Understanding the Identification-based Barriers to Reentry

• In Event: Understanding Structural and Social Hurdles After Incarceration

Abstract

Possessing identification is often the most foundational prerequisite to employment, housing, a bank account, medical services, and a range of other resources and opportunities. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that a significant proportion of people exiting prisons do so without valid identification, complicating an already difficult process of (re)integration. Unfortunately, systematic research examining the issue of identification during prison release is nearly nonexistent. As such, this paper uncovers the current state of prison identification-based practices and policies, while also exploring the subjective experience of navigating reentry with and without identification documents. Specifically, we utilize public records and a survey of correctional leaders to identify existing policies and practices related to identification procurement among those exiting prisons. We then incorporate interviews with formerly incarcerated people to better understand the bureaucratic hurdles to, and implications of, identification attainment (or lack thereof). Our analysis suggests that significant gaps in identification supports exist, creating an added obstacle to reintegration that intersects with nearly every domain of social life. We conceptualize identification procurement – and the unique hurdles to attaining identification for criminalized people – as yet another carceral-based administrative burden operating to frustrate and impede reentry success.

Authors

• Lucius Couloute, Trinity College

• Kayla Preito-Hodge, Rutgers University-Camden

• Iolanthe Brooks, Northwestern University