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But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry
12 Apr 2005-
TL;DR: Travis as mentioned in this paper proposes organizing the criminal justice system around five principles of reentry to encourage change and spur innovation, and argues that the impact of returning prisoners on families and communities has been largely overlooked.
Abstract: As our justice system has embarked upon one of our time's greatest social experiments?responding to crime by expanding prisons?we have forgotten the iron law of imprisonment: they all come back. In 2002, more than 630,000 individuals left federal and state prisons. Thirty years ago, only 150,000 did. In the intense political debate over America's punishment policies, the impact of these returning prisoners on families and communities has been largely overlooked. In But They All Come Back, Jeremy Travis continues his pioneering work on the new realities of punishment in America vis-a-vis public safety, families and children, work, housing, public health, civic identity, and community capacity. Travis proposes organizing the criminal justice system around five principles of reentry to encourage change and spur innovation.
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: This paper analyzed national and state-level court data to assess monetary sanctions and interview data to identify their social and legal consequences, finding that monetary sanctions are imposed on a substantial majority of the millions of people convicted of crimes in the United States annually and that legal debt is substantial relative to expected earnings.
Abstract: The expansion of the U.S. penal system has important consequences for poverty and inequality, yet little is known about the imposition of monetary sanctions. This study analyzes national and state-level court data to assess their imposition and interview data to identify their social and legal consequences. Findings indicate that monetary sanctions are imposed on a substantial majority of the millions of people convicted of crimes in the United States annually and that legal debt is substantial relative to expected earnings. This indebtedness reproduces disadvantage by reducing family income, by limiting access to opportunities and resources, and by increasing the likelihood of ongoing criminal justice involvement.
28 citations
TL;DR: The political, economic, and social context in which community corrections functions makes it extremely difficult to achieve successful outcomes as mentioned in this paper. The current fiscal crisis, however, is forcing chan...
Abstract: The political, economic, and social context in which community corrections functions makes it extremely difficult to achieve successful outcomes. The current fiscal crisis, however, is forcing chan...
28 citations
Cites background from "But They All Come Back: Facing the ..."
...especially for nonviolent crimes, and returning discretion to judges; (c) eliminating prison as a sanction for technical violations; (d) eliminating community supervision for low-risk nonviolent offenders; and (e) eliminating most civil penalties attached to criminal convictions (Clear & Austin, 2009; Mele & Miller, 2005; Petersilia, 2003; Travis, 2005)....
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...With 93% of inmates being released from prison at some point in the future, prisons are as responsible for the successes and failures of community corrections as are community corrections agencies, officers, and offenders (Petersilia, 2003; Travis, 2005)....
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TL;DR: The link between mass incarceration and the structural conditions of low-wage labor has been explored in this article, with a focus on barriers to the employment of ex-prisoners, but little attention paid to the linkages between incarceration and low wage labor.
Abstract: Scholarship focusing on barriers to the employment of ex-prisoners has paid little attention to the linkages between mass incarceration and the structural conditions of low wage labor. In contrast,...
28 citations
Cites background from "But They All Come Back: Facing the ..."
...…exclusion, inequality, labor, neoliberal, risk society, unemployment In an era of rising incarceration rates in the United States, people who have spent time in prison face especially dismal prospects for working in the legitimate economy (Nixon et al., 2008; Travis, 2005; Western, 2008)....
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30 Sep 2005
TL;DR: The Reentry Mapping Network (RMN) as mentioned in this paper is a partnership of jurisdictions throughout the country that are engaged in mapping and analyzing prisoner reentry and community data to help inform local policies and practices.
Abstract: In 2002, the Urban Institute established the Reentry Mapping Network (RMN), a partnership of jurisdictions throughout the country that are engaged in mapping and analyzing prisoner reentry and community data to help inform local policies and practices. This report describes the methods underlying the RMN so that other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences and replicate their efforts in the interests of crafting more effective and successful reentry strategies at the community level. These experiences learned are derived from the three RMN partners funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ): Washington, DC, Winston-Salem, NC, and Milwaukee, WI.
27 citations
TL;DR: Quina et al. as discussed by the authors explored the ways in which fieldwork in a jail setting was transformative and how a shift in experience can ultimately transform scholarship examining prisoners and their family members.
Abstract: Introduction Prisons and jails are by definition closed environments that pose special challenges for researchers (Byrne, 2005; Hart, 1995). These challenges can be ethical, in terms of ensuring the adequate protection of a vulnerable class of human subjects in the case of studying prisoners, as well as pragmatic relative to adapting to the institutional restrictions of correctional settings (Quina, Varna Garis, Stevenson, Garrido, Brown, Richman, et al., 2007). Typically, human subjects Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes and informed consent procedures are quite rigorous in prison and jail based research due to concerns about coercion and incarcerated persons' limited capacity for voluntary informed consent (Moser, Arndt, Kanz, Benjamin, Baylees, Reese, et al., 2004). For example, researchers must obtain additional human subjects' permission (beyond their respective universities) from state or federal agencies responsible for the oversight of a particular system of jails and prisons and gain the cooperation of the facility itself. Subsequently, researchers are subject to the regulations of a particular facility which generally involves surrendering certain personal rights they may enjoy on the outside (e.g., security search prior to entering, movement restrictions). Here we extend the discourse on research in corrections settings to focus more fully on the experience of the researcher in terms of how gaining access and spending time in a relatively closed environment is deeply affecting. Academic and corrections systems are quite distinct. The punitive and restrictive environment within the custody and control mission of the correctional system clashes with the environment of open inquiry associated with the research mission of the university system (Byrne, 2005). These differences necessitate adaptations on the part of the researchers in order to work in corrections settings and comply with multiple regulations (Quina et al., 2007). Such adaptations can include not utilizing videotapes, audiotape or computer assisted technology in data collection, or being precluded from compensating participants due to prison or jail policy. Despite the many challenges inherent in conducting research in a corrections setting, the process can be a transformative learning experience (cf., Quina et al.). We contend that a central mechanism of this transformation involves researchers' intense emotional responses to the often uninviting environmental conditions of prisons and jails, the sense of restrictiveness and loss of privilege that comes with entering the setting and being subject to prison rules, and the intimate proximity of the researcher and the researched inherent in fieldwork. This last point is particularly important because as the distance between researchers and participants is dissolved, their experience becomes our experience catalyzing very real and profound emotions. In this paper, we seek to further explore the ways in which fieldwork in a jail setting was transformative and how a shift in experience can ultimately transform scholarship examining prisoners and their family members. We do this via qualitative content analysis of our field notes which were written while conducting interviews and participant observation of caregivers with children who were visiting an incarcerated family member at a local jail. The Context of our Fieldwork: The Visitation Waiting Room In discussing our emotional experience in the jail setting, as well as articulating elements of our transformation as researchers, it is essential to first specify the context of the imprisoned, and more specifically visitation areas. Suffice it to say that both the incarcerated person, who is under "state control," and his or her family, are embedded in a broad sociocultural network that stigmatizes imprisonment (Braman, 2004; Davies, 1980). Stigma intensifies the possibility of risk and has unique disruptive effects for the parents themselves, as well as their family members because of the demoralization and social isolation that comes with the prison experience (Golden, 2005; Lowenstein, 1986; Western & McLanahan, 2000). …
27 citations
Cites background from "But They All Come Back: Facing the ..."
...…are especially relevant in criminal justice research where tough questions are asked, insurmountable challenges are noted, and scholars push for reform (see for example research and commentary on the consequences of mass imprisonment by Austin & Irwin, 2001; Hagan & Coleman, 2001; Travis, 2005)....
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