This study aimed to explore protective factors that help the reintegration of ex-prisoners into the community. Protective factors refer to factors that play a critical role in helping ex-prisoners settle down in the community as law-abiding citizens. By applying narrative inquiry, two male and female ex-prisoners who succeeded in settling into society after release were selected as research participants, and their lives were studied in a process-oriented manner. Research participants spoke freely and honestly about their life experiences, then evaluated and gave meaning to them. The researcher underwent an analysis process to structure and restructure the submitted results to suit the research purpose. Although the overall life experience of the research participants was the scope of the study, emphasis was placed on their experiences after release from prison, the factors that contributed to their desistance from crime, and their integration into community members. Results of the narrative in84 교정담론 제17권 3호 quiry showed that the protective factors for social integration of ex-prisoners were religion, family, sense of belonging to a community, mentor, positive identity, meaningful activities, employment, and housing stability. When classifying these into internal and external factors, external factors such as family, mentor, job, and residential stability, and internal factors such as religion, sense of community belonging, positive identity, and meaningful activities were revealed with equal weight. This suggests that ex-prisoners' reintegration into the community is possible when internal changes are combined with external and physical conditions. Based on the implications of the research results, this study proposed a plan for the successful social integration of released prisoners, focusing on issues related to the internal changes of the persons that have been overlooked and strengthening the support system for released prisoners.