More Word Choices: Ex-Cons and the Formerly Incarcerated

I wrote yesterday about my preference for the word prisoner over convict, inmate and offender. Thanks to those of you who have commented - your thoughtful points took the conversation to the post-release phase, which I want to write about today.

Here are a few thoughts offered following yesterday’s post:

Marcia McGuire wrote:

Once *released,* the prisoner will forever be referred to as a felon. Even the use of the word ex-felon pours salt in the wounds. The discrimination lasts a lifetime.

Josh Musket writes:

As for ex-offender, that's a pretty crappy term. First, it assumes that recidivism is not going to happen, which would be nice, but isn't realistic, simply due to the nature of the system. Secondly, it implies that the person was an offender in the first place, which may or may not be true, but probably encourages that same recidivism anyway.

As Marcia points out above, these terms follow people after release. The post-incarceration terminology follows similar lines -- I prefer to use formerly incarcerated individual (though it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue) to ex-convict and ex-offender.

But the only way to truly avoid looking backwards with this terminology and rooting an individual in his or her prison time is to see the whole person and their life experience and not label them by their prison time. I’m not primarily an ex-Bostonian or an ex-newspaper reporter, why is someone who served time an ex-con?

One could also make the argument that ex-convict and ex-offender at least put the crime and prison squarely in the past while ‘formerly incarcerated’ implies a mark on a person’s being. That’s technically true, but I stand by my arguments yesterday against ‘inmate’ and ‘offender.’ Formerly incarcerated is the least bad label if we must use one.

The term ‘ sex-offender’ is basically a life sentence -- following people after their release, as they are included in databases and maligned for life. It implies present-tense offense, as if the person is afflicted with an incurable disease, a falsehood that some people blindly believe. Recidivism rates are low for sex offenders, but that’s despite the terminology and the isolation.  The term creates a prison in society, isolating the individual and perhaps creating a situation in which they commit new crimes.

Thoughts?

(Photo via Greeblie)