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What do you call a former criminal who has served their sentence and been released from prison?

I thought of “convicted criminal”, but that might imply the person is still a criminal and/or serving a sentence.

  • Does “convicted criminal” fit this definition?
  • Are there other--better--words that are more accurate?
rhetorician
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crush
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  • Depending on the situation that there may be different reasons for someone's realease. You mention serving their sentance, but someone who's been pardoned may take offense to 'ex-con'. You can also be detained without ever being convicted if you can't post bail or bail is denied. – Joe Feb 05 '14 at 20:55
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    A rehabilitated criminal (if you truly mean "former"). – Elliott Frisch Feb 05 '14 at 21:00

7 Answers7

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There are numerous terms used in the US, including

  • ex-convict
  • ex-con
  • former convict
  • ex-felon
  • parolee
  • probationer

Several of these convey particular criteria (such as probationer).

bib
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  • Parolee sounds pretty good. Is it considered parole when a prisoner is permanently released after serving their sentence? – crush Feb 05 '14 at 19:13
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    Actually, if the sentence is fully served, the former prisoner is not a parolee. Parole is the release of a prisoner before the full sentence is served, usually for good behavior, and parole lasts for a limited time. – bib Feb 05 '14 at 19:19
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    @crush - no, it's not. A parolee is out on parole only, and if they break the rules of their parole, they have to go back in jail. Their sentence is not fully served while on parole. – oerkelens Feb 05 '14 at 19:20
  • Alright. In that case, I guess I'll have to stick with ex-convict or former convict. – crush Feb 05 '14 at 19:20
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    How about "Civilian" ? They served their time, shouldn't they be entitled to the whole 'fresh start' thing? If you're going to keep labeling them with something they've already paid the price for in full, you're not really helping them break the cycle. – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Feb 06 '14 at 07:49
  • @Shadur I agree, but that's sadly not how the US' (and many other countries') legal system works. People who've in the past been convicted in criminal cases tend to have lifelong restrictions placed upon them administratively despite none such being set out in the sentence passed on them (think in the US being disallowed from owning firearms despite that being a constitutional right, in China being required to live within a set area around your last prison location, etc. etc.). – jwenting Feb 06 '14 at 10:33
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    @jwenting I'd be less concerned with their constitutional right to own a gun and more with their ability to get hired in a legitimate job that'd enable them to make a living without having to fall back into bad habits... – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Feb 06 '14 at 10:35
  • @Shadur yes, was just an example. They are of course also excluded from many lines of work, never mind the risk of falling back into crime (which being excluded from honest jobs of course increases dramatically, thus turning the idea that criminals are likely to be repeat offenders into a self fulfilling prophecy). – jwenting Feb 06 '14 at 10:38
  • @Shadur I agree that they should be labeled as a civilian, but for the context in which I need to use this word, it is important to denote that they were formerly incarcerated. Perhaps I didn't make this qualification clear in my question. – crush Feb 06 '14 at 13:39
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I believe the common term is ex-convict (often shortened to ex-con).

Hellion
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  • I had actually thought of ex-convict too, but felt that maybe it was a bit informal or slang. It seems you are right, and it is the commonly accepted term. – crush Feb 05 '14 at 19:13
  • An ex-convict. Have a look at this wikipedia entry:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convict – Louel Feb 05 '14 at 19:12
10

Another term you could use would be "ex-offender." A friend of mine works with recently released men and this is the term he uses.

Laura Stiehl
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    'Offender' and 'ex-offender' are the kinds of terms used in Britain by professionals working in the criminal justice system, magistrates, solicitors, probation-officers, social workers etc. It is also probably the term the police would use if speaking publicly. What individual police officers call convicts, whilst drinking tea in the station canteen probably doesn't bear repeating. Otherwise most of the expressions here, surprisingly, are very similar to Britain. – WS2 Feb 05 '14 at 20:40
  • It seems to me that ex-offender could potentially mean more than just someone who was formerly incarcerated. – crush Feb 06 '14 at 13:40
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    It seems to me that ex-offender is really easy to confuse with the class of criminal that you get if you prepend it with an s – Ross Aiken Feb 06 '14 at 16:17
  • @crush Could do, but doesn't, at least the way it's used by the British justice system. – David Richerby Feb 06 '14 at 19:48
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If the person has been imprisoned repeatedly he might be called a gaol-bird:-

a criminal who has been jailed repeatedly

Edit Green's Dictionary of Slang has it:-

  1. A prisoner
  2. A former prison inmate
Brian Hooper
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0

A fine term would be 'a re-leased', with a hyphen to emphasise the fact that that person is 'given a new lease of life'…

user58319
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0

How about calling him/her resocialized? Don't know if this is correct, because I'm not a native speaker.

EDIT: Okay, resocialized does not seem to be the right term here, see in the comments below.

Pierre Arlaud
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Fraggles
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  • What if you fail at resocializing? If you break bad again, it doesn't change the fact that you're an ex-convict. – Pierre Arlaud Feb 06 '14 at 09:35
  • Since we're at it, this has inspired me with this question: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/150211/usage-of-e-e-acute – Pierre Arlaud Feb 06 '14 at 10:28
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Rehabilitated...Lol. The best one was "Resocialized", as if the life of a prisoner and their surrounding crowd of convicts, is any kind of way to "socialize" into a real life society of people.

I'm sorry. I am not a convicted criminal myself, but I know and have known several people who have been to prison, and let me tell you... it's nothing but a revolving door for them. Eventually, they just can't sit well in regular society and the rules are not the same as they are in prison. The lack of "respect", or what inmates claim to be "respect" is neither gained in the same way, nor lost in the same way, out here in the real world.

Here we call them FELONS. As in: Has been convicted of a felony crime, lost the right to vote and the right to bear arms.

Several years of observation..
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    a felon is someone convicted of a felony, not a generic term for people serving or having served prison time (which can be handed out for other things that are not felonies). – jwenting Feb 06 '14 at 10:36
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    This should be less editorial and more answer focused. Seems like you have two answers here — rehabilitated and felon. Resocialized has already been given and should be removed from your answer or you can make it more obvious that you are comparing your answers to that one. And also, jwenting is right that felon is really too narrow to fit this context. – Kit Z. Fox Feb 06 '14 at 14:16
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    @KitFox I think he is simply laughing at the notion of "Rehabilitated" being offered as an answer. In fact I think his first two paragraphs are laughing at the notion and rationalizing his belief. The only answer provided (albeit a vague one [no geolocation provided for "here"]) is the last sentence. – TylerH Feb 06 '14 at 16:33