Reentry
My doctoral dissertation is entitled “Relearning to live together: Place and community in a French open prison.” This research project examines an alternative model of incarceration in France, which I call “the reentry farm,” an open prison located on a farm. In this setting, prisoners live and work on a farm where they perform paid work, cultivate organic vegetables and herd goats, receive private accommodations, and can welcome visitors. The facility welcomes approximately 20 incarcerated men at any given time for an average stay of 9 months. Though it is not explicitly categorized as such by the French prison administration, the farm is essentially an open prison. Its residents are transferred to the facility to finish their sentences and cannot leave the grounds without authorization. It staffs eight salaried employees, a robust administrative council, and forty-some active volunteers. The model has gained popularity; today, there are five reentry farms across France, with three more under development.
The data for my dissertation are drawn from a month of fieldwork at the reentry farm in rural northern France in the spring of 2024. During this time, I engaged in participant observation, spending each day at the farm working, eating, and participating in the daily activities. My observations focused on the social world on the farm, daily life, and the organizational framework. I ventured to better understand the roles of employees and volunteers, the substance of the farm’s relationship with the prison administration, its funding structure, and more. I conducted 24 in-depth interviews: ten with current residents of the reentry farm, seven with employees, three with volunteers and four with nonprofit staff and criminal justice professionals (e.g., probation/parole officers) system staff who were familiar with outside placement modalities in France.
This project explores the role of place, space, and nature in the desistance process. Desistance is defined as the process of choosing to abstain from engaging in crime through a maintenance process (Maruna, 2001). I question whether the physical space of the prison, which is typically a source of harm for incarcerated people, may be conducive to growth and transformation under different circumstances. I tie tie my observations and reflections on the role of space and place to prisoner reentry and reintegration into a community and social network, by centering desistance as a social process, a relational transformation that is contingent on the recognition of changes in oneself by others (Nugent & Schinkel, 2016; Miller, 2021; Weaver, 2015).
My first paper leveraging these findings explores the reentry farm model from a policy perspective. I analyze the novel open prison model in detail from an organizational, policy, and reentry perspective, describing the site, structure, organization, history, and personnel of the farm. I describe the shared governance model employed by personnel and volunteers within the open prison, detail the process by which incarcerated people are transferred to the site, and outline the relationships between the open prison, the French prison administration, probation services, and sentencing judges. I then reflect on the replicability and applicability of the Moyembrie model to other jurisdictions in Europe and the United States