The lived experience of incarceration

Abstract Incarceration is a stressful and dehumanizing process that affects not only incarcerated individuals but also their families and communities. Even for those who work with incarcerated people regularly, it can be difficult to appreciate the range and intensity of their experiences because staff members typically see only a small part of life in a carceral setting. This chapter gives voice to the experiences of incarcerated persons and their families. Individuals who are currently or formerly incarcerated were interviewed in an open-ended way as part of a project to obtain narrative accounts of how incarceration has affected them. In addition, the mother of a young man with mental illness and repeated incarcerations contributed a written account of her decades-long journey of suffering and recovery. Core elements and themes are presented in the contributors’ own words; their names and some details are changed to protect their identities. These stories are provided with the aim of elucidating the range of adverse experiences that incarcerated persons endure, the complexity of healing, and the structural problems that contribute to the current carceral system.