Pathways to Freedom: How Young People Create a Life After Incarceration

How do young men and women from the inner-city accomplish successful transitions from incarceration to life back in society? As many as one-third of formerly incarcerated young adults will return to jail or prison within several years of their release. Much of the current research on post-incarceration transitions focuses on understanding why adults return to incarceration; it provides little information about the settings young people return to and how particular contextual circumstances—social, cultural, and economic—impact a young person’s attempts to transition from incarceration to freedom successfully. The researcher will examine how inner-city young men and women ages 18 to 25 accomplish successful transitions from incarceration. The study will examine the various settings young people return to post-incarceration, explain the strategies young people use to negotiate these settings after a period of incarceration, and map how formerly incarcerated young people and neighborhood residents, resources, and institutions interact to accomplish successful transitions from incarceration to society.