The formerly incarcerated, advocacy, activism, and community reintegration

ABSTRACT

Restorative, or strength-based, reentry has been advanced as an alternative to the far more common risk-based or needs-based approaches to assisting in the reintegration of prisoners back into society. Drawing from restorative justice principles of repair, including key stakeholders, and transformation, this perspective illustrates how formerly incarcerated people work toward destigmatization and redemption by helping others (going the ‘second mile’ in the transformation process). Further, the formerly incarcerated lead and participate in social and political activism (the ‘third mile’) which provides them space to ‘make good’ and practice sharing their narratives as public testimonials. Using in-depth interviews with nine formerly incarcerated advocates and activists in Michigan, this study describes forms of (1) helping others and (2) participation in activism among the formerly incarcerated, and (3) blends theoretical analysis about how these actions affect the formerly incarcerated themselves.

KEYWORDS:

• Formerly incarcerated
• reintegration
• activism
• restorative justice
• redemption

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There are important and insightful arguments around the most accurate terminology of reentry, reintegration, or incorporation (Kaufman, 2015). Here, I use the terms rather interchangeably considering the clear difference between being in prison or not, and saving this nuanced argument for another writing.

2. Subsequent related papers address the many effects that formerly incarcerated individuals and groups exert upon social policy, practice, and other justice-involved people.

3. The term mentor is used loosely here. We could conceptualize the role in different ways – healer, teacher, counselor, among others.

4. The other side of participation in social movements is the particular effects participation by formerly incarcerated individuals has upon the movement, and the policies and practices they attempt to change. In this specific part of the analysis, I focus here on the effect of participation on the individual participant. This focus is in light of theorizing around reentry and success stories of those who have experienced the reintegration process.

5. Names used in this article are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Justin M. Smith

Justin M. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UNCW.His research focuses on racial inequality, particularly as it relates to prisons, courts, and the war on drugs.  A current project examines social activism among formerly incarcerated people.  He is an instructor in the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program which involves university students and incarcerated students taking a sociology class together.