"The Weight of Reentry for Returning Citizens: Human Capital Barriers and Self-Efficacy"

• In Event: Reentry, Rehabilitation, and ROI: Evaluating the Impact of Correctional Education, Employment, and Housing Programs

Abstract

Social science literature has focused on the ways that a lack of human capital (education, employment, skills, and training) promote high recidivism rates among returning citizens-formerly incarcerated individuals returning to society post-incarceration. Less research has focused on the ways these human capital barriers impact the mental health and well-being of returning citizens. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between human capital barriers and mental health, mainly depression and self-efficacy. Using data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering, and multivariate regression models, we found that human capital barriers to employment are associated with significant reductions in depression scores and self-efficacy perception. This study underscores the importance of understanding the mental health and well-being of returning citizens as an understudied measure for successful reentry. It also underscores how lack of access to human capital programming in prisons has the potential to impact more than future employment and recidivism outcomes. More fundamentally, this lack of programming may also hinder the emotional wellbeing of returning citizens.

Authors

• Clarice Robinson, University of Chicago

• Aaron Gottlieb, University of Chicago

• Megan Chopra, Sidwell Friends School