Summary
In the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, African Americans made up approximately twelve percent of the U.S. population but close to forty percent of the U.S. prison population. Now, in the latter half of the decade, the nation is in the midst of the largest multi-year discharge of prisoners in its history. Not surprisingly, most African Americans released from prison return to their home communities where, unfortunately, the supports needed to help them reintegrate are not available. After laying out the troubling statistics, he identifies the equally troubling ways in which media and politics have contributed to the problem, especially through stereotyping and racial bias. He reports on the growing number of black women being sent to prison and looks at governmental responses to reentry, including the shifting roles of parole officers and the use of courts in reintegrating ex-inmates into communities.
Contents
1. Reentry, race, and stigma. -- 2. Media influence on public perceptions of prison life. -- 3. Women: the afterthought in reentry planning. -- 4. Reentry and housing. -- 5. Reentry and health care. -- 6. Reentry and unemployment. -- 7. Reentry and the political process. -- 8. Reentry and parole. -- 9. Reentry courts.