Date of Award
4-7-2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Global Inclusion and Social Development
First Advisor
Valerie Karr
Second Advisor
Meghan Kallman
Third Advisor
Susan Foley
Abstract
@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Aptos; panose-1:2 11 0 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 3 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:8.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt; mso-ligatures:standardcontextual; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:8.0pt; line-height:115%;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
Individuals with mental health disabilities are disproportionately represented within correctional systems in the United States (SAMHSA, 2020), reflecting broader structural inequalities at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice. Having a history of mental health disability and incarceration can significantly affect an individual’s sense of self-esteem and autonomy (Canada, Barrenger, Bohrman, Banks & Peketi, 2022) thereby constraining their ability to express their needs or make changes in their lives (Driessen, Dirkzwager, Harte, & Aarts, 2023). Efforts to advance social inclusion of affected individuals through policy and intervention often fall short due to an insufficiently holistic understanding of the systems within which individuals operate (Kenyon, 2003). Understanding systems that systematically limit individuals’ capacity for expression and agency, often conceptualized as systems of oppression, requires close attention to the lived experiences of those most directly impact by them.
By conceptualizing oppression as a reduction of agency (Drydyk, 2021), this analysis centers on examining how systems of oppression operate through lived experiences of individuals with limitations to exercising agency. Accordingly, these systems can be more fully understood by investigating the processes through which people with histories of incarceration and mental health disabilities cultivate power and reestablish agency, as well as the forms these processes take. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to understand how individuals with histories of incarceration and mental health disabilities reconnect with their sense of voice and discover the processes through which this reconnection unfolds.
Drawing on qualitative data, memoir-writing workshops and field observations the study conceptualizes power-building as a gradual, non-linear and often impermanent process comprising three distinct stages of voice, agency and power, each defined by its primary outcome: expression, recognition and change, respectively. The process of power building, articulated through its three stages, offers an analytical framework for understanding the enabling conditions that facilitate progression from one stage to the next and provides a conceptual foundation for the study’s additional key constructs, such as violence. For instance, when the stage of voice is not supported by the conditions of audience (active listener) and influence (impact), expression may manifest in non-constructive forms, including violence, particularly among men within the study population.
Through the analysis of qualitative data and observations from memoir-writing workshops with formerly incarcerated women with histories of mental health disabilities, the study identifies important gendered variations in the process of power building, particularly in relation to the role of violence and re-entry strategies. However, further research is needed to more fully understand how women with these intersecting histories reconnect with their voice and cultivate power.
Recommended Citation
Sajadi, Shahrzad, "The process of power building for individuals with histories of incarceration and mental health disabilities" (2026). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. 1159.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/1159
Included in
Criminology Commons, Disability Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Justice Commons
Comments
Free and open access to this work is made available to the UMass Boston community by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this work through Interlibrary Loan. If you have a UMass Boston campus username and password and would like to download this work from off-campus, click on the “Off-Campus Users” button.