Young adult male ex-offenders’ experiences of the transition from incarceration to the estranged family in a rural community

Abstract

The issue of offenders’ re-integration has become an important topic to the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa due to high number of incarcerated individuals who need to return back into the society as law abiding citizens. Around the world, scholars have researched about offenders’re- integration. However, they tend to focus on adult ex-offenders, neglecting young adult male ex-offenders’ experiences of the family re-entry process. Scholars neglected that the consequences of being incarcerated at a young age (age 19-34) puts young people at overwhelming risks of future incarceration, unemployment, poor physical and mental health. Therefore, this study focused on seven young adult male ex-offenders in Sekhukhune district, aged between 24 and 34 years who returned to their families after incarceration. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and volunteer self-selection sampling, through the assistance of Tswelopele Ex-Offenders Forums in Sekhukhune area. This study explored, described and interpreted the meaning, benefits, challenges and coping strategies of the young adult males in regard to their family re-entry processes. This goal was achieved by adopting the interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) research design and conducting individual semi-structured interviews with the young adult ex-offenders. The IPA data analysis guidelines were followed to analyse data and the Person-environment (P-E) fit theory grounded this analysis as the emerging themes were further interpreted in light of the assumptions of this theory. The findings show that the process of family re-entry was an emotional rollercoaster for the young men concerning moving forward post their incarceration. They specifically experienced different moments of ambivalence, which was due to reuniting with family members on the one hand, but having to rely on family members for support, on the other hand. While being back in the family led to emotions of happiness and satisfaction, not being able to meet their family expectations and to perform the roles expected of people of their age led to various negative emotions, including sadness and anxiety.