Collateral No More: Transforming the Future of Reentry Scholarship and Practice

• In Event: Roundtable: AI in Criminal Justice

Abstract

This roundtable brings together scholars whose work spans key dimensions of prison reentry, including collateral consequences, family systems, technology, housing, prison education, and abolition. Together, we reflect on the future of reentry scholarship and practice, envisioning a more expansive and intersectional framework for understanding and addressing the conditions that shape life after incarceration. Rather than isolating reentry as a discrete event, panelists emphasize how it is embedded in broader systems of inequality and surveillance—impacting not only individuals but also families, communities, and generations.

Our discussion centers on the need for critical, interdisciplinary, and community-informed approaches that challenge punitive logics and reimagine pathways to care, support, and social belonging. From innovations in digital access and housing justice to educational opportunity and the political stakes of abolition, this roundtable asks: What could reentry look like if it were not shaped by carceral systems? How might researchers and practitioners work collaboratively toward futures that are rooted in equity, dignity, and liberation? By foregrounding intersecting issues and resisting narrow policy fixes, we aim to chart new directions for research and practice that are responsive to the complexity of reentry and committed to systemic change.

Authors

• Durrell Malik Washington, University of Chicago

• Kaelyn Sanders, Arizona State University

• Taylor Reed, The Ohio State University School of Social Work

• LaQuana Askew, Suffolk University

• Ibrahim Rivera, Rutgers University