Abstract

Despite intrinsic connections between punishment and notions of citizenship, the subjective meaning citizenship holds for criminalised people has been neglected in academic literature. Additionally, while citizenship is often conceptualised as something transitioned to as part of the journey to adulthood, little is known about how the process of the transition to (or indeed from) citizenship is understood for those subject to penal sanctions and, in particular, imprisonment. Drawing on qualitative data from a comparative study of ‘lived citizenship’ from the perspectives of imprisoned men in England and the Republic of Ireland, and utilising youth studies literature on the ‘citizen-in-transition’ (Wood, 2017), this article explores narratives around continuity in, and movement between different states of (non)citizenship or divergent forms of ‘citizenship’ – as described by participants – during imprisonment. The article argues that transition in relation to a subjective sense of (non)citizenship is not linear or absolute, exploring different types of citizenship identification and ways individuals may identify as ‘more’ or ‘less’ of a citizen at different points in their lives and imprisonment.