ABSTRACT

This chapter sets out the practices young people rely on to adapt to prison life and use of skills and knowledge gained outside to manage imprisonment. This can involve managing emotions in new ways so as to ‘be calm’ but always bearing in mind the need to defend themselves. In some cases, the effort required to cope was so great that it left little or no mental capacity for reflection. Few considered the future, or the effects their conviction and imprisonment would have on that future, and there was little institutional attempts to encourage this.