Performing Rehabilitation: Reentry, Art, and Identity
February 16th, 2026
The article “Performing Rehabilitation: Reentry, Art, and Identity”, by Victoria Inzana, published in Punishment & Society (2025), examines the role of a community-based theater program in the social reintegration of individuals recently released from prison in the United States. Drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with men and women participating in the program, the study explores how theatrical role-taking shapes processes of individual identity transformation during the reentry phase.
More specifically, the analysis identifies three interconnected levels through which participants “perform” rehabilitation: the self, the family, and society. At the individual level, theatrical participation fosters the emergence of an agentic self, enabling participants to regain a sense of control, confidence, and future orientation. At the familial level, performances create opportunities to renegotiate relationships and to present oneself as a responsible and trustworthy family member, particularly in parental roles. Finally, at the societal level, recognition by audiences contributes to the reconstruction of participants’ sense of value and belonging as productive citizens.
Overall, the article contributes to debates on art, punishment, rehabilitation, and desistance by showing how a voluntary arts-based program can function simultaneously as a space for identity transformation and as an informal extension of state-promoted rehabilitative logics. Indeed, the theater program encourages the adoption of socially valued identities associated with successful reentry, thereby highlighting tensions between authentic personal change, performances of the self, and institutional expectations in the post-prison context.
The article is available in open access here.