Every Space Counts: How Ex-Prisoners with Mental Illnesses Navigate Public Space and Interactions in Everyday Life

Background: Prisoners with mental illnesses are released from prison into environments where they are under-treated and under-supported by our criminal justice, social service, and health systems. Public space and the interactions within those spaces have been shown to have positive effects in other similar populations, including individuals with mental illnesses. This qualitative study aimed to understand which kinds of connections and spaces have greater capacity toward increasing or reducing recidivism, hampering or strengthening community integration, encouraging or offsetting social isolation, and influencing a sense of ontological security. Methods: Semi-structured interviews on both experiences of public spaces and their interactions within were conducted with 36 ex-prisoners with mental illnesses. Participants were also asked to draw maps of their communities and to identify public spaces. They identified both spaces of inclusion and exclusion and interactions in those spaces. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted as a follow-up to these interviews with a subsample of 11 participants in order to identify and describe public spaces and interactions within those spaces. Phenomenological and template analysis were used to analyze the data collected. Results. Participants described an array of public and private spaces where they spent time and reconstructed their identities during reentry. In these spaces, participants fostered supportive relationships with intimate and familiar strangers. This form of  “stranger support” was juxtaposed against the burdens and risks of reciprocal intimate relationships. Implications. Public space and public space interactions can provide support streams to counterbalance the more complex and mixed support of intimate relationships. Providers might consider the utility of familiar and intimate strangers in helping clients to navigate these sometimes risky, but potentially fruitful spaces.