NCJ Number
187690
Journal
Corrections Management Quarterly Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2001 Pages: 65-77
Date Published
2001
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article argues that the burden of inmate readjustment to life in a mainstream community should fall on communities rather than on individual former inmates.
Abstract
Recidivism rates in the United States and Canada have hovered at approximately 60 percent for decades. The article attributes this at least in part to the fact that imprisonment, even under the best conditions, cannot adequately prepare inmates for productive life in a mainstream community. Prison gang members encounter challenges to post-imprisonment community life that non-gang members may not encounter or encounter with similar intensity. The article discusses issues affecting community integration (as opposed to reintegration) of former inmates who are also gang members as they move into their home communities after release. It also offers realistic, proactive proposals to enable community leaders to meet the challenge of integrating former prison gang members. Impediments to community integration of prison gang members include the facts that gangs facilitate crime; gangs are social groups with longevity; self-identification to a gang may persist for years or decades, especially among adult offenders with extensive criminal histories; a gang identity and accompanying social ties creates a sense of belonging; gang members are poor and are therefore outsiders in the mainstream community; and gang identity is linked to self identity. The article suggests actions to counter these impediments and improve community support. Tables, references