This paper is based on an analysis of the implementation of Family Visit Units (UVF – Unités de Visites Familiales) in France. It shows how prisoners deal with a new setting that upsets the reference points formed during the years of imprisonment and fit into a different social, emotional, and relational symbolic framework: many major factors of the inmate’s personal journey influence his identity process and enable him to see himself and others as human beings. Indeed, spending time in prison does not mean one does not have a future. The identity component of the UVF is more varied and encouraging than that of detention, but it is also a source of tension and conflict for prisoners who experienced many years of confinement and those facing long sentences.