Imagining Freedom: Lifers, Liberty and the Meaning of Parole

Bridging criminological and philosophical discourses, this article builds upon Berlin's ‘concepts of liberty’ to theorise the meaning of parole release. Through qualitatively analysing 130 Israeli lifers’ Parole Board hearings, we found that lifers focused more heavily on their loss of – and potential to regain – positive liberty than on negative liberty. Here, we detail how lifers progressed beyond reflecting upon their past and their current state of imprisonment (‘release from’), towards thinking about their present (‘realising release’) and their future (‘release to’). The findings, therefore, demonstrate the normative importance of the parole process in assisting lifers’ constructions of identity, agency, and hope.