Life after Imprisonment: Exploring the Repercussions of Jail Time on Ex-Convicts

American journal of human psychology, 2024

In the Philippines, ex-convicts face severe hurdles during reintegration, including public stigma, restricted work opportunities, insufficient support, and discriminatory behaviors, all of which impede a smooth return to society. This qualitative narrative case study investigates the psychological, social, and economic aspects of ex-convicts' lives after jail. The Life Course Perspective is used as the study's theoretical framework, acknowledging the importance of personal, societal, and historical elements in individual development. Six successfully reintegrated participants, each with a minimum five-year prison sentence, constituted the basis for in-depth interviews conducted in a quiet and secure atmosphere using snowball sampling. The study sought to explore ex-convicts' issues, coping methods, life realizations, and viable therapeutic programs. The findings highlight the numerous challenges, such as societal stigma, economic constraints, and disrupted social bonds. Coping methods, which include spiritual rehabilitation and emotional acceptance, emerge as critical components of the reintegration process. Life realizations become transforming forces, characterized by a dedication to positive change and social contributions, which is frequently motivated by familial support and a desire to protect loved ones. For effective reintegration, the study underlines the importance of public acceptance, tailored interventions, and support networks. It finds that addressing these issues, as well as encouraging familial stability, boosting community involvement, and engaging employers, are critical to reducing recidivism and facilitating long-term rehabilitation. Recommendations urge for coordinated efforts from families, communities, and businesses, emphasizing the importance of a complete strategy to assisting ex-convicts on their path to successful society reintegration.

2020

The focus of this exploratory study is on individuals who have completed long term, faith-based reentry programs after incarceration. Through one-on-one interviews with participants, this study will examine the impact that long-term, faith-based treatment programs have had in helping persons with a criminal past re-acclimate back into society. As more reentry programs focus on skills-based treatment only, this study seeks to explore the integration of faith and spirituality in long-term faith-based treatment programs in conjunction with other treatment modalities. This study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the critical elements necessary to help individuals overcome their past and collateral consequences to become contributing members of our society.

2010

With prison populations on the rise, it is imperative to find re-entry programs that effectively decrease recidivism. Understanding the experiences of participants and the criminogenic factors that provoke and prohibit their successful reintegration is a vital aspect of evaluating re-entry programs. With sixteen in-depth interviews, this study evaluates the pilot reentry program, RealVictory, by exploring the opinions and experiences of its participants including the key criminogenic factors affecting their successes and failures during the reintegration process. The two most pervasive criminogenic factors affecting recidivism for participants of this study were support systems and desire to change. While both the control and treatment groups had three members rearrested since they were last out of jail or prison, we find that re-arrest isn't necessarily the best measure of program success despite the common use of this measure in quantitative studies (Seiter, 2003). All participants who went through the RealVictory program reported that the program was effective in helping them to stay out of crime.

2002

This paper examines two apparent assumptions underlying current discussions about church-based prisoner reentry programs. First, these discussions implicitly understand prisons as places where criminals are punished, not as places where people are directed away from criminality. The task of effecting "permanent behavioral change" in ex-offenders is taken to be the domain of the social world outside prison walls. Churches, which are taken as expert alchemists in the transformation of sinner to saint, are considered natural and ideal candidates for this work. Second, the language of "reintegration" into "community" and "neighborhood" via religious institutions implies a certain understanding of churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples as "community institutions." The assumption is that churches are open communitiesthat is, they are open to serving nonmembers as well as members, and they are somehow embedded in the social life of the neighborhoods where they happen to congregate. These assumptions certainly are valid; indeed, many religious communities around the country offer compelling support for such assumptions. But these assumptions are not the only valid ones we can or should make in our strategic thinking about prisoner reentry. Indeed, studies that seek to determine the viability of such programs should not focus exclusively on those churches already struggling to fill the void produced by an increasingly punitive and decreasingly rehabilitative criminal justice system. My own observation of churches, particularly those operating in poor urban settings, suggests divergent but equally valid assumptions we might make about the way churches operate, and what churches are inclined to do. Policymakers aiming to encourage or design church-based prisoner reentry programs should take seriously these alternative assumptions, as well as those that animate widely celebrated existing programs.

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2012

This article reports that rehabilitation for prisoners is still not dead. It reveals that prisoner reentry programs have been implemented nationwide for the past ten years, and that current knowledge on prisoner reentry is strong enough to determine the principles of effective programs. This article also suggests that future research in this field should focus on interdisciplinary and longitudinal studies of prisoner reintegration that uses multiple outcome measures, in order to be able to understand the complete effects of current social policies. rehabilitation, prisoner reentry programs, principles of effective programs, prisoner reintegration, multiple outcome measures, social policies

2009

EITorts to assist in the reintegration of prisoners back into society are lypically either risk-based or need-based. An alternative philosophy for reintegration, strengths-based (or "resterative") reentrlT, treats people returning from prison as assets to be utilized rather than threats. This paper expleres the theery behind these efforts, drawing on one of the orjgina] formulations of this perspectivc in the work of the psychologist AIbert Eg]ash. Eglash argues that the process of redemption requires more than just punishment or providing compensation to one's victims, but involves individuals going a "second mile." rlihis "second mile," which he calls "creati've restitution" involves making up for one's wrongdoing by working to help others, in particular other prisoners or those at risk of going to prison. We argue that these strengths-based efforts work primari]y as a stigma management strategy. Individuals who have been punished for doing wrong can redeem their reputations t'hrough explicit/ involvement in help-giving behaviors and othcr eflorts to eontribute positively to society. This change in publ{c perceptions can then lead to changes in the person's own self-bc]iers and sell'-identity. We conelude by exploring a riew deveiopment in the strengths-based movement, which we describe as goLng a "third mile." This involves more direct efferts at stigriia reduction through activism on ex-prisoner issues on a political level. We argue that this is a natural next step in efforts towards destigmatization.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2009

Community reintegration of ex-prisoners is an important issue in efforts to reduce recidivism. The present study examined the multiple, complex, and dynamic nature of variables influencing successful reintegration by assessing the type and degree of change in reintegration variables over time. Participants were 79 adult prisoners (54 male, 25 female) who completed a prerelease questionnaire 1 month before their release, which focused on prison-related variables, participant background, and anticipated conditions upon release. A postrelease questionnaire was administered to the same participants at 1-4 weeks and 3-4 months postrelease, focusing on the quality of life conditions experienced following release. Results indicate that current health ratings and several indicators of drug use were significantly different over the three measurement phases. Ratings of employment and housing stability, finance, and social support were unchanged over the postrelease period. Theoretical implica...

Western Criminology Review, 2006

... The authors would like to extend their gratitude to Jenny Osborne for her assistance with citations, Tracey Shollenberger and Jennifer Castro for their contributions to the analysis and writing, and Nancy La Vigne for her thoughtful comments. ...

2017

The persistently high rate of repeat incarcerations poses a threat to the safety of lives and properties. The problem that led to this study was the prevailing high rate of repeat incarcerations in Nigeria, despite interventions to reduce their occurrences. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of prisoner reentry programs in reducing reincarcerations of ex-prisoners. The focus of the research questions was on whether treatment and the type (faith-or non-faith-based) made a difference in a prisoner's reincarceration status after release. The theoretical foundation was based on the transtheoretical model of change. Reincarceration outcomes were analyzed for 818 prisoners who were released between January 2010 and December 2013 from 3 prisons located in Lagos State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from the prison records on the reincarceration status of the subjects based on an at-risk period of 36 months after release. A propensity score matching procedure was used to select an equal number (n = 409) of treated subjects (those who participated in a prisoner reentry program) and untreated subjects (nonparticipants in the program). Findings from a Cox-regression analysis revealed that participating in any of the programs (faith-or non-faith-based) reduced reincarceration at a statistically significant level; however, there was no difference in reincarceration status based on the type of treatment received. Findings provide evidence that prisoner reentry programs can reduce reincarceration. With this knowledge, the reentry program providers may advocate more government supports for reentry activities. They may collaborate with the policymakers and legislators to develop strategies that will enhance the reintegration Chapter

PsycEXTRA Dataset

The Returning Home Study Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry is a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry in Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas led by staff at the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center. The study explores (1) the individual reentry experience through interviews with prisoners before and after release from prison; (2) the family perspective on reentry from interviews with family members of returning prisoners; and (3) the community context of reentry based on interviews with key community stakeholders and focus groups with residents. Additional information on Returning Home, including other publications that present findings from individual states, can be found online at http://www.urban.org/projects/reentryportfolio/index.cfm.

Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers, 2005

We explored the reentry process by interviewing 51 parolees three times over a period of three months after their release from prison. In addition, we interviewed 19 parole officers and tracked each parolee for six months after release. Ten of the 51 parolees were reincarcerated within six months after their release from prison. Family support, being married or having a partner, living with a family member, and being a parent were not associated with parole adjustment or with the likelihood of returning to prison. Variables associated with not being reincarcerated were number of close relationships within the family network, the quality of the parent-child relationship, being employed, and having stable housing. Reincarceration was associated with socializing with friends four or more times per week, the number of conflicted relationships in the family network, having family members who had been on probation or in jail, and the parolee's perceived difficulty in staying off drugs. These findings suggest that the overall network of family relationships is important in helping to make the transition from prison to the community.

The Prison Journal, 2011

With record-high incarceration rates, unprecedented extension of state supervision over individuals leaving prison, and a complex maze of legal barriers to reintegration, more people than ever before are returning home after serving time in prison. These individuals face daunting barriers to successful reintegration. Successful reentry requires strong community support networks and comprehensive services, both of which are lacking in urban areas to which most former prisoners return. Interventions that reflect these principles may hold the greatest promise for success. Yet reentry policies are still quite primitive; researchers are just now beginning to develop an approach to reentry based on evidence of best practices. At this moment, it is critically important that the federal government invest in the development and testing of new ideas and rigorous evaluations to determine which interventions are effective at promoting public safety and prisoner reintegration.

Материалы международной научно-практической конференции «Диалог культур в глобализирующемся мире». , 2020

The article examines the process of resocialization of persons released from penitentiary institutions. It is noted that at the end of the sentence, the released person returns to the society in which he must abide by moral and legallaws, but for many reasons it is very difficult for him to achieve this. Therefore, one of the important aspects of the activities of correctional institutions is related to the socialization of prisoners. The process of resocialization, ie the process of reintegration of a person released into the social environment with its own moral rules and values, is closely linked with another process - the process of social adaptation, and a properly organized adaptation process creates conditions for successful resocialization.

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2001

Victims & Offenders, 2009