“The Soul Recognizes Itself in Somebody Else”: The Healing Value of Forgiveness among Formerly Incarcerated People in the Profession Practice of Peer-Support

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855241286500
• Author: Ety Elisha,Esthi Shachaf-Friedman
• Date: 01 December 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

“The Soul Recognizes

Itself in Somebody Else”:

The Healing Value of

Forgiveness among

Formerly Incarcerated

People in the Profession

Practice of Peer-Support

Ety Elisha

1

and

Esthi Shachaf-Friedman

2

Abstract

The present study focuses on perceptions of forgiveness among formerly

incarcerated people engaged in peer-support roles, based on their lived

experience and referred to as wounded healers. Participants were 26 men

and women with a history of addiction, trauma, and incarceration who are

employed in formal peer-support positions and in the community. The par-

ticipants reported achieving personal and social forgiveness through their

peer work, expressing their social acceptance which is relevant to their

recovery. The theoretical and practical implications of the f‌indings are dis-

cussed from the perspective of convict therapy and Enright’s forgiveness

therapy.

Keywords

convict therapy, wounded healer, peer work, forgiveness, addiction,

recovery, desistance, positive criminology

1

Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel

2

Ashkelon Academic College, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Ety Elisha, Department of Criminology, Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, 1930600 Israel.

Email: etye@yvc.ac.il

Article

The Prison Journal

2024, Vol. 104(6) 697–717

© 2024 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855241286500

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Introduction

Convict therapy, a new term coined by Elisha (2023), refers t o formal, con-

structive, peer-support roles (either voluntary or paid) that are performed by

people involved in the criminal justice system, based on their knowledge

and lived experience, that is, wounded healers (Elisha, 2023). Convict

therapy is a unifying term encompassing several interrelated theories and

approaches, in a bid to promote the discourse and research on professional

peer supporters in the f‌ield of criminology. These include convict criminol-

ogy (Richards & Ross, 2001), the wounded healer (LeBel et al., 2015),

desistance from crime (Laub & Sampson, 2001; Maruna et al., 2004), and

positive criminology (Ronel & Elisha, 2011, 2020) (for more details, see

Elisha, 2023).

In the past two decades, researchers in crime desistance have focused on

the strength-based role of peer support performed by individuals with a

history of addiction and incarceration who managed to recover, also referred

as “professional-ex”or “wounded healers”(Lebel et al., 2015). In general, the

studies point to many advantages that are inherent in peer work, such as

enhanced mental well-being, the acquisition of prosocial skills, and strength-

ening recovery (e.g., Aresti et al., 2010; Heidemann et al., 2016; LeBel et al.,

2015; Marsh, 2011; Maruna, 2002; O’Sullivan et al., 2020). Peer support

(also known as peer work,peer-to-peer-support, and peer mentoring)is

thus a practical opportunity for the formerly incarcerated to model prosocial

skills, prove themselves, and, in some cases, procure gainful employment as

many of them have diff‌iculty in f‌inding suitable work in the community

(Buck, 2021).

For individuals with a history of addiction and incarceration who seek to

recover and reintegrate successfully in the community, a major challenge is

the need for social forgiveness. Maruna (2002), in his seminal study on

released people who have managed to amend their lives, found that aiding

others (“making good”), especially peers and at-risk populations, enabled

them to gain social forgiveness, atonement, and redemption (Maruna, 2002).

Although the aspects of forgiveness are known to be relevant to recov-

ery and desistance from crime (LeBel et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2004; Maruna,

2002; Pingleton, 1989; Yu et al., 2021; Webb & Toussaint, 2018), little is

known about the process whereby forgiveness promotes recovery and

maintains desistance, especially of wounded healers in the f‌ield of crimi-

nology. The present study, the f‌irst of its kind in Israel, aims to examine

the value of forgiveness among people with a history of addiction and

incarceration who are off‌icially employed in peer support positions,

hence its novelty.

698 The Prison Journal 104(6)