What On the Outside Taught Me About Prison Reentry and Reintegration

Authors: David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Jessica J. B. Wyse

Date Completed: 9/26/26

Category: Reentry / Criminal Justice / Sociology

Why I Chose This Book

If I’m going to accomplish my goal of positively impacting my community through financial literacy and wealth building using real estate, having a strong reentry and reintegration is a must. In my view, the best way to do that is to become familiar with the research on the subject. That’s how I came across Professor David J. Harding, an expert in the field.

I reached out to David with a question:

“Of housing, employment, supportive relationships, and personal identity, which foundation should a returning citizen begin building earliest, and why?”

His answer:

“Hi Xavier,

Thanks for getting in touch. Interesting project you are working on.

That’s a tough question, as the various things you listed are closely interconnected in our research. That social support is critical to most people for stable housing, as most of the people in our study couldn’t secure stable housing following release unless they moved in with family. Halfway houses, shelters and such helped but were almost always too short term to really provide a foundation to build on. And it’s hard to find stable employment without stable housing, and most stable living wage jobs people in our study secured were through social support.

The identity issue is critical because almost everyone will inevitably face major challenges, and that new identity is critical to keeping them from falling back on old ways and getting back into trouble.

If you really made me pick one thing, I’d say stable housing, because we saw very few people who didn’t have stable housing for an extended period of time (not 1-3 months but a year or more) actually succeed in other dimensions in the medium to long term.

Sorry that’s wishy-washy, but those are my thoughts!”

His answer enlightened me and also made me curious about what else he might know that could help me. I discovered he co-wrote a book, On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration. I immediately requested it from one of my supporters (thank you, Stacy Curry).

What the Book Is About

Similar to the papers I’ve studied on reintegration by Dr. Taxman, and the book I studied by Jason Hardy, a former probation officer, “The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison“, further examines the topic.

Harding and his co-authors combine a qualitative study of 22 returning citizens with a quantitative study of about 11,000 individuals released on parole in 2003.

Harding brings attention to the areas that most challenge participants trying to successfully reintegrate into society, such as incarceration, housing, neighborhoods, family and romantic partner support, and employment.

Harding ends the book with recommended policy changes. The most obvious one, to me, is to incarcerate fewer people so that the billions of dollars spent every year can be better spent on prevention, treatment, and reintegration.

My Biggest Takeaways

What interested me most wasn’t simply what the researchers found, but what those findings meant for the way I’m preparing to come home.

Dr. Taxman gave me a brief response to my question:

“What finding from reentry research do you wish more incarcerated people understood before they came home?”

She responded:

“Recidivism is in the control of the individual.”

After reading this book, I believe I have a deeper understanding of her response.

Harding says the most consistent predictor of post-prison employment among formerly incarcerated people, in addition to criminal history, is pre-prison employment and pre-prison education levels. He goes on to note that people who are incarcerated tend to already have low human capital before they ever go to prison.

By human capital, I mean things such as education, work experience, skills, and other resources that affect a person’s economic opportunities.

Ultimately, his argument is that many of them would have had a high unemployment rate even if they’d never experienced prison. In my view, it’s logical to conclude that who someone was before prison may extend to many other factors that affect their likelihood of successfully reintegrating into society.

That brings me to my new interpretation of Dr. Taxman’s statement.

My second takeaway has to do with racism. It seems impossible to do a comprehensive study on the criminal legal system without acknowledging how much more it negatively affects Black American men.

Jason Hardy mentions this fact multiple times in his book The Second Chance Club. Harding does the same, with examples and empirical data, no fewer than fifteen times.

To be transparent, that’s one of the reasons it took me so long to get through the book. In almost every study I read about the criminal legal system, it comes up again and again, and it never gets any easier to learn that in almost every measurable way, things are worse for Black men.

I’m tired of hearing about it. I wish it weren’t so. But I can’t hide from it. I’m Black and I’m in the system, so it’s best I face it head-on.

The more of this research I read, the harder it becomes for me to view these disparities as isolated accidents. They appear repeatedly across different studies, different outcomes, and different stages of the criminal legal system.

So all this is to say: I now believe the criminal justice system in America is a racist one, or at the very least a systemically racist one. I don’t reach that conclusion lightly. I reach it because the disparities appear too consistently for me to ignore. I don’t know how else to explain them.

What I Agree With

Prison Doesn’t Necessarily Produce Safer Outcomes

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and we’re no safer for it.

Research comparing incarceration with noncustodial sanctions generally finds that prison does not reduce later offending and may slightly increase it.

I’ve seen what happens when you concentrate a group of people who are likely to have bad ideas. You get worse ideas, worse behaviors.

I’ve heard the conversations of people who will be returning to worse situations than they left. They understand they need help to get on their feet. When they feel they can’t get help from family or the government, they often help each other.

That help sometimes shows up in the form of another crime. They’ll often say things like, “I’m just gonna run the bag up just long enough to get this other thing going.”

Research suggests we can reduce offending while saving money by sentencing lower-level offenders not to prison, but to intensive probation.

I agree with this because I know, personally, that I’m the type of person who would have responded well to it, and it would have cost taxpayers a fraction of the price while achieving the same outcome.

Even more so when you consider that I have an extensive work history — meaning I would have been paying into the tax pool instead of withdrawing from it, as I have for the past 12.5 years as a prisoner.

Prison Culture Can Reinforce the Wrong Behaviors

Harding describes how incarceration often causes disculturalization and mental health disorders.

I fear disculturalization, and I often worry about what bad social behaviors, adapted to survive prison culture, might leave a lasting mark on my character.

Being surrounded for years by an environment with its own rules, expectations, habits, and ways of communicating can change how a person thinks and behaves.

That concerns me because eventually I have to leave that environment and return to a community operating by very different rules.

Incarceration Punishes Families Too

I’ve also observed a sense of depression in myself, which I’ve written about in my journal. While in prison, I’ve felt helpless, since there’s little to nothing I’ve been able to do to help family members who are struggling.

I’ve missed endless birthdays, graduations, weddings, and funerals — the hardest being my mother’s.

There’s a bottomless amount of pain and sadness in that last sentence.

Visitation isn’t the solution; it’s a poor substitute at best.

Visitation isn’t convenient for my family, given the distance. Visits aren’t offered frequently enough, and they aren’t long enough.

They also present psychological discomfort for my visitors, as well as for me. I have a sister and a son who don’t come because of the process of entering the prison — harsh treatment from officers, searches of their property, scrutiny of how they dress, even having to provide a doctor’s explanation for past medical procedures that left metal in their body.

Then I have family who don’t come because they don’t want to see me as a prisoner. They understand that I’m here, but the image is too much for them to process.

My kids especially feel this way — so they don’t come.

Why Visits Can Hurt Even When I Want Them

I want visits.

I need to be around those who love me.

It always feels amazing getting to see and hug my loved ones. It’s an unforgettable feeling.

But after the high comes the low.

It’s like jumping off a cliff.

I imagine one of the participants from Harding’s study said it perfectly:

“When it’s over, I feel like something is breaking.”

He’s right — visits hurt.

What I Question or Disagree With

Harding points out policy and practice issues regarding housing. According to his findings, and others, housing stability is foundational to successfully reintegrating into the community.

Yet, because of a felony conviction, returning citizens are often locked out. They’re often ineligible for public housing, and landlords exclude them from private housing.

This is a serious problem.

What does someone do when they can’t find a home?

They become homeless.

Harding points out a relationship between homelessness and incarceration. He says incarceration increases the chance of homelessness, and that homelessness increases the chance of incarceration.

In my view, instead of locking out the formerly incarcerated, we should open our doors.

I find it ironic that the government often places limitations on the services it’s willing or able to provide — in this case, transitional housing, shelters, and food resources.

Yet when it comes to incarceration, it seems to have unlimited resources.

When’s the last time you heard the criminal legal system say, “Sorry, all of our beds are full”?

Prisons never turn people away; instead, they house and feed their occupants indefinitely.

While Harding doesn’t directly take a position on whether one should avoid romantic relationships with other justice-impacted individuals, the evidence seems to suggest so.

I’ll offer my own opinion.

Not only was I given a sentence by the U.S. government, I was also sentenced to a lifetime of negative stigma by the court of public opinion.

As such, it’s very likely that the people most likely to accept and partner with me are also justice-impacted individuals.

How This Applies to My Life

I’m looking for clues to best set myself up for success after my incarceration.

I’m using what I learn from research like this to strengthen my reentry plan for life after prison, especially in areas like housing, transportation, employment, relationships, and financial stability.

This book has shown me the most common reasons people fail:

– Failing to report to P.O. (73%)

– Failing to complete programming (61%)

– Substance use (51%)

– Living in unapproved residence (50%)

– Violating curfew or restricted movement (49%)

– Associating with other felons (29%)

– Weapons (29%)

– Driving without a license (22%)

That’s a list of common violations. Below are the common reasons that make those violations more likely to happen:

Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, mental health problems, physical health problems, low human capital, extensive criminal history, addiction to the lifestyle, lack of work history, poor social skills, poor social network, lack of family support, lack of willingness to change, low education levels, high stress leading to relapse, returning to a poor community, lack of social ties, and lack of transportation.

When I compare this list to what I know about myself statistically, it seems I’ll be ahead of the game.

Drug and alcohol abuse seemed to be a factor in almost every example of someone violating their release or returning to jail or prison.

I’ve never drunk alcohol or used any substance. After seeing this study, I’m even less inclined to start.

My biggest concern is being addicted to the lifestyle.

But I understand that what made me feel successful was building something and watching it work well.

I always felt embarrassed and ashamed of the industry I’d done it in.

I know I can get that same feeling of success from the legitimate profession I’m building toward now.

Aside from that, transportation is a real concern I’m going to give a lot more thought to.

What I’m Going to Do Differently

I’m going to make transportation part of my release plan, which includes getting my license renewed so it’s in order before I have a vehicle.

I’m also going to be intentional with my relationships, to avoid creating conflict that leads to stress for them or for me.

This matters especially because bad relationships can lead to housing instability, and stable housing is key to my successful reintegration.

When it comes to choosing a romantic partner, I will heavily favor those who haven’t been directly impacted by the criminal legal system.

Though I’m still conflicted about this.

Who I Would Recommend This Book To

Policymakers, returning citizens, POs, and those related to someone who has been incarcerated.

Final Thoughts

This book highlights a recurring contradiction I keep noticing.

Presumably, the state’s goal is to create safer communities for its citizens through incarceration.

Yet the science reveals that incarceration actually has the opposite effect in the long run. It seems that emotional satisfaction wins out over practical results.

I get emotionally frustrated the more I research and understand about our current system.

Not only will the road ahead be difficult because of incarceration, but my race will compound the issue.

Xavier Lee of Elkton, MD

“Mizz Debbie’s Boy”