Deconstructing Narratives to Reconstruct Lives: How Formerly Incarcerated Women Resist Social Stigmatization to Reclaim Agency

This article draws from lived experience to explore how formerly incarcerated women navigate and overcome the adverse effects of stigmatization during reentry. Prisons are sustained by widespread beliefs in the effectiveness of carceral punishment, and structures of power underlying the criminal legal system reproduce and magnify racial, gender, and class inequality. Involvement within the criminal legal system has life-long implications and fundamentally alters how an individual is perceived, both by others and themselves. I investigate how widespread assumptions about the nature of incarceration—or "carceral narratives"—affect the lives of those that are incarcerated. I also highlight the resilience of formerly incarcerated women in building personal confidence, as well as networks of support, to challenge these narratives, reclaim their identities, and rebuild their lives.