Gender Differences in the Perceived Needs and Barriers of Prisoners Preparing for Reentry

• In Event: Challenges Facing Those Reentering Communities

Abstract

Studies on prison reentry suggest those reentering the community are failing at fairly high rates in not perpetrating crime; punishment alone fails to change the individual and structural barriers faced by many ex-prisoners; reentry affects crime, and has social, political, and economic consequences for individuals, families and entire communities. In what concerns the prisoner itself, the stigma associated with the criminal past and the social networks to access to social capital resources significantly affect his/her reintegration after prison.
Knowing that understanding how prisoners perceive their lives and the potential opportunities and constraints within their environments can provide important insight into their future involvement with crime, this paper aims to explore expectations and perceptions about the reentry process, through the views of women and men who are about to finish their prison sentences. Based on 45 interviews with male and female prisoners in two prisons, gender differences will be analyzed regarding both the expectations and perceptions of these prisoners towards the role of the prison in preparing them while inside prison walls, and the social factors considered relevant for the success of their reentry process on the outside (family, employment, education, housing and peers).

Author

• Sílvia Gomes, CICS.NOVA - UM, ISMAI - Portugal