Desistance after imprisonment abroad

A new research report, ‘Desistance After Imprisonment Abroad’, has been published by Prisoners Abroad and the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

Authored by Dr Caroline Lanskey and Angelique Mulholland, the collaborative project – which is the largest UK study of its kind – set out to explore the resettlement and desistance experiences of British citizens who were deported to the UK at the end of a foreign prison sentence.

The study draws on the experiences of 151 participants and covers several main themes, including: what it means to return to the UK; the enduring impact of an overseas imprisonment and the stigma that remains after release; how an individual’s citizenship status impacted their experience of prison and their sense of belonging post-release; and the power of human relationships – including the support of Prisoners Abroad.

For almost fifty years, Prisoners Abroad has supported British citizens imprisoned overseas and their families. Every day, our staff hear stories of resilience, loss, isolation, determination and hope. We support people in prisons around the world and help them take the first steps towards rebuilding their lives when they return to the UK.

Yet for all the expertise developed through decades of frontline work, there are some fundamental questions we have wanted to explore and answer more fully: What happens to people after they return from prison overseas? What are the factors that help someone establish a stable life? What barriers stand in their way? What role does support from family, communities, statutory agencies and organisations like ours play in helping people move forward?

We believe this research project makes a significant contribution not only to our understanding of British citizens imprisoned overseas but also to wider discussions about rehabilitation, belonging, citizenship and social inclusion.

Download the research paper Read the executive summary

Read our reflections on the project Learn more about our advocacy work

Key themes and findings

The core aim of this study was to understand the challenges people face after release from prison abroad and how these experiences may or may not contribute to the risk of reoffending. We also wanted to understand more about how the support of Prisoners Abroad and other organisations contribute to the process of resettlement desistence from crime.

Two key findings emerged from the survey and interview data: firstly, that ‘settlement’ rather than ‘resettlement’ was a more appropriate term for a substantial proportion of participants who had spent most of their lives outside of the UK.

I come here with no family, friends in this country… It's not like it's coming back... I'm being deported to a country I've never been to, I'd never lived in.

Secondly, not all participants identified desistance as a relevant issue in their lives. Most people spoke instead about wanting the same things that all of us want: stable housing, meaningful work, supportive relationships, good health and a sense of purpose – to live a ‘good life’. In many respects, the report therefore invites us to think beyond the narrow question of whether somebody reoffends.

I just want to be happy and enjoy life. I enjoy my work and will continue in the same career. I'm getting married this year and we plan to have children soon after so being a good husband and father is definitely something I want. I'd like to move into a forever home and feel like this is our spot on the earth. And I want pets too.

I know I’m not the person I was, and I know I can be meaningful to society. It’s just that getting those basics, which Prisoners Abroad gave me, and that helped me now know I can make it on my own. They held my hand for a little while, and they were able to let me go.

Many of those interviewed did, however, experience uncertainties which placed them in a vulnerable and precarious position regarding potential future involvement with the justice system in the UK. This included challenges around accessing the UK housing market, the job market, and the welfare system, as well as facing stigma and judgement, and uncertainty about how their offence would be recorded by the UK authorities.

You've got nothing to show. Where's your history? Do you know what I mean? Where's your work history? You've not been using the bank for how long? Where have you been?

I think it's traumatised me, in the sense that I don't trust people. So now, I don't really go out. I don't really go out much. I find it hard to socialise. To others, you probably don't get that, but I, in myself, it's... I feel awkward. I don't really like being out for too long either, and I have to be around people that I've known for a long time. I find it hard to be around people that I don't really know, if that makes sense?

Once you have that black mark… you can’t get rid of it. You are going to be judged with everything, if you tell anybody you were in prison. They don’t care what it’s for, they don’t care if you were innocent, they don’t care nothing. Once you were in prison, you have that black mark on you, and it’s never going to go away.

The main themes of the study are summarised here.

The value of a life-course perspective

To fully understand the (re)settlement experiences of participants after their prison sentence including their desistance journeys, an understanding of their lives before and during imprisonment was fundamental. The life trajectories of participants and the paths that led them to imprisonment were unsurprisingly varied. A few had travelled out of the UK for a short period, but others had been established in the country of their imprisonment for several years. Some had emigrated as children with their families, others had moved for work, others had moved to escape social stigmatisation. A common theme of these trajectories was the search for a better life.

Citizenship status

British citizenship became an important identity marker in the other country, sometimes increasing vulnerability, other times acting as a form of protection but always intrinsic to participants’ experiences in intersection with their ethnic, gendered and sexual identities. The reasons for their imprisonment related to infringement of local laws concerning possession and distribution of illegal substances, physical and sexual harm, acquisition and ownership of goods and property, financial transactions and residency status. The research did not investigate the details of individual cases, but it was notable that corruption, coercion and entrapment by authorities or local residents featured in a number of participants’ narratives of the reasons for their imprisonment.

The legacy of imprisonment

The experience of imprisonment left a deep and stigmatising scar in the lives of participants which they carried with them in their lives in the UK. Although regular visits from the British consulate served as a form of protection from maltreatment for some and contact with Prisoners Abroad was critical to the survival of many, trauma and physical harms resulting from human rights abuses by prison authorities and other prisoners had long-lasting effects on participants’ mental and physical health. These problems affected people’s capacities to work or study, to develop relationships, to get involved in communal activities and to cope with everyday financial and administrative processes — in short, to lead a ‘good life’.

Some people in prison had been able to draw on inner strengths gained through coping with earlier adversity in their lives. Others were left psychologically vulnerable as a result of their experiences. Strategies for survival in volatile and unpredictable prison environments where trust was a rare but essential commodity continued to shape people’s everyday interactions after release: participants reported being hypervigilant of threats, socially anxious, strongly protective of their personal safety, their children, their possessions, and their private spaces.

Desistence from crime

Many participants did not recognise the concept of ‘desistance from crime’ as relevant to their lives. This was because they felt they were at a different life stage shaped by age and health circumstances, or their imprisonment was not related to a pattern of criminal activity. There were, however, a minority of participants who were making active choices to move away from a former crime-involved lifestyle and the deportation presented them with an opportunity to start again: a different environment, new social networks and living contexts. There were others who were vulnerable to further justice involvement because of poor mental health or because of isolation from social support networks. A particularly vulnerable group were people with alcohol and drug addictions amongst whom several reported further substance-related offending in the UK.

Establishing a flourishing life

While avoiding involvement in criminal activity was not a concern of many participants, establishing a lifestyle in the UK in which they could flourish was. People faced challenges finding a suitable place to live, employment or education and a community to which they felt they belonged. The legacy of their offence and imprisonment continued to affect their relationships with their family and friends and the communities they could belong to. Isolation and loneliness characterised many of their lives.

Relationships

Social connections were fundamental to (re)building a life in the UK. A small number of participants had financial reserves and accommodation to return to, but many arrived with very few resources. They drew on support from family and friends in the UK and overseas as well as from Prisoners Abroad. In particular, those without friends or family in the UK relied on the support of Prisoners Abroad and settled in and around London where Prisoners Abroad’s support was most established and they could meet caseworkers face to face. Having to rely on others was difficult for people who had set up independent and at times prosperous lives abroad, but it was acknowledged as essential particularly in the early days after their arrival.

Prisoners Abroad

All participants in the research had had contact with Prisoners Abroad during their prison sentence and most had received their support to help (re)establish their lives in the UK. The research findings highlighted the pivotal role that Prisoners Abroad had played in the early days after arrival in the UK, ensuring that people had the fundamental resources for setting their lives up including a place to live, a phone for communication and a bank account. The emotional support that the resettlement team at Prisoners Abroad provided was invaluable to many participants, particularly those who had no family or social networks in the country. The support Prisoners Abroad provided resembled the ‘advise, assist and befriend’ model of earlier probationary work and was viewed by participants as a lifeline helping them to face challenges and avoid the risk of further criminal justice involvement.

Systemic opacity and stigma

Systemic opacity in this context refers to a lack of transparency about a person’s offence in the UK and how that information is held by UK authorities. Some people had regular, if fairly occasional, monitoring by the police as a result of their earlier offence, but many did not, and were unsure of the extent to which their offence and imprisonment were officially recorded in the UK. Stigma and the fear of their past being revealed, combined with this uncertainty, constrained the choices people made about job applications and forming new social networks and relationships.

Moving on

Participants who had been in the UK for several years had carved out a lifestyle within the systemic, social and health constraints they experienced. Some engaged in activities explicitly as a way of ‘making good’ for the harm they had caused. This included caring for others in their own UK or overseas family, or through voluntary and paid work. Others took up personal campaigns against systemic injustices. Some of the younger participants were striving to build a career through education, employment or artistic activities. The aspirations of older participants were often more modest: staying alive and healthy, spending time with family and friends and avoiding loneliness.

We are grateful to Drs Caroline Lanskey and Angelique Mulholland at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge for their rigour, insight and commitment throughout the project. We are also deeply grateful to the Dawes Trust for recognising the importance of this work and making it possible.

Most importantly, we thank the individuals who shared their experiences. Their honesty and generosity have created knowledge that will help shape services, policy and practice for years to come.

If you would like to learn more about this research project or Prisoners Abroad's advocacy work, or to collaborate with us on an area of our work, please get in touch.