The research my partner and I conducted was specifically focused around women returning to society from prison. While men and women have different barriers to reentry, the overall process is much the same. Following is an excerpt from our thesis that summarizes our research:
"The United States currently houses a higher percentage of its population in prisons than any other country in the world. It only seems natural that a reevaluation of our criminal justice system needs to take place. Are there a higher number of people committing punishable crimes or are the people committing crimes having increased difficulty recovering from their mistakes? Our belief in regard to this question is that the increase in people behaving erratically is in correlation with our society's lack of support systems and programs for those who have broken the law, served their sentence, and rejoined their communities as free citizens."
For those who need the hard statistics, as of January 1, 2010, there were 1,404,053 persons under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities. This figure is actually the first decrease of state inmate totals in 38 years. However, 1.4 million people in prison is not a figure to be proud of. Reentry initiatives are becoming a new trend as states recognize the benefits of alternative sentencing. Alternative sentencing includes diversion programs, probation or community corrections sentences, and rehabilitative programs as opposed to lengthy prison sentences. The Pew Center on the States is an excellent resource for statistical and analytical information on the the state of reentry among other topics. Below is the link to the corrections and public safety section of their website.
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=57653
I hope I have given a somewhat adequate explanation of the basis of our research. I will elaborate further on facts and figures throughout the documentation process.
Dear Autumn:
ReplyDeleteA very interesting approach and topic, but I would suggest that you not limit the blog to prison reentry. The topic of reentry -- coming back into one's own or ancestral socio/cultural system is a much large phenomena. One which, I suspect has immediate practical applications in the real world of PTSS, reverse Culture Shock, and career or corporate downsizing. The psycho/social responses, I suspect, are similar because of the lost time and context between leaving the home (enculturated) socio/cultural system and reentry into a new version of that system some time later. As Thomas Wolfe wrote, "You can't come home again."
Good luck in your project.
Excellent point. I think examining the transition processes for other groups might be useful for establishing commonalities, which may help me address the social stigmatization of offenders. I do want to stay focused on offender reentry for this though. With Anthropology being a social science based on the study of humans, there should be more attempts made to study the culture of offenders. Thank you for your input. Please continue to follow along!
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