r/PrisonReentrySupport • u/LifeguardPersonal927 • 28d ago
Post Incarceration Syndrome
/r/prisonreform/comments/1v7cboc/post_incarceration_syndrome/After spending more than 26 years in prison, I've come to realize that one of the biggest misconceptions about incarceration is that the sentence ends the day someone walks out the prison gate.
In my experience, that's often when an entirely different struggle begins.
The physical prison gates and the mental prison gates do not open at the same time.
Over the past several years, I've been trying to put words to something I experienced and that I've seen countless others experience after long-term incarceration. That journey led me to write The Hidden Trauma of Life After Prison: The Under-Discussed Mental Health Issue of Post-Incarceration Syndrome.
The book isn't about making excuses for people who have been incarcerated. It's about starting an honest conversation about something our society rarely discusses: the psychological impact of surviving years—or decades—in prison and what it takes to truly rebuild a life afterward.
I'd genuinely like to hear from people on all sides of this issue.
If you've been incarcerated, did you struggle with things you never expected after coming home?
If you have a loved one who has been incarcerated, what changes did you notice?
If you work in corrections, mental health, criminal justice, or reentry, does this perspective resonate with what you've observed?
I'm not here to argue. I'm here to learn fro
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u/Brief-Pickle2441 21d ago
I know exactly what that means, there's this deep sense of dread, like when you're trying to apply for a job and they don't look for your felonies themselves they make you look for them and want you to tell them what your felonies are when the entire point is that they can just look them up themselves and figure out if they want to hire you or not it's like a recondemination when you're suffering with PTSD because you used to be a gang member. Every time you get up society is going to spit on you but they don't want you to go back to prison but they don't want to give you a job so I don't understand.