NCJ Number
94394
Journal
Cornell Journal of Social Relations Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: (Summer 1981) Pages: 11-27
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the factors affecting the impact that released prisoners have on those most frequently offering them assistance: their mothers and wives.
Abstract
The Transitional Aid to Released Prisoners (TARP) experiment presented data generated from interviews with approximately 175 wives and mothers of ex-prisoners. The releasees place a substantial financial burden on their families, particularly their mothers. These financial pressures are a major source of dissatisfaction for these women. When sons took samll cash handouts it negated the small financial contributions they made to their mothers' households. While 62 percent of husbands contributed average amounts of $89 per week, only 43 percent of sons constributed with average weekly sums of $26. Close to half of the returned sons took money from their mothers, while husbands rarely borrowed. The TARP program, by providing minimum unemployment benefits for a short period, had a modest effect on the tendencies of ex-felons to borrow money, but not on their ability to contribute. Four tables and a 15-item bibliography are included. (Author abstract modified)