Reflections from research: Shadd Maruna

[00:00:04]hey hi my name is Chad Marina I am a professor at Queen's University Belfast and and my work focuses on assistance from crime and successful reintegration Journeys uh especially among the the formerly incarcerated the the deficit that that is staring us right in the face and and the work we do and I've come to understand uh probation work is is very much a process of de-labeling or destigmatization it's basically undoing the kind of damage that that justice system involvement uh and that that means all all levels of involvement but but most particularly uh imprisonment has done to to the individual on on kind of every level but but in particular their sense sense of self-identity uh their their their relationships with the wider community and and uh their their ability uh to to succeed in life in terms of jobs and and education and other factors so uh thinking about probation in this way is a de-labeling process it suggests learning from what we know about how stigmatization Nation works and how labeling works and and drawing on those same Dynamics in the in the name of reintegration and in the name of of turning lives around we need to start thinking more and and smarter about the rituals that we use about what we celebrate how we recognize uh reintegration how we we uh celebrate uh achievements of reintegration and these are things that the parts of the justice system do very well uh prison education of course uh recognizes the need to celebrate achievement through through graduations and and and exams and marks and and all the usual way that education is a status elevator um other parts of the the justice system the drug courts are very good when it comes to status elevation rituals um and we we also uh you you associate rituals with with uh recovery movement uh groups like uh Alcoholics Anonymous Narcotics Anonymous they're very smart when it comes to thinking about rituals of of recovery and and celebrating the achievement of sobriety and so forth restorative justice uh uh thinks a lot about what reintegration looks like on an interpersonal level and in terms of of a ritual my research has taught me that none of this is is an individual process that that even though we we think about assistance as a journey that that each person has to go on people don't go on that Journey alone and we we find that in in the lives of a successful decisions there's always mentors and and role models and and usually these are people whether it's a brother a a neighbor a a former associate the these are individuals who who of themselves walked the same journey of desistance and have turned their lives around uh and and they have been the the kind of the impetus and and the the um the trigger for individuals uh who who uh who themselves want to desist from crime they they use uh these these mentors as a kind of guide so that means we need to think about the the availability of success stories on a macro level you know uh uh are there public stories that that someone can look up to and say yeah they turn their lives around they were in the same situation that I was in if they can do it I can do it uh on on a more micro level are we making these uh Role Models success stories lived experience experts by experience credible Messengers available to to uh people during the the probation process through whatever means if we're not it one wonders how could we expect people to to desist uh on their own when when we wouldn't expect people in other walks of life uh you know it I would have never become an academic had I not had the opportunity to meet other academic researchers it would have been an impossibility uh you you need Role Models uh to to know uh um how to do the work uh the the that we do and then the same thing can be said about any any line of work and and assistance is is no different in that regard it's it's a a uh um it's a journey into the unknown and and any good journey needs uh um a leader to to light the way