Semiotic practices: A conceptual window on the post-prison experience

Abstract

Most prisoners get out of prison. Staying out, for some, can be challenging. Understanding these challenges can help ex-prisoners and those supporting them to interrupt cycles of offending and imprisonment. This paper argues that culture provides an important analytical tool for uncovering aspects of the post-imprisonment experience that contribute to imprisonment cycles. Findings from in-depth interviews with released prisoners and postrelease support workers in Victoria, Australia, are used to illustrate how culture, interpreted as semiotic practices, illuminates processes underpinning and constituting the cycle of reimprisonment. A semiotic-practical lens reveals how such processes can counteract efforts towards reintegration and reduced reoffending, on the part of ex-prisoners themselves and society more broadly.