Rewriting the Narrative: Unlocking the Secrets to Lasting Change for Aotearoa’s Formerly Incarcerated

Desistance research has expanded considerably, yet much of it rests on Western, male-dominated samples and examines contributors to change; employment, housing, faith, physical activity and mental health, as discrete domains. Comparatively little work has been undertaken in Aotearoa, where the disproportionate imprisonment of Māori and the ongoing effects of colonisation shape both offending and the pathways away from it.

This study asked what formerly incarcerated people in Aotearoa themselves identify as the most important contributors to their desistance. Guided by an interpretivist, social constructivist orientation and informed by Kaupapa Māori principles with the guidance of a Māori expert advisor, unstructured life-story interviews were conducted with five participants of Māori, Pasifika, and Pākehā backgrounds who had been crime-free for at least four years. Accounts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Five themes were developed: Accountability in Context, The Carceral Paradox, The Relational Foundation, Becoming Someone New, and Meaningful Work. Participants accepted responsibility for their offending while recognising the conditions that shaped it, treating agency and circumstances as complementary rather than competing. Critically, the recognised domains rarely operated independently. Their significance lay in the relationships, recognition, dignity, and opportunity they enabled, with trusted relationships emerging not as one supportive factor among many but as the mechanism through which identity change was recognised and sustained. Participants also described a criminal justice system that produced many of the barriers they subsequently had to overcome, eroding trust and leaving relational support largely to under-resourced community organisations.

These findings suggest reintegration policy should prioritise relational continuity and practical enablers over programme delivery alone.