This article examines how long-term prisoners in Western Canada narrate their anticipated re-entry to a settler-colonial society using a narrative approach to analyze 147 interviews with federally incarcerated people. The great majority of our participants describe experiencing child welfare and other types of state intervention when growing up; many are Indigenous. Instead of treating adaptation and reintegration as structural or behavioral processes, we foreground participant stories about work, health care, technology, and the meaning of “home.” These narratives anticipate employment discrimination, technological changes, and service gaps and translate them into expectations of or prospective justifications for reintegrative failure. Such efforts also recast prison as a more coherent and manageable space than life in “free” society. Considering these perspectives, we argue that re-entry entails a narrated crossing between two symbolic environments: the predictable carceral world and an unequal, surveillant, and often hostile society. This framework contributes to scholarship on institutionalization and the “pains of imprisonment” by showing how carceral habitus and colonial histories shape what release can plausibly mean. We conclude by arguing that approaching reintegration as a narratively mediated process allows for new ways to support both material barriers and the emotional and symbolic landscapes through which people imagine life after prison.

Abstract Drawing on 63 in-depth interviews with federally incarcerated women in Canada, we explore how prison can paradoxically function as a site of reinvention. Using the reinventive institution framework, we demonstrate how pre-prison experiences interact with institutional conditions, including programming, relational support and cultural reclamation, to shape narratives of transformation. For women, this process is deeply shaped by colonialism, with cultural and spiritual programming offering an alternative framework to understand the self and one’s future. Contributing to narrative criminology’s understanding of change, we show that for many women, reinvention was made possible not only by what prison stripped away but also by what it provided: new ways of understanding, relating to and narrating the self that many had never previously encountered. While these accounts reveal the conditions by which reinvention becomes possible for women within the colonial context, they simultaneously expose the fragility of that transformation and the broader failures of social support systems that make prison one of the few accessible spaces for healing and self-reconstruction.

The labor and associated challenges of providing informal care have been characterized as constituting a burden of care (BoC). Despite the analytical value this concept has demonstrated in studies of nursing, psychiatry, and health administration, researchers have overlooked this phenomenon in the context of incarceration. Using 181 longitudinal interviews conducted between April 2020 and January 2021 with 29 loved ones of men incarcerated across Canada, we examine the experiences of caregivers trying to meet the outstanding needs of incarcerated people. We find that the BoC arose when caregivers compensated for the correctional system's (real or perceived) failed responsibility to fulfill the basic needs of incarcerated people relating to rehabilitation and release planning, as well as their legal advocacy requirements. We position the BoC as a component of secondary prisonization and use the framework to accentuate the roles caregivers played in reducing the care deficit incarcerated people experienced and, by extension, augmenting the functionality of the prison system. We suggest ways to promote less onerous carceral and reintegrative terms by reducing the unmet needs of incarcerated people and, by extension, the BoC that caregivers bore.

The fentanyl‐fueled overdose crisis is historically lethal, yet the voices of those who sell fentanyl remain understudied. While research has focused extensively on people who use drugs (PWUD), the perspectives of people who sell fentanyl (PWSF) are largely absent from academic and policy discussions. This study draws on 87 in‐depth interviews with incarcerated individuals in Western Canada who have experience using and selling fentanyl. Using a narrative criminological approach, we allowed participants’ stories to guide the interviews, exploring how they interpret their actions, identities, and harm. Thematic coding revealed how PWSF navigate tensions between control, responsibility, and victimhood as they attempt to morally frame or neutralize their role in distributing a deadly substance. Our findings show that fentanyl's extreme lethality complicates traditional neutralization techniques, amplifying feelings of moral and legal accountability. Compared to other people who sell drugs (PWSD), PWSF demonstrate three distinct characteristics: stronger harm reduction practices, heightened moral awareness, and greater acceptance of legal consequences. This research sheds light on the complex realities of fentanyl distribution, emphasizing the need for harm reduction and criminal justice responses that consider the ethical and structural dimensions shaping the actions of low‐level sellers.

Drug entry into prisons represents a serious issue for both incarcerated people and prison staff. Although substances enter prisons in many ways, staff drug smuggling represents a consistent problem facing correctional institutions globally. We draw on 131 interviews with correctional officers (COs) working in four Western Canadian prisons to analyze how COs understand and respond to drug smuggling. Participants drew on specific cultural narratives to portray coworkers who smuggled drugs, suggesting that CO occupational subcultures played a meaningful role in shaping how they perceived drugs, drug smuggling, and “dirty” correctional staff. Officers further detailed cultural narratives and frames they employed to detect and prevent drug trafficking among their peers. These included the informal social controls of boundary work and horizontal surveillance, which we analyze using Douglas’ concepts of purity and impurity. Participants justified such practices as efforts to reduce drug smuggling but also described how boundary work and horizontal surveillance stratified the CO population in distinctive ways. We conclude by discussing how CO cultures should influence our perceptions of staff drug smuggling.

Scholars have detailed the impacts of imprisonment on loved ones through concepts such as collateral consequences, secondary prisonization, and symbiotic harms. However, these frameworks often overlook the complex range of emotions loved ones experience when their friend or family member is incarcerated. Drawing on 181 longitudinal interviews with 29 loved ones of incarcerated men across Canada, we use the sociology of emotions to explore the plurality of loved ones' emotional relations toward imprisonment. We highlight three complex and overlapping emotional orientations that loved ones experience following the incarceration of a friend or family member: (1) ambiguous loss, (2) anticipated burdens, and (3) respite. We document how loved ones' experiences of incarceration are characterized by emotional ambivalence, as they try to reconcile feelings of loss and longing for their loved ones' return, the "frustrating" and "illogical" challenges they expect to be burdened with leading up to and upon release, and the relief that can accompany a much-needed break from the ongoing worry about their loved ones' precarious lives in the community. Our discussion connects these ambivalent orientations to broader sociological themes of gender, criminal justice, the welfare state, and emotions work. We conclude by outlining areas for future research.

North American police responses to the 'drug issue' have long been shaped by a crime control rather than a harm reduction imperative. Consequently, police officers' responses to safe consumption sites (SCSs), where people who use illicit drugs can reduce personal health risks by administering previously obtained drugs in the presence of trained staff, were initially hostile. This paper draws on interview data from police officers in two western Canadian cities to highlight an apparent softening in attitudes, perhaps due to the current fentanyl-driven drug poisoning crisis. While some officers clearly recognized their public health benefits, others accepted SCSs, acknowledging the futility of a continued 'war on drugs'. Some voiced reservations about SCSs, but not because of a generic 'drugs are bad' sentiment. Rather, they worried about specific downstream implications for communities and police work. These findings, reflecting apparent changes in police officers' responses to SCSs, are discussed in the context of contemporary debates about police culture and the possibilities and desirability of pursuing police reform.

In sociology of migration, assimilation theory anticipates second-generations' socio-economic mobility into the mainstream. In contrast, the concept of transnationalism predicts second-generations' simultaneous belonging to the origin and destination countries. We draw on 118 qualitative interviews with second-generation Somali-Canadians whose parents were refugees to assess which of these perspectives best explains our participants' experiences. We explore educational and occupational attainments and transnational practices. Our data show upward mobility and an absence of contemporary transnational practices. Yet, we find that our participants' refugee background impacts their transnationalism; their parents' forced departures as refugees and the ongoing violence in their origin-country lead to second-generation Somali-Canadians' lack of transnationalism. Many, however, emphasize their desire to discover their origin-country at some point in the future. As such, to contribute to the emerging literature on second-generations with refugee parents, we argue that refugee background seems to push transnationalism into the future for our study participants.

Drawing on qualitative interviews with 51 incarcerated adult men and nine correctional officers in a Western Canadian prison system, we ask why some incarcerated people find it appealing to be placed on correctional boot camp units and what such appeals tell us about broader conditions of incarceration. Participants on three boot camp units drew on narratives relating to (a) extrinsic benefits, (b) discipline and structure, (c) teamwork and positive relationships, and (d) an opportunity for self-improvement to construct symbolic boundaries between "normal" units and boot camps, as well as their former self and their transformed current self. By drawing symbolic boundaries between the past and present and between other units and their boot camp unit, our participants create narratives that allow them to partially mitigate some pains of imprisonment.

Abstract This chapter is multipronged, broadly evaluating women in gang ethnography. First, the chapter provides an overview of the women who have produced notable works in this area and documents the contributions of female gang ethnographers across disciplines to the growing field of gang studies. It highlights how female scholars have extended the field, especially pertaining to unmasking the roles of girls and women in gangs, gender theory, feminist and queer methodology in gang research, as well as other methodological innovations. Second, the chapter critically evaluates the process of conducting gang ethnography as a woman, unmasking the unique and complex fieldwork realities women must often navigate. In this respect, this chapter explores the challenges and benefits of this type of research. It then outlines directions for future research with respect to encouraging and expanding both the topics of inquiry and the scholars who undertake this work.

In the last two decades, a body of critical scholarship has emerged accentuating the social and cultural importance of food in prison. This article employs a tripartite conceptual framework for contemplating and demarcating food's different valuations in prison. We draw from our interviews with over 500 incarcerated individuals to demonstrate how acquiring, trading, and preparing food is inscribed with use, exchange, and sign values. In doing so, we provide illustrative examples of how food informs processes of stratification, distinction, and violence in prison.

While prison needle exchange programs, or prison needle and syringe programs, have existed in different parts of the world since the 1990s, little is known about how currently incarcerated people perceive them—particularly in Canada, where such programs have only recently been implemented. This study explores incarcerated women's perceptions of a recently implemented prison needle exchange program using in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with 56 federally incarcerated women in Western Canada. In particular, we explore the barriers that women perceive in accessing the prison needle exchange program. These perceived barriers contributed to our participants’ negative views of the prison needle exchange program as well as their overwhelming lack of support for its implementation. Our participants felt that the prison needle exchange program acts as an obstacle to sobriety and could increase different types of harm—including encouraging injection drug use and contributing to overdoses—within the prison. Participants also identified other barriers to using the prison needle exchange program, including a perceived lack of confidentiality/anonymity for users of the program and that the prison needle exchange program itself is structurally incompatible with the rules and operations of a prison system that continues to criminalize drugs. Using an implementation science framework, we argue that this situation accentuates the need for significant consultations with incarcerated people about the operation of such programs, and for funds to support other programs that target participant-identified root causes of substance misuse, such as programs that address past trauma and victimization. At the same time, we caution that some barriers may be inherent in how prisons are structured.

The opioid overdose crisis in Canada continues to claim the lives of people who use drugs (PWUD). Historically, Canadian crime policy has prioritized crime control forms of surveillance, interdiction and punishment in response to drug use. More recently, harm reduction measures have gained traction, including safe consumption sites (SCS) and police officer use of Naloxone to assist PWUD who have overdosed on opioids. The effectiveness of harm reduction efforts, however, is to some degree contingent on their embrace or acceptance by police agencies and officers. This paper is based on research conducted on the two largest city-level police services in Alberta, Canada. We conducted 94 interviews with officers and had 1,406 officers complete a quantitative survey on issues relating to illicit drugs, overdoses, and fentanyl. Our findings show that police officers generally see opioid use as a serious problem and are concerned about the dangers they face when dealing with PWUD. There is also considerable confusion about the nature and severity of these dangers. Even so, attitudes appear to be shifting and some police officers are changing their practices. In general, our research documents a softening of police attitudes in Canada towards SCS facilities and harm reduction more generally. This greater embrace of a public health orientation could improve the lives of PWUD and their interaction with law-enforcement in Canada. Given the prospect that fentanyl and related synthetic opioids will continue their global spread, these findings should be of interest to an international audience of scholars, police, and healthcare officials.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials have introduced measures to preserve the health of incarcerated individuals and prison employees. To understand the impact of COVID-related correctional policies on individuals with incarcerated friends and family members, we conducted 181 longitudinal interviews from April 2020 to January 2021 with 29 such ‘loved ones.’ Participants emphasized concerns about (1) health and safety; (2) unclear, unpredictable and untrusted communications; and (3) diminished personal intimacy. We analyze these findings using an ‘administrative burden’ framework and discuss possible reforms. We also suggest a wider applicably of this framework for studying individuals who have diverse encounters with the criminal justice system.

Prisons disproportionately confine people who have extensive histories of illicit drug use and tend to hold groups of people who continue using drugs, albeit in different forms and amounts. Prisoners' desire or physical compulsion to use illicit drugs fundamentally structures almost all aspects of everyday prison life. This extends to individuals who do not use illicit drugs and is felt even in prisons in which drugs are not readily available. Architectural features of prisons and logistical regimes are designed in ways meant to curtail the drug trade. Nonetheless, prisoners persistently strategize about how to acquire, transport, and consume hard drugs such as opioids (heroin and fentanyl), methamphetamine, cocaine, and alcohol. Prisoners display considerable ingenuity in modifying the prison's physical environment to advance their drug-related agendas.

Many observers describe prison subcultures as inherently and irredeemably antisocial. Research directly ties prison subcultures to violence, gang membership, and poor reintegration. In extreme cases, research has also suggested that prison subcultures contribute to incarcerated people joining radical groups or embracing violent extremist beliefs. These claims, however, ignore key differences in the larger cultural and social context of prisons. We examine the relationship between prison subcultures and prison radicalization based on semistructured qualitative interviews with 148 incarcerated men and 131 correctional officers from four western Canadian prisons. We outline several imported features of the prison subculture that make incarcerated people resilient to radicalized and extremist messaging. These features include 1) national cultural imaginaries; 2) the racial profile of a prison, including racial sorting or a lack thereof; and 3) how radicalization allowed incarcerated men and correctional officers to act outside the otherwise agreed-to subcultural rules. Our research findings stress the importance of contemplating broader sociocultural influences when trying to understand the relationship between radicalization and prison dynamics and politics.

Research on incarcerated fathers tends to accentuate the harmful familial consequences of parental incarceration and discuss how having children might prompt incarcerated fathers to desist from crime. Less attention has focused on how narratives of fatherhood shape the day-to-day dynamics of incarceration. Drawing on 93 qualitative interviews with incarcerated fathers in Western Canada, we focus specifically on our participants' parenting narratives. Such narratives are significant interventions in the world, allowing incarcerated fathers to frame their identities in particular ways while simultaneously shaping personal behaviour. Our research, 1. Identifies important fatherhood narratives provided by our participants, and 2. Details how such narratives operate in prison, allowing our participants to advance personal agendas that are themselves related to the dynamics of incarceration. In doing so, we provide insights into incarcerated fathers' situations and advance criminological efforts to appreciate how different actors entangled in the criminal justice system conceive, manage, and narrate their situation.

Can second-generation racialized Canadians cross racial and class boundaries into middle-class mainstream society? Currently, neo-assimilation theory anticipates identificational and socioeconomic assimilation into the mainstream, while segmented-assimilation theory argues that racial and economic structures inhibit racialized groups' assimilation. An emerging strand of assimilation theory - racialized incorporation - hypothesizes that, for racialized individuals, higher sociocultural capital leads to socioeconomic upward mobility, while their identificational and socioeconomic assimilation remain constrained by racial hierarchies. We draw on 118 qualitative interviews with second-generation Somali-Canadians to assess which of these perspectives best describes their subjective experiences of assimilation in Canada. Though we find support for the racialized assimilation hypothesis, our participants' socioeconomic achievements exceed the predictions of this perspective. We, therefore, argue that, under Canadian multiculturalism policies and ideology, race is an attitudinal hurdle to navigate rather than a structural barrier against assimilation. We invite future research to consider the contextualized effects of race on assimilation.