Release of the Captives: Transformed carceral time as an opportunity for re-orienting perspectives on liberative futures.

This paper examines how transformed experiences of time during incarceration can generate new orientations toward liberative futures for both incarcerated individuals and the societies to which they return. It places the sociological insights of The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experience in Prison (2021) in conversation with anakainosis-desmios, the concept of “spiritual renewal of consciousness while incarcerated” introduced in The Word Confined (2020). While The Cage of Days analyzes how prison restructures temporal experience through rhythms of suspension, repetition, and reflection, anakainosis-desmios interprets such disruption as a context for moral, spiritual, and cognitive renewal. Drawing also on qualitative research from the forthcoming book I Am Unconfined, the paper argues that carceral time can become a transformative arena in which individuals reimagine identity, responsibility, and possibility, opening new pathways for dialogue about justice, rehabilitation, and shared social futures.