Roundtable: Radical Healing - Centering Cultural Assets in the Reentry Processes of Transition-Age Black Men

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Sessions

Abstract/Description

Transition-age Black men navigating reentry face many obstacles to positive experiences and outcomes. These challenges (e.g., discrimination, stigma, unstable housing, limited employment, psychological distress) are shaped and sustained by structural and systemic racism. Nevertheless, Radical Healing, a culturally grounded process through which racially minoritized communities resist oppression and restore health and well-being, offers a pathway to desistance through key protective mechanisms (i.e., cultural authenticity and self-knowledge, emotional & social support, radical hope, critical consciousness). These assets promote positive outcomes among Black youth, yet their relevance to the reentry process remains underexplored. This roundtable examines how mechanisms of Radical Healing support transition-age Black men during reentry. Drawing on interview data from a life history narrative study, we explore how transition-age Black men engage in radical healing to buffer the impact of racism and carcerality on their reentry and desistance processes. Together, these papers illuminate how radical healing can reframe reentry from a deficit model to one grounded in cultural assets and collective liberation.

Paper 1. Reclaiming Identity: Cultural Authenticity and Self-Knowledge
Paper 2. Rooted in Care: Emotional and Social Support
Paper 3. Radical Hope and Reentry: Imagining Futures Beyond Carcerality
Paper 4. Inside Out: Critical Consciousness and Reentry Navigation

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Charles Lea, Columbia University

Co-Authors

• Daria Hurley, Columbia University School of Social Work

• Kevonyah T. Edwards, Columbia University School of Social Work

Discussant

• Durrell Malik Washington, University of Chicago