Unintended consequences?: An interdisciplinary exploration of the obstacles that prevent successful ex-offender reentry and reintegration and the societal impact

Ex-offender reentry, the process by which an individual returns to the community, and reintegration, the process by which an individual becomes a law-abiding citizen, have garnered much national attention over the last decade. The renewed interest in how prisoners return to and are reintegrated back into the community has become increasingly more important because of the realization that the majority of this population will one day return to the communities from which they have come. This inevitability has prompted the following question: How do we, as a society, want them to return? While this renewed interest has prompted a reevaluation of the processes by which ex-offenders reenter and reintegrate, there continues to exist barriers that prevent ex-offenders from being successful in become full-fledged law-abiding citizens. This dissertation explores those obstacles in three different ways. In the first chapter, the focus is on the statutes that deny the individual ex-offender from regaining full citizenship and the collateral impact that such a denial has on the larger community. In the second chapter, the focus is on the denial of the legislature to retroactively apply a new statute which would reduce the punishment and future restrictions for an ex-offender to ease the transition back into society. And finally, in chapter three, the focus is on the denial of an administrative agency to recognize the importance of a longer transition period for reentry and the legislature\u27s desire for a longer transition as it limits the amount of time an ex-offender can spend in a halfway house. Each chapter serves as an example of how ex-offender reentry and reintegration is thwarted by the very entities that are charged with insuring success for ex-offenders