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Former Canadian Federal Prisoners’ views of wrongful conviction: experiences, interpretations, and governmentality

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Abstract

Wrongful convictions continue to occur, with over 350 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States, and a collection of over 2500 known cases of presumed factual innocence at the National Registry of Exonerations. Conversation with exonerees suggest that at least some innocent individuals have met other wrongfully convicted prisoners while incarcerated. In the current study, we explored formerly incarcerated men’s views of wrongful conviction through the lens of governmentality. Using thematic analysis of interview transcripts with over 50 formerly incarcerated Canadian men on supervised release, we reveal how these released men perceive wrongful conviction, and how their understandings are impacted and shaped by the power dynamics underpinning their social interactions and experiences within the criminal justice system. Two main themes emerged in releasees perceptions of wrongful conviction: (1) that factually innocent people were wrongfully convicted of crimes—whether those crimes occurred prior to, or during, incarceration, and (2) the perceived fairness of legal processes led some individuals to view convictions of even factually guilty individuals to also warrant the label of wrongful conviction.

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Notes

  1. Our study is limited in that we did not ask participants about their own experiences with institutional charges or convictions, nor about their court processes. Moreover, like all qualitative research, we caution against the generalizability of our results beyond our explicit sample.

  2. Max, like other interviewees, did note a reliance on media—often equated to a source of knowledge or even ‘truth’—to reveal the status of criminal cases. Although beyond the scope of this study, please see Ricciardelli and Spencer, 2014 for a discussion about how media is used by prisoners to gain knowledge about convictions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Science & Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, L1G 0C5, Canada

    Kimberley A. Clow

  2. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5S7, P.O. Box 4200, Canada

    Rosemary Ricciardelli

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  1. Kimberley A. Clow
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  2. Rosemary Ricciardelli
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Correspondence to Kimberley A. Clow.

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Clow, K.A., Ricciardelli, R. Former Canadian Federal Prisoners’ views of wrongful conviction: experiences, interpretations, and governmentality. Crime Law Soc Change 78, 63–78 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-021-10013-y

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