Doing Time after Prison: Raced, Classed, and Gendered Dynamics of Navigating the Carceral State

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. RGC and Crime

Abstract

Criminology has developed measures for documenting when an ex-offender fails to re-enter society successfully, including re-arrest and reconviction rates, unemployment rates, and homelessness (Petersilia 2003; Pettit and Western 2004; Western 2007). But an individual’s successes or failures along these measures are mediated by a host of actors—including parole officers, social workers, and organizations like New Beginnings —that serve as gatekeepers to resources that can facilitate rehabilitation after prison (Opsal 2009). This study investigates how formerly incarcerated Black women—who are disproportionally represented among women prisoners and clients of New Beginnings—navigate the process of reentry into society. Specifically, this project unpacks the contradictions between the state’s methods of facilitating reentry and the resources that formerly incarcerated women self-identify as essential for their reentry success. In doing so, this work provides critical insights into the way state policies and resources directed at reentry could be improved.

Author

• Susila Gurusami, University of California-Los Angeles