Stress and Hardship after Prison1

The historic increase in U.S. incarceration rates made the transition from prison to community common for poor, prime-age men and women. Leaving prison presents the challenge of social integration—of connecting with family and finding housing and a means of subsistence. The authors study variation in social integration in the first months after prison release with data from the Boston Reentry Study, a unique panel survey of 122 newly released prisoners. The data indicate severe material hardship immediately after incarceration. Over half of sample respondents were unemployed, two-thirds received public assistance, and many relied on female relatives for financial support and housing. Older respondents and those with histories of addiction and mental illness were the least socially integrated, with weak family ties, unstable housing, and low levels of employment. Qualitative interviews show that anxiety and feelings of isolation accompanied extreme material insecurity. Material insecurity combined with the adjustment to social life outside prison creates a stress of transition that burdens social relationships in high-incarceration communities.

[1]  John H. Tyler,et al.  Prison-Based Education and Re-Entry into the Mainstream Labor Market , 2006 .

[2]  D. Pager The Mark of a Criminal Record1 , 2003, American Journal of Sociology.

[3]  Christopher J. Lyons,et al.  Status and the stigma of incarceration: The labor-market effects of incarceration, by race, class, and criminal involvement , 2007 .

[4]  J. Travis But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry , 2005 .

[5]  H. Toch,et al.  Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America: THE IMPACT OF IMPRISONMENT ON THE DESISTANCE PROCESS , 2005 .

[6]  B. Western,et al.  Incarceration in Fragile Families , 2010, The Future of children.

[7]  A. Blumstein,et al.  Population Growth in U. S. Prisons, 1980-1996 , 1999, Crime and Justice.

[8]  John H. Tyler,et al.  Barriers to Reentry ? The Labor Market for Released Prisoners in Post-Industrial America , 2006 .

[9]  B. Western Punishment and inequality in America , 2006 .

[10]  Robert M. Worley,et al.  On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City , 2016 .

[11]  M. Stoll,et al.  Barriers to Reentry?: The Labor Market for Released Prisoners in Post-Industrial America , 2007 .

[12]  Perry Deess,et al.  The First Month Out: Post-Incarceration Experiences in New York City , 2011 .

[13]  Donald Braman Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America , 2004 .

[14]  B. Western,et al.  The growth of incarceration in the United States: exploring causes and consequences , 2014 .

[15]  Bruce Western,et al.  Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration , 2004 .

[16]  Romantic Relationships and Criminal Desistance: Pathways and Processes. , 2014, Sociological forum.

[17]  Michael Massoglia Incarceration as Exposure: The Prison, Infectious Disease, and Other Stress-Related Illnesses∗ , 2008, Journal of health and social behavior.

[18]  J. Lafortune,et al.  What happens the morning after? The costs and benefits of expanding access to emergency contraception. , 2014, Journal of policy analysis and management : [the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management].

[19]  Jeffrey R. Kling,et al.  Incarceration Length, Employment, and Earnings , 2006 .

[20]  M. Comfort Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison , 2008 .

[21]  Andrea M. Leverentz Being a Good Daughter and Sister , 2011 .

[22]  D. Harding,et al.  Making Ends Meet After Prison. , 2014, Journal of policy analysis and management : [the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management].

[23]  B. McEwen Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[24]  Becky Pettit,et al.  Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress , 2012 .

[25]  B. Western,et al.  How health care reform can transform the health of criminal justice-involved individuals. , 2014, Health affairs.

[26]  J. Elmore,et al.  Release from prison--a high risk of death for former inmates. , 2007, The New England journal of medicine.

[27]  P. de Knijff,et al.  Polymorphisms in the coagulation factor VII gene and the risk of myocardial infarction. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[28]  Leonard I. Pearlin,et al.  Stress and mental health: A conceptual overview. , 1999 .

[29]  J. Christian,et al.  The Familial Relationships of Former Prisoners , 2009 .

[30]  Timothy Black When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets , 2009 .

[31]  R. Silverman,et al.  Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life , 1994 .

[32]  Carol B. Stack All Our Kin , 1974 .

[33]  A. Liebling,et al.  The Effects of Imprisonment , 2005 .

[34]  G. Vaillant Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 , 2005 .

[35]  Christopher Uggen,et al.  Work as a Turning Point in the Life Course of Criminals: A Duration Model of Age, Employment, and Recidivism , 2000, American Sociological Review.

[36]  Bruce G. Link,et al.  On stigma and its consequences: evidence from a longitudinal study of men with dual diagnoses of mental illness and substance abuse. , 1997, Journal of health and social behavior.

[37]  H. Bloom,et al.  Measuring Program Impacts on Earnings and Employment: Do Unemployment Insurance Wage Reports from Employers Agree with Surveys of Individuals? , 1999, Journal of Labor Economics.

[38]  Samuel G. Kling,et al.  The Prison Community , 1941 .

[39]  Christy A. Visher Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry: Maryland Pilot Study: Findings from Baltimore , 2004 .

[40]  S. Metraux,et al.  Incarceration and Homelessness , 2013 .

[41]  Daniel Glaser,et al.  The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System. , 1965 .

[42]  Lauren E. Glaze Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children , 2012 .

[43]  B. Western,et al.  A Longitudinal Survey of Newly-Released Prisoners: Methods and Design of the Boston Reentry Study 1 , 2017 .

[44]  T. Rudd,et al.  More than a Job: Final Results from the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Transitional Jobs Program , 2012 .

[45]  Mercer L. Sullivan,et al.  "Getting Paid": Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City , 1989 .

[46]  B. Western,et al.  Incarceration and the Formation and Stability of Marital Unions , 2005 .

[47]  E. Cornwell,et al.  Social Disconnectedness, Perceived Isolation, and Health among Older Adults∗ , 2009, Journal of health and social behavior.

[48]  Rajita Sinha,et al.  Chronic Stress, Drug Use, and Vulnerability to Addiction , 2008, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[49]  G. Firebaugh,et al.  Racial Variation in the Effect of Incarceration on Neighborhood Attainment , 2013, American sociological review.

[50]  Nancy G. La Vigne A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Illinois , 2003 .

[51]  D. Harding,et al.  Home Is Hard to Find , 2013, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

[52]  Nancy G. La Vigne A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Maryland , 2003 .

[53]  Kerry Woodward Doing the best I can: Fatherhood in the inner city , 2013 .

[54]  Charles H. Shireman The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System , 1965 .

[55]  Phil A. Silva,et al.  Low Socioeconomic Status and Mental Disorders: A Longitudinal Study of Selection and Causation during Young Adulthood1 , 1999, American Journal of Sociology.

[56]  Nancy G. La Vigne,et al.  A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Texas , 2004 .

[57]  Shadd Maruna Reentry as a rite of passage , 2011 .

[58]  C. Kruttschnitt,et al.  Women's Imprisonment , 2003, Crime and Justice.

[59]  Lorie S Goshin The Ex-Prisoner's Dilemma: How Women Negotiate Competing Narratives of Reentry and Desistance , 2015 .

[60]  L. Pearlin The sociological study of stress. , 1989, Journal of health and social behavior.

[61]  Christopher Wildeman,et al.  Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality , 2013 .

[62]  R. Sampson,et al.  Punishment's place: the local concentration of mass incarceration , 2010, Daedalus.

[63]  Mark Warr LIFE‐COURSE TRANSITIONS AND DESISTANCE FROM CRIME* , 1998 .

[64]  Christy A. Visher,et al.  Transitions from Prison to Community: Understanding Individual Pathways , 2003 .

[65]  C. Uggen,et al.  Incarceration and Stratification , 2010 .

[66]  N. Board.,et al.  Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , 2008, AAP News.

[67]  Naomi F. Sugie,et al.  Sequencing Disadvantage: Barriers to Employment Facing Young Black and White Men with Criminal Records , 2009, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

[68]  Stanley H. Cohen The Felon , 1972, The Broad Arrow.

[69]  T. Flanagan Dealing With Long-Term Confinement , 1981 .

[70]  M. Lieberman,et al.  The stress process. , 1981, Journal of health and social behavior.

[71]  Anne B Martin,et al.  National health spending in 2012: rate of health spending growth remained low for the fourth consecutive year. , 2014, Health affairs.

[72]  Christopher Wildeman,et al.  Mass Imprisonment and Inequality in Health and Family Life , 2012 .

[73]  J. Petersilia,et al.  When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry , 2009 .