On the Outs: Reentry and the Social Consequences of Coming Home

Until recently, law and policy makers have given little systematic attention to the process of individual’s reintegration into society. This research identifies current reentry trends among the formerly incarcerated, especially People of Color. This thesis analyzes four main areas: education, employment, housing, and prison trauma effects on different Chican@s. A sample of 12 individuals, who served time in an adult prison, participated in this study. This social inquiry relied on semi-structured open-ended questions, while also observing the experience of formally incarcerated individuals in the Together Foundation housing complex in a San Diego, California. Through participant/ethnographic research I was able to navigate through the daily lives of people who had just been released from prison. The findings in this study outline the major barriers social institutions have over the formally incarcerated successful reintegration; these include discrimination, policy implementation (through budget cuts), and institutional racism. I conclude that social institutions, specifically education, employment, and housing, play a major role in blocking a successful reintegration of formally incarcerated individuals, by stereotyping and criminalizing their daily lives through a concept I coined as the revolving prison door industrial complex. Additionally, the traumas in the prison system follow the formally incarcerated throughout their reintegration process.