From Incarceration to Eco-Liberation: Formerly Incarcerated Youth in the Wilderness

Abstract

How do formerly incarcerated urban youth of color experience eco-liberatory praxes in the wilderness? This study explores the convergence of wilderness and eco-liberatory praxes for formerly incarcerated youth of color. The research was designed to understand how vast wilderness spaces affect young people who have lived in urban communities and juvenile prisons. Growing up in mostly closed environments the youth in this study have had limited exposure to the immeasurable freedom the wilderness offers. The data collected were interviews, poems, and conversations around the campfire and during hiking, as well as my own fieldnotes of observations. The youth’s stories were richly descriptive of their new experiences in nature, as well as of memories from their lives back home. Using narrative inquiry and a phenomenological approach to analyze the data revealed key themes, such as their search for peace and how they found it, their need to self-govern post-incarceration, and a great desire to explore what nature has to offer. This research discusses the importance of inviting youth to co-create their own wilderness liberatory experiences. It reveals what is possible for youth when their stories and hopes surface in the liminality of the wilderness, creating a space for a deep sense of liberation from their exhausting and stressful past. The youth express need for a rest from the urban streets of their communities and these eco-liberatory practices in the wilderness provided a place of solace and empowerment.