Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2019
Capstone Advisor
Gretchen Purser
Honors Reader
Michael Kalish
Capstone Major
Sociology
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Criminology | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology
Abstract
Prisoner reentry has been an ever-increasing topic of investigation as communities work to reduce recidivism and mitigate the negative consequences that mass incarceration and release from incarceration has on individuals and communities. This qualitative, interview-based study of a reentry program in a Northeastern City centers the experiences of formerly incarcerated persons who are currently in various stages of the reentry process over those of program staff. I use these experiences as well as existing literature on prisoner reentry, reentry programming, and labor to evaluate and understand the shortcomings of such programs from the perspective of those directly involved in and impacted by them. I found that there is an ambivalence towards Safe Haven, other reentry programs, community supervision, and clients of these services, which manifests itself most saliently when interviewees are discussing their peers. My research indicates that the clients of reentry programs experience ambivalence towards these programs and other post-carceral institutions. This ambivalence is often coupled with social distancing, which typically occurs when clients discuss other clients as well as when they discuss their community. Drawing primarily upon the work of Merton and Barber, Comfort, Miller, and Mijs, I argue that the liminal space of reentry produces sociological ambivalence and social distancing.
Recommended Citation
Woods, Shatira, "Between Somewhere and Nowhere: Navigating the Liminal Space of Prisoner Reentry" (2019). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 1109.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1109
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
