Reintegration After Prisonization Reintegration After

Reintegration After Prisonization Reintegration after prison What is reintegration An event A long-term process Begins prior to release Continues after release Problems association with reintegration Employment Public health benefits Custody of children Repairing relationships Prison ministries Effectiveness Helps prisoners survive incarceration On the outside, prisoners face different existential challenges Prisons are places where people are punished, not directed away from criminality Ministries are natural candidates for helping prisoners reenter the community at large Reintegration of prisoners into the community is both an event and a long-term process.

Individuals have several challenges they must face upon reintegration. Employment is one of the most important elements of the reintegration process as there is a plethora of evidence that suggests that steady employment can reduce the incentives that lead to criminal behavior. However, finding a steady job is just one of the challenges the individual will face. Studies have shown that prison ministries can help prisoners survive the hardships and the absurdities of incarceration, however, life on the outside can pose a very different existential challenge.

The reintegration of prisoners into society is considered both an event and a long-term process. There are many problems associated with prisoner reintegration and with over two million individuals incarcerated in the U.S. And over 12 million individuals with prior felony convictions (Pager 2006) the task of integrating this large ever-growing population is daunting as well as a major priority. It is an event in the sense that it is something the prisoners (and likely their friends and family) have been waiting for usually since incarceration.

It is a long-term process in that reintegration into society after incarceration will not be easy. There are many aspects of life that ex-prisoners must face almost as if they are facing them for the first time, however, they now have the ex-prisoner mark upon them. While reintegration is definitely an event in the life of a prisoner, it is also a long-term process in which prisoners will face many difficulties.

The biggest challenge for the individual facing reintegration is, undoubtedly, finding steady employment with an income that they can live on. Employment is generally considered a "centerpiece of the reentry process, with evidence that steady work can reduce the incentives that lead to crime" (Pager 2006). Knowing this, however, does not change the fact that ex-prisoners face very grim prospects in the labor market with the stigma of "criminal" making it very hard for them to secure work (2006).

More than 60% of employers state that they would not "knowingly hire an applicant with a criminal background" (2006). Of course this makes sense when considering that employers do have to think about their business first. Employers must endure the worry of employing an ex-criminal with worries of theft, violence and unreliable workers (2006).

Pager (2006) states that "to the extent that the past is a strong predictor of the future, a conviction conveys some information about the likelihood of future illegal, dangerous, or debilitating forms of behavior." Individuals reintegrating into society may also have difficult obtaining public benefits. Every single public housing, Section 8, and public assistance applicant will have to go through a mandatory criminal history screening (Smyth 2009). Even private landlords will most likely do the same.

This background check not only works against ex-prisoners who are trying to secure employment, but it also can prevent them from finding stable housing and reuniting with their families (2009). It is not just the criminal who is affected by their incarceration; family members of the incarcerated individual. There are many direct and indirect consequences and these are especially important when there are minor children in the picture.

The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) (2006) states that "pretrial detention alone can lead to the loss of housing, the removal of children from the home, and financial distress for the family unit." When parents are put in prison, their families must face a variety of challenges when it comes to keeping ties with the incarcerated family member, which could help to nurture an easier transition back into society after incarceration ends (2006). Incarceration increases the likelihood of parents losing custody of their children or complete termination of their parental rights (2006).

Once the individual is released from prison, reuniting with children is often difficult because laws oftentimes impede this reunion. Laws limit the access to several different types of benefits and assistance. Furthermore, there are child support policies that burden parents with incredible debt that makes it virtually impossible for them to take care of their children (2006). In general, maintaining relationships while one is in prison is difficult. Most incarcerated individuals -- especially those with children -- want to remain close to their family members.

However, due to the fact that many prisons are located in remote, rural areas, it is quite often very difficult for family members to visit, which strains familial bonds (NYSBA 2006) and makes the reunion after incarceration difficult because the relationship has not been nurtured. Depending on what type of prison the individual is in, visiting may be difficult as well. While maximum-security prisons have visiting hours oftentimes seven days a week, many minimum-security prisons only have restricted visitation hours (NYSBA 2006).

Many times in prisons, the visiting rooms are quite small and thus visiting times need to be cut short because there is limited space (2006). Prison ministries have their limits when it comes to have a positive effect on prisoners and their reintegration into society.

McRoberts (2002) notes that while religion and spirituality may help individuals survive the hardships and the absurdities related to being incarcerated, there is a very different existential challenge that ex-prisoners must face once they are on the "outside." Prison ministries have a very difficult challenge when it comes to "helping" prisoners get ready for reintegration. First of all, prisons are a place where people are sent as punishment, they are not places that are supposed to direct criminals away from criminal activity (McRoberts 2006).

While prison ministries may try and do this, there is still the fact that prisons are a place of confinement and punishment. However, prison ministries and their language of …'reintegration' into 'community' and 'neighborhood' via religious institutions imply a certain understanding of churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples as 'community institutions.' They assume that churches are open communities -- that is, they are open to serving nonmembers as well as members, and they are somehow embedded in the social life of the neighborhoods where they happen to congregate (McRoberts 2006).

Prison ministries inside and outside of the prison can help prisoners get ready for reintegration into society and prison ministries outside of prisons can also help prisoners by giving them support. Many of these ministries focus on reforming the individual -- that is, the person has to recover from his criminal ways in order to not go back into that anti-social and criminal behavior. These ministries aim to reaffirm the values of human life and also.