City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2017 Desisting in Prison: Myth and the Council for Unity Model Kevin Moran The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2290 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] DESISTING IN PRISON: MYTH AND THE COUNCIL FOR UNITY MODEL by Kevin Moran A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2017 © 2017 KEVIN MORAN All Rights Reserved ii Desisting In Prison: Myth and The Council For Unity Model By Kevin Moran This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________ ___________________________________ Date David Brotherton Chair of Examining Committee _______________________________ _______________________________ Date Philip Kasinitz Executive Officer Supervisory Committee Professor James M. Jasper Professor Jayne Mooney Professor Shadd Maruna THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT DESISTING IN PRISON: MYTH AND THE COUNCIL FOR UNITY MODEL BY KEVIN MORAN Advisor: Professor David Brotherton This dissertation is a qualitative examination of aspects of the desistance process among incarcerated men in both prison and jail. Data collection for this project occurred in and around the correctional version of the Council For Unity program, which is also examined in this write up. The premise of this project is that a minority of men do desist whilst incarcerated and thus the research presented here analyzes how prisoners act towards their attempts to desist from crime in terms of the meaning this process has for them, their interaction with others during this process, and the interpretative progression by which meanings of self, other, and environment are handled and modified with the goal of becoming crime free, both behind and beyond bars. Data collection for this project consisted of eighteen months of ethnographic observation of the Council For Unity program sessions held at a local jail as well as an unstructured survey administered to twenty five program participants at a maximum security facility. The findings are as follows. Data from the unstructured surveys suggests that prisoners conceive of and orientate towards prison spaces and their occupants in the manner of an ecology, in which certain places – entrapment niches – forestall desistance, whereas others – enabling niches – promote and sustain desistance. Findings from ethnographic observation suggest that program participants, jail inmates, in discussing their attempts to desist, frequently evoked the role of “the streets” or streetlife in this process, both as a seductive force as well as an undertow associated iv with drowning or submersion. Further findings that an orientation towards the streetlife can be challenged by three categories of events: the recognition of time as a diminishing force, the impact negative emotional events and the potency of disillusionment with criminal peers. This project also examined a series of generative exchanges within the program space. Findings here suggest that program participants are partially primed towards generative behavior and thought, although the ability to forward self as a deterrent is tempered by the need to maintain continuity of self in the change process. v Dedicated to my mother, father, and Aunt Frances (Fa-fa) vi Acknowledgements There are many people to thank for their support and love throughout the doctorate process. First and foremost has been my family. My mother, Patricia Moran, who by herself gave me the greatest gift – a loving and supportive home whose encouragement laid the foundation for all that followed. Thank you too for being supportive of my choices, even as I began the uncertain journey towards this day. Thank you Mam, I owe all that I have today to your love and sacrifice. Thank you too to my father, Kevin McGlynn, who although arriving a little later on the scene, has been my biggest fan and loudest enthusiast. Thank you. Thank you also to my brother Frank McLoughlin and his wife, Stacey McLoughlin (née Lazarro), I would not have survived this move nor this PhD without having you a bus ride away, without your love and generosity. Thank you to you both. This dissertation would not have been possible without the aid and generosity of the Council For Unity program. Thank you to Robert DeSena, Bob, for giving me the permission and support to come and observe Council For Unity program sessions and for inviting me into the Council For Unity family. Thank you too for introducing me to myth. You and your program changed my life Bob, I’ll never forget it. Another huge thank you to Sean Johnson, Dino. Thank you for taking me under your wing, for your insight and patience, for answering my questions and for being a man I truly look up to. A big thank you to my dissertation chair, David Brotherton, who always had my back. Thank you for bearing with me all these years and for seeing this through to the finish. Jim Jasper deserves another thank you, primarily for the couple of years I worked for you as a research assistant. You helped take the edge off the special penury that comes with being a graduate vii student in New York City. Your goodwill and generosity towards me was and is much appreciated. I cannot write this acknowledgements section without a mention of Jock Young. I owe a lot to you Jock, there is little of my thought that is not shaped by your scholarship and your characteristic irreverence. One of the biggest regrets of my life was that I didn’t get to know you better and it pains me to think of all those office hours that I was too shy to avail of to come speak to you. Thank you for the time I was able to spend as your student. I wish I could have been a colleague too. A thank you too to Lynn Chancer, without whose support, both intellectual and personal, I would not have the job I have today, the real end point in the doctoral process. Nor would I be the scholar I am today without you, your mind, and generosity, thank you Lynn. Another thank you must go out to my fellow graduate students, fellow travelers on the path towards a PhD. This process would have been far harder and far duller without their good company, oft needed comic relief, and intellectual input. Thank you Calvin John Smiley, David Monaghan, Jan Haldipur, Sara Martucci, Melanie Lorek, Samantha Saghera, and Lizz Gibbons. A special thanks needs to go to Rati Kashyap, the Assistant Program Officer at the Sociology Department GC CUNY. I, and probably hundreds of other graduate students, owe you a huge thank you for your good grace, patience, and knowledge. Thank you too to Phil Kaznitz who was EO of the Sociology Department for most of my time in the program for all your work behind the scenes. A final thank you goes to the fellas, the men in green. Especially so La, Jerz, and Smoov. Thank you too to Cesar. Thank you for your help as facilitators, your insight as inmates and men of integrity, and the example you set everyday for others in your facility. You are the inspiration viii behind this work and I promise to do my best to show to others how changing American corrections begins with you. Thank you with all my heart. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction and Research Methods Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………………….4 Research Statement……………………………………………………………………………..10 Contributions to the Field………………………………………………………………………11 Chapter Outline…………………………………………………………………………………12 Methods of Research……………………………………………………………………………16 Ethnographic Observation……………………………………………………………..17 Unstructured Survey……………………………………………………………………22 Reflexivity……………………………………………………………………………………….24 Ethical Issues in Prison Research……………………………………………………………...28 Chapter Two: Literature Review Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..29 Defining Desistance…………………………………………………………………………….29 The “Active Desistance” Process………………………………………………………………32 The Early Phase – Beginnings………………………………………………………….33 The Middle Phase – Sustaining Desistance…………………………………………...40 The Late Phase – Lasting Change……………………………………………………..49 Chapter Three: The Prison as Ecology Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..52 Ignoring the non-recidivating former prisoner………………………………………………..54 The Prison as Ecology………………………………………………………………………….57 x Entrapment Niche – The Yard………………………………………………………...59 Enabling Niches………………………………………………………………………...63 Desistance and Homosocial Bonds……………………………………………………………75 Chapter Four: The Council For Unity Model Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..79 Myth: Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung………………………………………………………..80 Myth and Desistance…………………………………………………………………………...83 The Self and Time………………………………………………………………………84 The Self, Metaphor, and Change………………………………………………………86 The Council Model: Mythic Aspects………………………………………………………….88 The Council Curriculum……………………………………………………………………….89 The T or Laboratory Group……………………………………………………………………95 The Use of Ex-Offenders……………………………………………………………………….98 Chapter Five: The Call