Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: The Signaling Role of Prisoner Reentry Programs.

  • Thacher D
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Abstract

The rise of prisoner re-entry as a criminal justice policy issue reflects a surge of interest in programs and institutions that connect released offenders with jobs, housing, and other community resources. This paper considers the role of these re-entry institutions and programs and the dilemmas and limitations they confront. I do that through an interpretive analysis of the implementation of a major re-entry demonstration program focused on employment. Current thinking about these programs emphasizes two roles they can play: First, re-entry programs may build ex-offenders human capital, helping them develop skills and attitudes that employers value; and second, they may build social capital, providing the connections to employers and employment resources that ex-convicts themselves often lack. I argue that re-entry programs also serve what labor economists call a signaling function, ascertaining and certifying their clients' employability. (In terms more familiar in sociolegal studies, this role reflects an actuarial logic rather than the largely disciplinary logic of human and social capital development.) Understanding the role of prisoner re-entry programs in this way highlights an under-appreciated category of practical tasks that prisoner re-entry involves, and it raises new concerns about the limitations of this increasingly-important policy movement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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APA

Thacher, D. (2008). Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: The Signaling Role of Prisoner Reentry Programs. Conference Papers -- Law & Society, 1. Retrieved from http://ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=36958650&site=ehost-live&scope=site

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