Article Summary: It is Time For Us All to Embrace Person-Centred Language for People in Prison and People Who Were Formerly in Prison

Excerpt and Highlights: 

“The words we write or speak have immense power and are part of societal discourse which both influences and is influenced by public pol- icy. We contend that the words we use have the power to respectfully, and accurately, represent people and ideas; they also have the ability to perpetuate ignorance and bias, leading to stigmatisation, discrimination, and de-humanisation. One approach to reducing stigma within society is the advocacy for person-centred language. We note this may also be referred to as person-first language, however we use person-centred language as this correlates with the broader concept of person-centred care (Entwistle & Watt, 2013; Håkansson Eklund et al., 2019)” (Harney et al, 2021).

Recommendations from this commentary include:

• Person-centered language should be the only acceptable way of presenting research related to People with lived/living experience of Incarceration
• Use “People who use drugs (PWUD)” instead of “injecting drugs users”
• Use “People who are incarcerated (PWAI)” instead of ‘prisoner’ or ‘prisoners’ ‘offenders’ or ‘inmates’
• Use “People with lived experience of incarceration (PWLE)” for people who were formerly incarcerated