Beyond Recidivism

Andrea Leverentz is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston. She is the author of The Ex-Prisoner's Dilemma: How Women Negotiate Competing Narratives of Reentry and Desistance.Elsa Y. Chen is Professor of Political Science and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Santa Clara University.Johnna Christian is Associate Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark.

A timely and important volume at the cutting edge of research on prisoner reentry and reintegration, Beyond Recidivism delivers on its promise to skillfully examine critical questions regarding the social, economic, and cultural lives of the formerly incarcerated and their families. This book is essential reading for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working to address the harms of mass incarceration. - David Harding, co-author of On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration Beyond Recidivism is an exceptional contribution to the burgeoning literature on prisoner reentry and is a must read for both scholars and policymakers working in this field. Scholars will appreciate the methodological insights it provides on collecting data in prisons, in jails, and among reentry populations as well as the recognition of how the intersection of race and gender shape the experiences of returning offenders. Policymakers should take note of the inherent shortcomings of recidivism measures, the availability of programs for returning offenders and, most notably, the import of research for correctional policy. Simply put, this is a stunning contribution to research on prisoner reentry. - Candace Kruttschnitt, co-editor of Gender and Crime: Patterns in Victimization and Offending There are many insightful ways to understand the consequences of prison than a simple reliance on recidivism. This book describes a wonderful range of them. It is a cure for the recidivism obsession. - Todd R. Clear, co-author of The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America Social workers, criminologists, criminal justice professionals, and sociologists would find this book particularly informative in developing research studies. Policy makers, practitioners, and people working at agencies would also find the book useful in understanding the reentering population and the benefits and limitations of risk-needs assessment instruments. (Theoretical Criminology)