The data consists of 17 interview transcripts from the second round of Lives Sentenced research. Interviews with six incarcerated men, five men in the community, five incarcerated women and one woman in the community are included. The interviews explore the two years since the first interview, but still focus on the changing meaning of the accumulation of sentences in their lives, and the interactions of these meanings with life outside. Hopes for the future and motivations to desist are also discussed. There has been little research examining how those who are punished by the criminal justice system give meaning to their sentences. For many offenders, criminal punishments are not experienced in isolation, but rather are given meaning in the context of wider lives and previous penal experiences. This is especially the case for persistent offenders, who generally have long punishment careers. This research explores how they interpret the accumulation of sentences in their lives. Thirty-seven men and women in Scotland who had been repeatedly sentenced over at least 5-10 years were interviewed, 17 of them twice, using life history methods.

Qualitative life history interviews with men and women who had long punishment careers (spanning around 10 years for the men, around 5 years for the women) and who had been interviewed during the first round of the research. Some of the interviews took place in prison, others in the community, as reflected by the zipped folder names. Participants in the community were re-contacted through the contact details they had provided at the first interview. The Scottish Prison Service provided an update on three occasions in 2016 of which of the original participants had returned to prison. These were contacted through prison staff and asked if they would be willing to be interviewed again.