The System Is Not Broken, It Is Intentional: The Prisoner Reentry Industry as Deliberate Structural Violence

Abstract

The prisoner reentry industry (PRI) emerged as a by-product of mass incarceration, with the stated purpose of helping the formerly incarcerated reenter society and achieve a new “law-abiding” status. Traditional criminological studies point to high recidivism rates in the United States as proof that U.S. reentry fails to rehabilitate offenders. Utilizing data from 57 in-depth semistructured interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals and 10 interviews with reentry service providers across five states, we posit that although the PRI purports to rehabilitate offenders, it operates using mechanisms including parole conditions and fee-based reentry services that ensure the formerly incarcerated remain trapped in a cycle of failure. Hence, the PRI is not a broken system. Rather, it is an intentional form of structural violence perpetuated by the state to ensure the continued oppression of the most marginalized groups in our society.