Hope might be seen as a prefigurative presence in the earliest stirrings of felt change which is associated with the first stages of desistance. The desire to change is essential to generating the necessary self-consciousness which grounds a person's altered identity. Using the case studies of story-telling, this paper explores the role of story structures and storytelling in articulating desire and envisaging the possibility of a liveable future.

Criminalised disabled adults who have been though the criminal justice system (CJS), are amongst the most disparaged and marginalised group in society. However, in contrast to other disadvantaged groups, they and their families have received less scholarly attention than their presence in, and experience of, the CJS system merits. Significant is, scholarship that refers to intellectually disabled people and/or autistic adults, especially those who have committed serious crimes is often pathologizing, situated within forensic psychology, and focuses on health, treatment, and assessment, where criminalised disabled people need to be ‘fixed’. This is in the context of public calls for tougher sentencing, new penology that focusses on incapacitation rather than rehabilitation, and moral panic, that means criminal conviction can carry disadvantages long after release. Indeed, those who are neurodivergent - autistic and/or learning disabled - can start their criminalised carceral journey in secure and punitive enclosures, and are perhaps highly medicated, due to behaviour that is experienced as challenging and disruptive, or assumed vulnerability, theirs, and others. This paper is based on life-stories from the perspectives of criminalised disabled adults, mothers and professionals working with them and explores experiences of offending, education, anti-social and violent behaviour, relationships, and everyday lives. Critically, for criminalised disabled adults ‘imprisonment creates new forms of disablism, [as] systematic marginalisation, routinised forms of oppression and exclusion places them at higher risk of being manipulated, victimised, and disadvantaged throughout the social fabric of prison’ (Gormley, 2017: 66). This is pertinent as struggling to read or write, or poor verbal communication and comprehension ‘relegates some to a shadowy world of not quite knowing what is going on around them or what is expected of them’ (Talbot, 2008: 75) leading at best to mental health decline.

This paper will draw on data from almost ten years of research with a resettlement charity (RC) that works with criminal justice affected people. The charity is pioneering, award-winning, independent, part community funded, and provides bespoke 6–12-month placements for its beneficiaries. The charity has maintained low re-offending and high employment rates since it began in 2013 through a holistic person-centred response to countering the harms of criminalisation in a safe and non-judgemental environment. This is achieved through the development of trust relationships, which are built up over time with those on placement as they engage in on-site activities throughout a structured day, that involves real work experience, such as one-to-one working in a market garden, wood workshop, kitchen, or pottery, as well as socially inclusive activities such as communal lunches and interaction with the community. There are also a range of repetitive, reciprocal micro interactions that bring people into the group without pressure to participate or engage, alongside an everyday co-production of shared values that filters into the daily routines practiced on site. It is a collaborative effort, a community of practice that generates the conditions in which everyone can thrive. One of the regular activities on site are the 1-2 hour recorded conversations for the Photographic-electronic Narrative (PeN), established at the charity in 2016 (https://penprojectlandworks.org/). These are carried out for the purposes of research, evaluation and to capture the desistance journeys of those on placement. These are opportunities for a kind of storying together, a sensory process of bearing witness to desistance. These involve three areas of discussion, firstly the route to the RC, which incorporates a range of social harms (past), reflections on the placement itself (present), and hopes or aspirations (future). There is an emergent self-reflexivity and self-awareness engendered through this activity, with the creation of a blog post making these journeys visible, for the participants, others, and the wider community. It demonstrates that these stories are worthy of being seen, heard and shared. They have value and this is vital in sustaining hope in a better future for those harmed by criminal justice processes.