Award Date

5-1-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Committee Member

Emily Troshynski

Second Committee Member

Alexandra Nur

Third Committee Member

Margaret Alexis Kennedy

Fourth Committee Member

Nicholas Barr

Number of Pages

150

Abstract

With the enactment of the Second Chance Act in 2008, there has been a need to better understand the effectiveness of prisoner reentry programs and the services that are provided within these programs. Since then, numerous articles have described the barriers that previously incarcerated persons encounter during reentry and how this increases the likelihood of recidivism. The goal of this current study is to understand what current barriers exist for individuals within a local reentry program and then to suggest future implementations that could reduce the impact of these barriers. To achieve this goal, qualitative research methods are employed to understand the experiences of 24 clients within a local reentry program. In this study, secondary interview data collected in 2022 is reexamined to extract themes that explore the barriers that reentry clients encounter when returning back to the community and to gain an understanding of what resources are needed for this specific population. These thematic findings overlap with the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks presented in this project, which demonstrates why services are inaccessible for this population and how stigmatization negatively impacts the reentry process for previously justice-involved individuals. Future implications explore how altering modern policies could limit the impact of reentry barriers and how conducting additional studies could provide more solutions for overcoming reentry barriers.

Keywords

incarceration; recidivism; reentry barriers; stigmatization

Disciplines

Criminology | Criminology and Criminal Justice

File Format

pdf

File Size

1011 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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