This guest post comes from Jessica Simons, a sociology student at the University of Glasgow who is looking for some help with her research project….

 Having experienced someone close to me go through the criminal justice system, it seems to me that it is often very easy for people to become lost in that process. Sometimes it appears that government programmes and policies have failed to understand the very personal and complex journey of desistance from crime and the internal process which ex-offenders undergo in order to change. With this focus in mind, I would like the chance to discover the meaning of desistance, and the challenges which it brings, from people who have themselves experienced it. This is what has led me to undertake this research project as part of my MA degree.

Would you be willing to share your experiences and contribute to my research? I am currently working on my undergraduate dissertation for Sociology at the University of Glasgow and am very interested in talking to people to explore the area of ex-offender reintegration and rehabilitation. My research hopes to explore ex-offenders’ personal experiences and views on the process of desisting from crime, and how they feel this has affected the person they are today.

Through this blog post, I hope to meet people who are willing to share their stories of their life post-sentence. I am interested in hearing your views and experiences of criminal justice, how people react to you as an ‘ex-offender’, what role support networks play in your life, and your hopes for the future.

I would like to speak to 10 ex-offenders in total and hopefully conduct face-to-face interviews or interviews over the phone. Face-to-face interviews will be done in a private and quiet space on the university campus at a time which is convenient for you. If you are interested in taking part or if you have any questions about the research, please get in touch by emailing me at: 1003938S@student.gla.ac.uk.