Desisting from lockdown 

Written by Dr Dave Honeywell, Research Assistant, PROSPECT project 

“We cannot be content to go back to what was before, as if all was normal. There needs to be a resurrection of our common life, a new normal. Something that links to the old but is different…” (The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, April 2020)

The Archbishop’s Easter sermon back in April resonated with my own trajectory from ex-offender to academic. After leaving prison in 1998, I had to develop a new life, that whilst linked to my old life, was different, and thus here I am now writing in my capacity as an academic with the lived experience of being an ex-offender.

What is desistance?

For many who decide to change their lives after spending some time on the wrong side of the law, they go through a period of what is known as ‘desistance’ which originates from the term to ‘desist’ from something – to stop doing it. That’s desistance in simple terms – it’s about stopping a life of crime; however, the theory of desistance and the actual lived experience of desistance is far from simple, and if you remove the criminal element from this theory you are left with a complex, ambiguous, ongoing, and ever challenging process of self-change and transformation that can be applied to various contexts and people. For example: recovery from trauma; addiction; illness; grief; and divorce. It encompasses the process of overcoming many losses; your home, personal relationships, bereavement, and often means facing a very uncertain future.

Photo credit: Picture: © Prisoners Education Trust/ Rebecca Radmore

Personally, I feel that desistance actually has little to do with crime, because when a person goes through desistance they have either decided to leave, or have left, that life behind. It’s about changing one’s life and leaving criminality behind. So now we are left with a criminological theory that focusses on the self-transformation of ex-offenders, but could resonate with many people from all walks of life, and is one that I perceive to be applicable to the collective recovery from the social and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, lockdown has had a positive impact, encouraging them to self-reflect, and I, like many others I have heard from or spoken to, have promised to make significant changes in my life, focussing more on my physical and mental health. The reason I associate the theory of desistance to the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s lives in terms of lockdown and loss, is because I can see the similarities to how desisters and many others will now experience uncertainty, periods of isolation and subsequent challenges that they will face as they attempt to rebuild their lives.

My experience of desistance

The last time I self-reflected to the extent I did during the early stages of lockdown, was during my time in prison over 20 years ago. Back then, I made several resolutions, some of which I achieved and some of which I did not achieve. My main goals included becoming a criminologist and having a family of my own. I only achieved one of these goals but then we cannot all fit snugly into the ideology of marriage, kids and a stable job. More importantly, is how we feel about our personal identity and acceptance of who we are. I found my first career in my 40s and was drifting from job to job for over 20 years. Some of that time was spent claiming benefits, but education opened the doors for me and for other people who have similar stories like mine, it might be something they have not yet discovered.

Desistance and COVID-19

Desistance has many similarities to the experience’s individuals will face as they emerge from lockdown and then try to reassess their lives. Some will have to find new jobs, accommodation, recover from broken-down relationships (perhaps caused by being ‘locked down’ together) and, perhaps for the first time, experience stigma for being unemployed. We only have to look at social media responses to news reports and television documentaries to get a feel of how scathing and judgemental the public is towards individuals who sometimes (through no fault of their own) find themselves claiming benefits. But for some, this period of lockdown will force them to re-evaluate what needed to change in their lives. It could be that being locked down with their partners forced them to see how their relationships had been broken for a long time. It may be that some have learned the hard way how ruthless their employer was or that they can do better. Some may go back to education and retrain.

All these things are exactly what desisters [from crime] experience and have to negotiate, and although they have usually broken the law, the fundamental aspects of their self-transformation will also apply to desisting from lockdown.

There will be tough times ahead for many and some, I imagine, will emerge from all of this with a new vigour, insight and renewed sense of self but the key to my own and other’s desistance is to never let go of ‘hope’. This is one of most fundamental aspects of desistance but it’s the glue that holds it all together.

About Dr Dave Honeywell:

Dr Dave Honeywell

Dr David Honeywell is a Lived Experience Research Assistant at the University of Manchester currently working on a project on prison suicide. David began his academic career in 2013 at the University of York where he worked as an Associate Criminology Lecturer alongside studying for a PhD. He has since taught criminology at Leeds Beckett University and the universities of Durham and Hull. In 2018, he completed his PhD in sociology about ex-prisoners and the transformation of self through higher education which was inspired by his own personal journey as an ex- prisoner who escaped a dysfunctional life through learning. While in prison in the 1990’s he gained an Open University qualification which later led to degrees in criminology, social research methods and sociology. After a 10-year break from study he returned to university following the publication of his autobiography Never Ending Circles which was inspired by the aftermath of the 2011 London riots. His book led to an ongoing career as a guest speaker and visiting lecturer on the university circuit.

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