An area of study lacking research is the role of internal identity shifts from that of an offender to one of citizen and how this creates the conditions for desistance from criminal behavior both within the confines of a correctional facility and in the reentry process. The studies contained in this book (mostly qualitative) cover a broad range of topics including education, support network interactions and reciprocity, and moments of change. Through these studies, evidence is provided that engaging former and current prisoners in their own change process is more meaningful for rehabilitative and reentry measures than is using external, formal programmatic measures to fix them. Many of the contributors draw from a strengths-based perspective which begins with the assumption that ex-convicts are stigmatized persons, and implicitly that this stigma is at the core of what makes ex-convicts likely to reoffend. Working from this assumption, the contributors to the book illuminate the various ways that former offenders exercise agency in resisting such stigma and creating a sense of self that promotes and sustains change. The book will be of interest to college students, researchers, and lecturers in all fields within the social sciences, especially criminology and criminal justice and sociology and social work/welfare, as well as practitioners in the field. Tables, references, and index