ABSTRACT
In this chapter we introduce the convict perspective and a structural analysis of prisoner re-entry to the community. We then discuss the economic and legal consequences of incarceration, qualitative methods used in our study of Iowa convicts, our findings, the perpetual incarceration machine, programme recommendations and beating the penal machinery. We conclude with an esoteric discussion of descent and ascent: a means mentally to overcome the material structures of the incarceration machine. As former penitentiary prisoners we learnt mind over matter and the need to struggle against the oppression of determinist structural barriers.
