From Future Orientation to Readiness for Reentry: An Exploratory Study of Prelease Cognitions of Incarcerated Men

Mateja Vuk,Brandon K Applegate

doi:10.1177/26326663211052282

Mateja Vuk, Brandon K Applegate

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/26326663211052282

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Abstract

The literature suggests that individual characteristics of offenders are related to cognitive patterns before their release from prison. Empirical evidence shows that such cognitions can influence the extent to which offenders take an active role in rehabilitation. Given that many studies upon which these conclusions are made are dated, qualitative, or use bivariate analyses, it is unclear how salient, strong, and significant these associations are. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory study is to identify the factors that are associated with two prelease cognitions, future orientation and readiness for release, and to investigate whether future orientation is associated with greater involvement in structured activities. This study uses survey data collected from a sample of 503 people incarcerated in medium-security prisons in South Carolina in the United States. Ordered logistic regression models reveal that idleness, marital status, and drug dependence are associated with future orientation, while idleness, engagement in work and education, age, marital status, sentence phase, and mental health issues are related to readiness for release. Negative binomial regression shows that future orientation is associated with more extensive involvement in structured activities. Overall, the study concludes that while inmates are generally future-oriented, they are less confident that they are prepared for release from prison. The limitations of this study, including low scale reliabilities for key variables and a substantial amount of missing data, are also discussed.

Highlights

“Owning time” while in prison is often challenging because the burden of confinement removes any temporality of it (Meisenhelder, 1985; Sexton, 2012)
The strength, generalizability, significance, and the applicability of these findings in contemporary prison contexts are unknown. To address this gap in the literature, the current exploratory study uses quantitative data to examine factors that are associated with two aspects of prerelease cognitions: future orientation and readiness for release
We examine how future orientation varies as a function of a sense of idleness, psychological factors, sentence phase, and inmate characteristics; how participation in structured activities varies as a function of future orientation, psychological adjustment, sentence phase, and inmate characteristics; and how readiness for release varies as a function of participation in structured activities, a sense of idleness, psychological factors, sentence phase, and inmate characteristics

Summary

Introduction

“Owning time” while in prison is often challenging because the burden of confinement removes any temporality of it (Meisenhelder, 1985; Sexton, 2012). Megargee and colleagues’ (1970) study revealed that youthful offenders were not exclusively oriented toward the present They argue that this result may indicate that incarceration itself—suspending one’s life—drives individuals to think either about the future or the past (Megargee et al, 1970)

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