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Justin Davis
Professor Erin Fisher
ENG 123
November 20, 2015
Research Proposal
Our system for reentry is plagued by various inadequacies and collateral consequences
that keep ex-prisoners down rather than releasing them from their punishment. Two-thirds of the
404,638 ex-convicts who were released from prison in 2005 ended up back in prison within three
years, and three-quarters in five years, (Durose, Cooper and Snyder 1) this keeps our prison
population high when we could be increasing the number of contributing members in our society.
While common sense tells us that this is just a reflection of the character we should expect from
a criminal, what if there was more to it? I propose that lasting effects on mental health from our
prison system (Effects of Long Term Incarceration), lack of assistance in reentry (Petersilia), and
lack of protection from the collateral consequences of a criminal record (Lobuglio and Piehl 57)
contribute heavily to the recidivism problem. If we can create a way of getting prisoners back
into society, help them get back on their feet, we can start reducing our prison population in an
effective way. In this proposal you will find an explanation of the sources, the history of
recidivism and the reentry process, how we can solve the problem, followed by an explanation of
my thesis and how I plan to put it all together.
My research was very sporadic initially as I explored mass incarceration but eventually I
got caught up in the way people are handicapped after theyve served their time and the lack of
assistance they get during reentry. It first came up in Michelle Alexanders Book The New Jim
Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness where she explained how people are

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treated as second class citizens after release from prison being unable to vote, unable to receive
loans for education, and restricted from public housing. Seeking to understand the environment
of reentry I found an article by Criminology professor Joan Petersilia When Prisoners Return to
Communities: Political, Economic, and Social Consequences. She shows how lack of a stable
environment along with a parole system that is folding under an immense case load is leaving
people with nothing to stand on. In Unwinding Mass Incarceration Stefan Lobuglio and Anne
Piehl further elaborate on how programs for reentry are not only needed but have been shown to
help keep people from returning to prison. Programs that assist people in finding a house, job,
and food help to make a stable environment while therapy can help retrain ex-convicts for life in
our society.
Seeing the need for therapy against mental health, and the culture change from prison
back to society, made me look back further into prison life. Finding Effects of Long Term
Incarceration enlightened me to some of the unbeneficial ways prison can change a person. The
article looks at prisoners who have been incarcerated in Canadas prison system for over 10 years
and shows how the deprivation found in prison life cause alter someones stability so much that
they can begin to question or shift their identity. Mental health is never a simple concept, then
coupled with something as naturally restrictive as prison the whole task because exceedingly
daunting, but a study done in Scottish prisons proved otherwise. Learning, Rehabilitation and
the Arts in Prisons: A Scottish Case Study showed that the introduction of the arts improved not
just the prisoners but the culture in the prison as well. The case study involved 200 prisoners and
showed an increase in their desire to learn, created a cooperative environment where teamwork
and responsibility improved, and gave them confidence which lead to an understanding that

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change for the better was possible. These sources are the main ones that have shaped the way I
thought about our reentry system.
I plan to start in the mid 1900s because it is the first point at which we can start to gage
how well the culture and reentry systems effect recidivism. Historically the evidence about
recidivism is lacking until the 1970s when information on all prisoners received becomes
available (Cahalan 160). In the mid 1900s though there is a shift away from prison labor (Platt
614) that is worth mentioning along with a move away from indeterminate sentencing
(Petersilia) which both changed the culture in prison drastically. One of the main sources I will
be using for my historical information are Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States
which has an extensive amount of information on prison and parole in the United States. Tony
Platts In Recovery from Rehab is another more historically focused source that shows how
trying to make the prison system more rehabilitative is not new and there have been several
attempts that have not been executed well. Tony Platts article gives a helpful overview of the
myriad of changes made to the prison system over the years as they have tried to make an
environment where ex-convicts can reenter society as productive citizens.
Historical sources are something I hope to find more of but am doubtful I will find
anything significant. I plan to do some more research into past rehabilitation plans as well as the
history of parole to get an idea of what reentry was like earlier in the United States, especially in
the 1984 where the recidivism rate was only 43% (Cahalan 160). A lot of the useful and
comparable information I am finding however is from international research. Many other
countries have seemed to keep their recidivism rates lower (Deady 2) which leaves me asking
what the difference is. There are also other factors to consider when confronted with the other

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countries rates like how they define recidivism in their statistics but the overall rater being
roughly 25% seems to imply that we as a nation have something to learn.
The prison system needs to reform its environment to help get inmates ready for
reintegration into society. Implementing education, the arts (Tett, Anderson and MCneill), shorter
prison sentences (Deady 2), and taking out damaging punishments like solitary confinement
(Lovett) can improve the prison culture as well as the mental health of the inmates.
Implementing ways that inmates can better themselves and giving them therapy to try to get at
the root of the problem will better prepare them for a productive life as a part of society
decreasing the odds that they will return to prison (Lobuglio and Piehl). Proper Reentry
programs also need to be in place to help give them a foundation they can build off of. One of the
biggest problems that pushes ex-convicts back into illegal activities is the need to survive
(Petersilia). By making sure that they have food and a place to stay we can give them the
security they need to move forward and stay honest. Further reentry programs that help secure
job positions can ensure a purpose as a contributing member to society building a sense of worth.
The parole program which is already in place can be used to assist in these areas when needed
and with finding therapy that is needed for rehabilitation. While all of these options are great the
costs and overall effectiveness have to be taken into account and this analysis is the research I
plan on finding more of for this section.
There is a lot there to improve but overall I think a proper reentry program would serve to
reduce recidivism best. A better reentry program is a much easier fix being that a lot of the
programs are there already like food stamps that are denied to ex-convicts, or parole supervision
which just needs to be improved. On the contrary, trying to improve the prison environment
would be much more costly and complicated given the nature and state of our prison system.

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Education costs for prisoners is high and stopping certain practices like solitary confinement,
while good for prisoner health, are not proven to effect reintegration. By having the resources
needed for survival and the help for mental instability people coming out of prison will have less
of a reason to fall back into a life of crime. While this wont completely eradicate recidivism it
will lower the numbers and if we can get them closer to the international average of around 50%
(Deady 2) would keep another 100,000 people from returning to prison after release.
For my project I believe a style akin to articles will be my chosen format. It allows me to
display the statistics that shows the effectiveness and costs of different program easily. Another
medium Ive debated using is video but at the moment I do not believe I have the software or
hardware to pull off such a feat although this would better suit me as a person since I am not
much of a writer and would much rather elaborate on topics orally and preferably within a group
setting like on a radio show or podcast. My article will be akin to those found in a magazine or
on a webpage like the article Percent of Released Prisoners Returning to Incarceration found
on crimeinamerica.net.

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Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New
York City: The New Press, 2010. Web.
Cahalan , Margaret Werner. "Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850- 1984."
December 1986. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Web. 20 November 2015.
<http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcsus5084.pdf>.
Deady, Carolyn W. "Incarceration and Recidivism: Lessons from Abroad." March 2014. Salve
Regina University. Web. 20 November 2015.
<http://www.salve.edu/sites/default/files/filesfield/documents/Incarceration_and_Recidivi
sm.pdf>.
Durose, Matthew R., Alexia D. Cooper and Howard N. Snyder. "Recidivism of Prisoners
Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010." April 2014. Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Web. 20 November 2015.
<http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rprts05p0510.pdf>.
"Effects of Long Term Incarceration." 1999. John Howard Society of Alberta. Web. 13
November 2015. <http://www.johnhoward.ab.ca/pub/C35.htm#ref>.
Forman, James. "Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow." New York
University Law Review 87.1 (2012): 21-69. Web.
Lobuglio, Stefan F. and Anne Morrison Piehl. "Unwinding Mass Incarceration." Issues in
Science & Technology 32.1 (2015): 56-61. Web.

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Lovett, Ian. "California Agrees to Overhaul Use of Solitary Confinement." New York Times 1
September 2015. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/us/solitary-confinementcalifornia-prisons.html>.
Petersilia, Joan. "When Prisoners Return to Communities: Political, Economic, and Social
Consequences." Federal Probation June 2001: 3. Web.
Platt, Tony. "In Recovery from Rehab." South Atlantic Quarterly 113.3 (2014): 614-620. Web.
Tett, Lyn, et al. "Learning, rehabilitation and the arts in prisons: a Scottish case study." Studies in
the Education of Adults 44.2 (2012): 171-185. Web.