Flyers, fighters, and freezers: how formerly incarcerated women coped with reentry and the job search during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study examines how formerly incarcerated women coped with reentry and employment challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen women were interviewed during and after their stay at a halfway house beginning in March 2020. The primary challenges women faced due to the pandemic were social isolation due to quarantine and the inability to seek employment due to public health concerns. Women coped with the pandemic by either (1) leaving the halfway house, (2) remaining in the halfway house and engaging in healthy coping strategies, or (3) remaining in the halfway house without improving or regressing. I categorize women into the following groups based on these coping styles: flyers, fighters, and freezers.

Keywords:

• Reentry
• women
• COVID-19
• coping
• coping styles

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the women who shared their stories with me, as well as halfway house staff. I would also like to thank Robert Johnson, Shadd Maruna, Joseph Young, Rainey Ransom, and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

I would like to thank the Justice, Law and Criminology Department at American University for providing funding for this study.