| NSF Org: |
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 15, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 15, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1602900 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Marie Cornwall
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | March 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $6,678.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $6,678.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
615 W 131ST ST NEW YORK NY US 10027-7922 (212)854-6851 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2960 Broadway New York NY US 10027-6902 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Sociology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Mass incarceration is a social problem in the U.S and it creates the concern of how to reintegrate a large number of former prisoners, many of whom have served lengthy sentences, back into society and back into the workforce. Even as the trend towards mass incarceration seems to be reversing, a large population of people remains who exit jails and must attempt to reenter society. Racial minorities represent a significant portion of these returning prisoners, notably African Americans and Latinos. Women also have also been affected by mass incarceration; as a result of the War on Drugs, drug felony convictions (in addition to non-violent property offenses) account for nearly 80 percent of the female inmate population (Women in Prison Project 2006). Furthermore, as scholars have demonstrated, there is a social stigma attached to a criminal record that serves to limit the job opportunities of people returning from prison, even more so, when those individuals are minorities. The successful reintegration of former prisoners is a social good that benefits all of society as it reduces the risk of future crime (and the cost of re-incarceration) and makes for a safer, less unequal society. This study is a qualitative case study of a private re-entry organization in Cleveland Ohio that will help understand the re-entry process.
The proposed research is a qualitative case study of a private reentry organization in Cleveland, Ohio. The major research questions are: 1) Do reentry organizations purposefully broker social and cultural capital for their clientele? How does such brokerage occur? 2) Does the gender of the formerly incarcerated client affect how and what social and cultural capital is brokered by the organization? If so, how? And finally, 3) What is the impact of such brokerage of social and cultural capital on the formerly incarcerated individual who is seeking to reintegrate into society? Data were collected via participant ethnography and interviews with those who make use of the reentry organization and their caseworkers. The intellectual merit of this research is that it will illuminate the sociological processes of reentry of the formerly incarcerated particularly in relation to the brokerage of social and cultural capital by a reentry organization. The findings of the research should have the impact of informing future programming models for future reentry organizations and should also influence policies adopted by the governmental agencies that fund those organizations. The findings of this research will be useful, not only to the reentry field, but also to organizations attempting to reintegrate any stigmatized or marginalized population such as the homeless, the disabled, and refugees. Due to the focus on gender, this research will also be useful for other organizations that work with mixed populations by making them more cognizant of the potential pitfalls of "gender-neutral" policies.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project: This dissertation focuses on reentry organizations for the formerly incarcerated, with particular attention to the “brokerage metaphor” for reentry, wherein the problem of reentry is discursively constructed as the deficit of social and cultural capital on the part of formerly incarcerated, and reentry organizations are posited as a neoliberal response occupying the niche market space of brokerage intermediaries, brokering the necessary social and cultural capital to enable the formerly incarcerated to attain social mobility. It draws on a 16 month (from January 2013 to May 2014) immersive ethnographic study of a reentry organization that caters to both men and women, employing participant-observation by: attending weekly meetings at the research site; riding along with a case worker as he went about his daily duties; in-depth interviews of 18 formerly incarcerated women and 23 formerly incarcerated men who made use of the reentry organization; interviews with 6 out of the 8 case workers that work for the organization; and additional legal and historical research. NSF funding was sought, and awarded, for a follow-up visit to Cleveland. The money was not spent, however, as it proved possible to conduct the necessary research without further travel or expense, and the money was returned to the NSF.
Intellectual Merit: The study focused, in particular, on the processes through which the organization brokers cultural and social capital via organizational actors, while also situating the organization within an “institutional environment” comprising both competitive and regulatory environments. It shows that the brokerage metaphor for reentry elides important factors that contribute to the problem of reintegrating the formerly incarcerated; such as social stigma on the part of private firms and governmentally sanctioned stigma in the form of the collateral consequences of conviction.
Broader Impacts: The research conducted identifies the excessive reliance of re-entry organizations on the brokerage metaphor as a variation of a failed “bootstraps” approach to social and economic marginalization, wherein undue responsibility for achieving reentry is placed on the formerly incarcerated individual while the role of the government in maintaining barriers to reentry is ignored. The findings offer an alternative as well, suggesting ways for more direct government interventions to remove those barriers, and helping scholars and policymakers alike to re-think how private firms may better aid in the reintegration of the formerly incarcerated through gainful employment.
Last Modified: 04/13/2017
Modified by: Joshua D Whitford
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