How to start the journey back to identity

A shift towards Pro-Social Identity

Have you been labelled as a convicted criminal, offender, or ex-offender which has caused you to be written off by society? Has this prevented you from rehabilitation and resettling into society?

From working in the prison institution over the past three years numerous themes have been unpacked from the prisoners (residents), however, the one that stands out the most is identity. Amongst most residents, there seems to be a lack of identity due to being labelled.

This article will give an insight into how to overcome these labels, and how to start the process of rebuilding identity.

Before we dive into our findings let’s explore the word identity its meaning and origin. The definition of is identity is who you are, the way you think about yourself, the way you are viewed by the world and the characteristics that define you. (Oxford Dictionary).

The word identity was first recorded in 1560–70; from Late Latin identitās, equivalent to Latin ident(idem) “repeatedly, again and again,” earlier unattested idem et idem (idem neuter of īdem “the same” + et “and”). Identity comes into English via Middle French identité, ydemtité, ydemptité “the quality of being the same, sameness,” from Late Latin identitās (inflectional stem identitāt- ) “the quality of being the same, the condition or fact that an entity is itself and not another thing.” (Dictionary.com)

From the meaning and origin, it’s clear to say that identity speaks to WHO you are and not WHAT you are, which is paramount to our findings. When people are convicted and become prisoners, some of the identity characteristics that make up WHO they are, are stripped away and they are given labels (WHAT), such as convicted criminal, burglar, gang member, kidnapper, and even their names are replaced with a number. For most, the status (street cred) that they have built up on the road (in the community), becomes obsolete, as nobody knows them in prison. In saying this, some prisoners keep their street status even if they don’t want to because of the gangs they were repping on road and so join that group as a way of identifying (identity identifies). This forms a community that is automatically labelled as a gang, but this creates a level of psychological safety for those that have OPS (opposing gang rivalry), which forms a specific culture.

Culture Identity

Central to our identity is our culture, traditions, how we’ve been raised, beliefs, religion, codes of conduct etc. Individually we belong to many groups (environments), but not everyone holds the same value system (WHO or WHAT).

Identity will affect your self-concept, your sense of value, and your sense of self-esteem. It will also affect your sense of perceived control. Due to labels, residents feel they’re automatically perceived and identified as bad people and so written off by society.

Over the past 5 weeks, we have been delivering mindset intervention sessions to the most violent residents in HMP Brinsford. One resident shared that because he had markers (labels), it was a challenge to reengage back into society, as every time he was spotted by police these markers would flag up and so he would get stopped, taken to a police station, and stripped searched as he was known (labelled) as a weapon carrier. For this individual, he is identified by his markers as his true identity is unknown, as it has never been discovered and exposed.

The question here is how do we redefine these labels?

There is a quote that says, ‘If you try to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will think it's stupid for the rest of its life.’ This is true for those who are trying to reengage back into society as they’re no longer identified by who they are but by what they’re labelled as and so will continue to be failed.

An example is someone who has been labelled as a Burglar, who will often view, and live their life through the lens of a burglar. The person could be working in the community and see a window has been left wide open on a house and that individual will subconsciously say, that would be a great opportunity to rob the house, as his previous experience has trained him to think this way. So, to overcome this, specific characteristics need to be embedded into their identities to override this thought process and then reinforced with values. Values determine the decisions that you make.

The underlying problem for some of these individuals is that they haven’t identified who they are (the real YOU)! Gangster isn’t the real you, a drug dealer isn’t the real you, violence isn’t the real you, a burglar isn’t the real you. Eminem aka Slim Shady said it the best, ‘will the real Slim Shady please stand up?’. The solution is finding the real YOU that has been trapped on the inside because of negative experiences, labels, culture, tradition, trauma etc.

Environments

The environment is the soil for your identity to grow and develop. Your environment responds to your attitude, behaviour, and characteristics. Individuals who find it difficult to engage with specific environments have sometimes been planted in corrupt environments, absorbing the debilitating traits (cultures) and so lack the emotional intelligence to engage, due to their undeveloped personality traits and lack of understanding of identity. When a person is released from prison, they need an environment of family, that will assist with forming the right identity and preserving values.

Specific environments will reveal who you truly are on the inside or the flip side impede/block who you are. In the words of Dr Eric Thomas, ‘When you get put into the jungle the real you has to come out.’