community requires well-orchestrated rituals. Maruna further argues that prisoner reintegration as it is currently practiced, is a failing ritual based on a series of racialized systemic restrictions that blocks black offenders over all ‘agency’. To successfully desist, a ‘former’ prisoner must be equipped with the necessary tools to ‘reintegrate’ back into the community by being reformed as a consequence of experiencing (pro)-social rehabilitative processes. Hamlet’s dilemma as he contemplates suicide is an important metaphor for all offender’s desistance trajectories. Namely, ‘to desist or not to desist?’ Similarly, for many black offenders continued involvement in criminal lifestyles, metaphorically speaking, means they cannot go back to a ‘crime-free life’. However, that choice similar to Hamlet, is a complex process requiring as Maruna argues, ‘well orchestrated rituals’.