Reentry Experiences Research Articles

Childhood cancer survivors' experiences in school re-entry in South Korea: Focusing on academic problems and peer victimization

Childhood cancer survivors are confronted with numerous problems when they return to school after the completion of treatment. This study investigates the school re-entry experiences of childhood cancer survivors in South Korea. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 childhood cancer survivors who were between 15 and 39years old and had completed all cancer treatments at the time of the study. Participants reported being excited about school re-entry, but also being fearful and concerned about their academic performance and peer relationships. The participants' school re-entry experiences were mostly impacted by their relationships with their peers and teachers. They expressed having had psychosocial problems related to school re-entry, such as feeling a sense of loss and a lack of social skills. Our study findings emphasize a critical need for supporting childhood cancer survivors, both academically and socially, in their transition to school.

Commentary: Records, Relationships, and Reentries

This commentary highlights some of the key lessons from the preceding articles by Sarah Lageson on online criminal histories and Robert Apel on cohabitation and marriage. To provide additional perspectives on institutions and families, it draws briefly on interview data from the Minnesota Exits and Entries Project, comparing the reentry experiences of 18- to 25-year-olds leaving prisons, jails, the armed forces, the juvenile justice system, foster care, drug treatment, and mental health facilities. While the prison surely ranks among the most salient institutions for U.S. families today and as such merits close scrutiny, there is also great benefit in “escaping prison”: considering how the justice system might productively import or borrow ideas and programs from other institutional domains. In collectively showing how specific punishment conditions affect family life, we can provide the research base needed to help institutions better support individuals and families.

A Multimethod Examination of the Dynamics of Recidivism During Reentry

ABSTRACTResearch on prisoner reentry has indicated that the transition to the community can be a tumultuous process. Despite this growing understanding, research has continued to operationalize recidivism as a terminal event in the reentry experience, categorizing returning prisoners as recidivists and nonrecidivists. Using detailed mixed methods with a small cohort of parolees, this inquiry documents the dynamic nature, timing, and context of recidivism as it occurs during reentry. The analyses suggest that treating initial recidivism events as if they were terminal to reentry has the potential to miss information about subsequent reentry processes and outcomes. Comparing multiple recidivism measures with supervision outcomes suggests that simple categories of recidivists and nonrecidivists may not be informative for the purposes of reentry research.

Structural Inequality and Social Support for Women Prisoners Released to Rural Communities

Incarceration and community reentry for rural women reflect gendered processes. We draw on in-depth semistructured interviews and focus groups to examine the return of women prisoners to underserved rural communities while attending to the perspectives of their closest social supporters. Our findings underscore the complexity of the reentry process for rural women and its particular impact on their families. We challenge dominant discourses of personal responsibility that detract from the structural violence and injustice shaping reentry experiences for women and their social supporters. We also consider the policy implications of discharge and reentry planning for rural women and their families as well as strategies to reduce recidivism.

Solid Start: supportive housing, social support, and reentry transitions

Researchers have consistently established the centrality of the reentry experience in understanding offender life course trajectories, and housing has been cited as one of the most central bricks in establishing stable, successful lives. However, the social and structural mechanisms that explain the relationship between housing and parolee outcomes are less known. To explore this, we use in-depth interviews and a grounded theory approach to compare the reentry needs among a sample of male parolees participating in a housing program, Solid Start, with a similar sample of males on traditional parole. The results highlight the centrality of housing and social support during the reentry process, and find that housing services have important implications for structural changes, such as social relationships, and subjective, emotional outcomes. This research adds to the burgeoning literature on reentry transitions by providing narrative accounts of parolee experiences and has important implications for housing assistance programs.

Dealing with Difference in Desistance Theory: The Promise of Intersectionality for New Avenues of Inquiry

AbstractThe last two decades have witnessed a rapid growth in research and theorizing about the desistance process, namely the causal mechanisms behind the termination or slowing of offending that frequently accompany adulthood. This flurry of scholarly activity has been spurred by both the ascendance of the life course paradigm of criminology, which examines patterns of criminal offending over the life span, but also by the very real practical demands of supporting the transitions of over 700,000 former prisoners released to their communities each year.The field of desistance theory has expanded upon its original formulations that were largely (although not exclusively) based on White males and has recently turned to examining (1) the potential invariance of desistance processes for members of other groups and (2) the unique experiences of reentry and pathways to desistance for sub‐groups. In this essay, we review these recent developments, particularly as they relate to women, persons of color, and incarcerated youth. Finally, we turn to the intersectionality framework, which examines the social location of individuals within interlocking systems of oppression (e.g., race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability, among others). We conclude with some suggestions for how intersectionality could be used to expand the conceptual and practical boundaries of research on desistance and reentry.

Bitter-sweet reentry after studying abroad

This qualitative study was conducted to explore reentry experiences of U.S. college students and to provide possible explanations for those experiences. Study participants took part in a semester or year-long study abroad program organized by a Midwestern public research university and shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The major finding was that the participants reported a wide range of experiences during reentry, instead of just the challenging side mostly present in the literature. This study suggests approaching reentry from a more inclusive perspective and possibly describing it as “bitter-sweet” – the phrase used by several interviewees.The “bitter” side of the reentry was connected with students’ sense of loss over the people, experiences, and cultural environment they encountered while abroad; their inability to communicate their intercultural experiences to people at home who did not have similar experiences; and developing a critical lens toward U.S. culture. These findings support the existing literature on the challenging side of reentry experiences. The “sweet” side was connected to students’ reuniting with people, experiences, and elements of their home culture they missed while being abroad; communication with people who had similar intercultural experiences and could understand the need of the returnees to talk about their experiences; and developing an appreciative lens toward U.S. culture. These findings add to the very limited amount of literature on the positive side of reentry and provide explanations of those experiences that were almost lacking in the literature. Recommendations for future researchers and implications for practitioners are provided.

Experiences of Asian psychologists and counselors trained in the USA: an exploratory study

This study qualitatively explored the pre-departure to reentry experiences of Asian international psychologists and counselors trained in the USA. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants from four different Asian countries. Inductive analysis with Consensual Qualitative Research methods was used to analyze the interview data. Three domains and 25 themes emerged from the analysis of the data, representing participants’ key domains as motivation to study in the USA, various sojourn experiences, and multiple reentry challenges. Findings are discussed in terms of training applications for Asian counseling students as well as the cross-national application of US counseling training. Recommendations for educators, supervisors, and prospective international students are suggested.

A New Way of Doing Time on the Outside: Sex Offenders' Pathways In and Out of a Transitional Housing Facility.

Although housing has been highlighted as a key element of successful reentry experiences, little research has considered the perspectives of sex offenders living in transitional housing upon release from prison. This topic is important given the increasing legal restrictions faced by this offender population. The current study utilizes qualitative data to explore the pathways from prison to transitional housing, the experience of residing in these facilities, and how transitional housing is perceived to affect the overall reentry experience. In general, results suggest that sex offenders reside in the facility because of lack of access to a suitable home, and report a need for service provisions. However, most view their experiences in the transitional facility (TF) as contrary to the rehabilitative ideal, and some indicate that this type of programming has collateral consequences for reentry. The proliferation of sex offender restriction laws has only exacerbated the challenges faced by sex offenders living in the TF.

More Than a Vacation: Exploring the Impact of Reentry for International Sojourners

As our population becomes increasingly internationalized in today's global society, a need emerges for awareness, research, and support for the mental health needs of clients who have returned from sojourns abroad. This article describes how mental health counselors can become more aware of the reentry experience. It also explores such factors as expectations, transition, advocacy, and grief and loss. It diminishes the perception of sojourning as simply a vacation and discusses adjustments clients often have to make upon returning home. The article offers recommendations for working with clients who are finding reentry difficult, explores implications for the mental health counseling profession, and offers ideas for future research.

Finding Their Way: Conditions for Successful Reintegration Among Women Offenders

The transition from prison to community is challenging for women. Herein we propose a framework of reintegration readiness from women's experiences of community re-entry after a prison stay. In qualitative interviews with 31 women who spent time in Canadian federal prisons, they described the time immediately following their release, specifically person-specific and context-specific factors that allowed them to successfully adapt to society. Addictions and unresolved trauma were barriers to reintegration success. In their transition from prison to the community, it is important to address these person- and context-specific conditions as well as trauma and addictions to improve reintegration readiness.

“It’s Their World, so You’ve Just Got to Get Through”

This article brings together research on parole governance with women’s experiences of reentry. In particular, drawing on longitudinal qualitative interviews with a group of women leaving prison and returning to their communities, the present study highlights the way parole structures women’s reintegration efforts post-incarceration. The women’s experiences highlight how parole governance intersects, conflicts with, and complicates their efforts to return to their communities and transition out of the gaze of the penal state.

Connection to mental health care upon community reentry for detained youth: a qualitative study

BackgroundAlthough detained youth evidence increased rates of mental illness, relatively few adolescents utilize mental health care upon release from detention. Thus, the goal of this study is to understand the process of mental health care engagement upon community reentry for mentally-ill detained youth.MethodsQualitative interviews were conducted with 19 youth and caregiver dyads (39 participants) recruited from four Midwest counties affiliated with a state-wide mental health screening project. Previously detained youth (ages 11–17), who had elevated scores on a validated mental health screening measure, and a caregiver were interviewed 30 days post release. A critical realist perspective was used to identify themes on the detention and reentry experiences that impacted youth mental health care acquisition.ResultsYouth perceived detention as a crisis event and having detention-based mental health care increased their motivation to seek mental health care at reentry. Caregivers described receiving very little information regarding their child during detention and felt “out of the loop,” which resulted in mental health care utilization difficulty. Upon community reentry, long wait periods between detention release and initial contact with court or probation officers were associated with decreased motivation for youth to seek care. However, systemic coordination between the family, court and mental health system facilitated mental health care connection.ConclusionsUtilizing mental health care services can be a daunting process, particularly for youth upon community reentry from detention. The current study illustrates that individual, family-specific and systemic issues interact to facilitate or impair mental health care utilization. As such, in order to aid youth in accessing mental health care at detention release, systemic coordination efforts are necessary. The systematic coordination among caregivers, youth, and individuals within the justice system are needed to reduce barriers given that utilization of mental health care is a complex process.

Relational Vulnerabilities of Incarcerated and Reentry Mothers

A qualitative study involving a follow-up interview with 10 incarcerated and reentry mothers in rural southwest and central Virginia was conducted to explore the influence that women's close relationships have on their reentry experiences with their families. The Vulnerability Conceptual Model (VCM) was used to sensitize an examination of how incarcerated and reentry mothers negotiate relational vulnerabilities in the context of varying situational vulnerability. Grounded theory analysis revealed three themes that characterized relational vulnerabilities. Given our focus on close relationships and the potential of the VCM to identify opportunities for resilience and vulnerability, we highlighted the influence of ambiguous and ambivalent relationships and unresolved loss and grief due to relationship dissolution or the death of a parent, sibling, child, or intimate partner in the reentry process. The data revealed two types of reentry mothers with divergent trajectories for social reintegration. Implications of these types for therapeutic treatment approaches for reentry women are discussed.

Learning to Resist: Educational Counter-Narratives of Black College Reentry Mothers

BackgroundCollege reentry women are often older than the traditional college student, and in this study are distinguished from other students because of their parental status as mothers (Johnson-Bailey, 2000; Sealey-Ruiz, 2007). As one of the the fastest growing populations in colleges and universities across the nation, it is alarming that many Black college reentry women, despite their educational gains, continue to face stereotypes about who they are socially, politically, and educationally.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the schooling experiences of Black college reentry mothers (n = 5) and explicate the ways in which they theorize and make meaning of the complexities of their lives, particularly in regard to the intersections of race, college reentry, and motherhood.Research DesignEmploying qualitative case study and narrative analysis methods, the larger study from which some data for this article derive (Sealey-Ruiz, 2005) examined the educational narratives of Black college reentry women. The original study investigated the influence the participants’ college reentry had on their lives and their daughters’ educational choices. The study reported in this article, then, includes data from individual interviews with the 5 mothers from the original study as they focus on their college reentry experience and motherhood.Findings/ResultsContrary to what some researchers assert about schools not providing welcoming spaces for Black women to develop an optimistic sense of self, the reentry mothers in this study viewed college enrollment as a crucial step toward positive self-definition. Their efforts to become educated represent their resistance to public stereotypical images of themselves as Black mothers. In other words, they believed their college reentry served as counterpoint to the three stereotypes about Black mothers discussed in this article: the mammy, the matriarch, and the welfare mother/welfare queen.Conclusions/RecommendationsThe counter-narratives these mothers offered to the three stereotypes suggest that there are psychological barriers (fear of belonging, self-doubt, fear of marginalization, racism, sexism, negative stereotyping) to their academic success. This conclusion has the strong potential to move educational researchers toward a deeper investigation of challenges to the college reentry experienced by Black mothers, in the hope of creating institutional support structures, systems, and policies that can propel the academic success of this population.

Making it on the Outside: Understanding Barriers to Women’s Post‐Incarceration Reintegration

AbstractThe increasing rate of imprisonment in the United States over the past few decades resulted in record numbers of individuals reentering society upon release. As men and women exit through prison gates, they encounter a range of obstacles that complicate their efforts to “make it” on the outside. Given the gendered impact of recent punitive prison policies, this essay focuses on women and traces their steps as they navigate the many complex, interrelated, and competing obstacles to successful reintegration post‐incarceration. In particular, this essay describes how many barriers, and women’s reentry experience more broadly, are shaped by gender, race, and class. Further, drawing on the feminist pathways perspective, we examine women’s reentry in light of their pathways into offending focusing, in particular, on their victimization history.

Where is Merlin when I need him? The barriers to higher education are still in place: Recent re-entry experience

While the GI bill after WWII encouraged education for the older students, the combination of baby boomers and the rise of feminism have prompted a new wave of returning students to academia. The nontraditional student since the 1970s has often been an older female returning for a graduate degree. Making the decision to return has not been easy, and the older student can expect to encounter multiple barriers to her progress before attaining her desired degree. These barriers have been in place and have been the subject of studies for the past forty years, and they remain firmly in place in the new century. This study looks at the barriers through the lens of one older female student in her first summer of graduate school. Using data from diaries, narrative journals, class papers, and reflections, the student compares her experiences with the findings of current studies.

The Disconnect Between Education and Social Opportunity for the Formerly Incarcerated

This article aims to identify barriers associated with correctional education’s ability to produce social opportunity for the formerly incarcerated. This qualitative review of data collected in the Midwestern and Northeastern parts of the United States serves to better inform the literature surrounding correctional education, as to its positive and negative attributes, and sheds light on areas in which systematic improvements can be made. The goal of these independent but related studies is to investigate correctional education’s role in the outcomes of reentry experiences of former prisoners with emphasis on employment and educational opportunities, including the effects of race on prisoner and staff attitudes toward correctional education. This article serves to inform policy and future research in regards to correctional education, mainly in its uses, implementations, and outcomes.

Does a Rising Tide Lift All Boats? Labor Market Changes and Their Effects on the Recidivism of Released Prisoners

The dramatic growth in incarceration nationally has increased attention to the factors that influence recidivism among ex-prisoners. Accordingly, scholars have called for research that identifies factors, such as employment opportunities, that may influence reentry experiences. Few studies, however, have examined how changes in labor market conditions affect ex-prisoner offending. Drawing on prior scholarship, this study examines the effect of such changes on the recidivism of ex-prisoners and, in particular, how the recidivism among blacks and whites may be differentially affected by changes in labor market conditions in the areas to which they return. The analyses indicate that, among black male ex-prisoners, labor market declines increase violent recidivism. They also indicate that, among white male ex-prisoners, the effects are more tenuous, influence only property recidivism, and are moderated by prior labor market conditions and criminal history. Implications of the study are discussed.

Social Support, Motivation, and the Process of Juvenile Reentry: An Exploratory Analysis of Desistance

Many scholarly works and studies have explored the experience of reentry and desistance for adult offenders, but fewer studies have focused on these processes among juvenile offenders. Using qualitative case studies of juveniles released from secure confinement, this study explores the desistance process during juvenile reentry by examining how social support is used during the process. The authors propose that motivation, derived from both agentic resolve and reinforcement from social support networks, is necessary for successful desistance.