I’ve been released from prison. What happens next?
By: Through The Gate
Tags: Prison, Justice, Sex Offender, Rehabilitation

HMP Wormwood Scrubs (Photo credit: Petr Brož CC BY-SA 3.0)

Three weeks ago I was released from prison. Since then I’ve been trying to find my place in a world that is drastically different from the one which I left behind. Resettling into normal society was always going to be difficult after a substantial period away. Everyone goes into prison assuming that it won’t change them, that they’ll beat the system, that they’ll still be the same person when they come out. Every single one of them is wrong. Prison changes you, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

My first few days in custody were tough, certainly they were some of the worst days of my life. The culture shock that’s presented by the transition from the outside to the inside is indescribable. Each wing, in each prison, is its own unique world in an entirely unrelated universe to the one we leave behind.

Technology is eschewed by a justice system which has only fairly recently introduced electricity into cells; coming from a life where I had been connected 24/7 this was akin to going cold turkey after a substantial heroin addiction. I kept myself sane by assuring myself that when I eventually was released, because almost everyone is, that I’d fire up those old social media channels as soon as I stepped through the gates. This didn’t happen. Instead I’ve found myself hesitating to pick up the life that I left behind and instead trying to discover exactly where my place is in society now, and what role I can play.

Cards on the table, I was convicted of a sexual offence. For many, if not a majority, of the population this category of crime is unforgivable. Sex offenders ought to be locked up and the key thrown away, castrated, or even hanged. There is something that fundamentally disgusts us, and makes us recoil, when sex is involved in a crime; something which isn’t present when we talk about other types of offences. Moral arguments over why this is (or if it’s appropriate) aside, it does mean that men who are categorised as sex offenders have a very different experience of the justice system and resettlement.

Whether we agree with it or not, the fact remains that the majority of sex offenders are going to be released back into society at some point in time. When they are they will be subject to stringent safeguarding controls and procedures, which will keep them in check and of course they will be subject to registration requirements. In the UK, unlike the US, this isn’t a matter of public record and so offers limited anonymity; to the general population this can be frustrating, to the offender this can be a matter of life and death. Understandably people have very strong negative feelings and reactions to sex offenders, less understandable are the things people want to do to those they find out are sex offenders.

The rule of law is a fundamental British value and with that comes the understanding that when people commit crimes they will be punished, they will be rehabilitated and (mostly) they will be released back into society. There is friction, however, as opinion polls suggest that large swathes of the population don’t believe that sex offenders can rehabilitated.

Distrust between the offender and society is enhanced when we apply the sex offender label. The general population are understandably cautious over someone who has been found guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, by a jury of their peers to have committed a serious crime. Once the label is applied society turns its back on the offender. This has the adverse effect, however, of creating a shadow society; one where incarcerated sex offenders are forgotten about and are released into a world that refuses to acknowledge or forgive them.

Studies have long since demonstrated that the most effective way to prevent reoffending behaviour is to ensure that the ex-offender has purposeful activity, meaningful social ties and an understanding of their place in the world. If an ex-offender doesn’t have a job, they are more likely to reoffend. If an ex-offender doesn’t have a friendship or support group, they are more likely to reoffend. If an ex-offender doesn’t understand their role in society, they are more likely to reoffend. Whilst generally we agree with these principles when discussing the rehabilitation of most offenders, we appear to go the opposite way when looking to apply them to sex offenders. We prefer to ignore the advice, ignore the problem and hope it will go away, despite all the evidence showing us that this will only lead to more offending behaviour.

I am not for one moment suggesting that I am going to commit an offence because I have been ostracised, nor am I trying to provide mitigation for disgusting behaviour. Instead what I am going to do is chronicle my thoughts and journey, as a newly released convicted sex offender, back into society. This isn’t a cry for attention, nor is this a pity party, but I do believe that we need a record of what happens next to society’s most vilified monsters.