Abstract

A qualitative study using data from semi-structured interviews of 17 formerly incarcerated African American men was used to provide an understanding of post-prison success defined by the men after having been in the community at least 3 years. Rejecting traditional notions of success related to rates of recidivism as the defining element of success, success, as defined by the men in the study included several components. The findings of this study demonstrate that success is a construct inclusive of material, social, and psychological components. Various themes emerged from the data to which respondents attached importance that were linked to each component of success. These findings can enhance the practice for a range of human service providers and others who work with justice-involved African American men and enable them to better understand and serve this population, while also encouraging the development of additional methods to address the challenges related to release post-prison, reentry policy, and reentry programing.

摘要

一项定性研究使用来自 17 名以前被监禁的非洲裔美国男性的半结构化访谈数据，以了解这些男性在社区中至少 3 年后定义的监狱后成功。拒绝与累犯率相关的传统成功概念作为成功的定义要素，成功，正如研究中的男性所定义的那样，包括几个组成部分。这项研究的结果表明，成功是一种包含物质、社会和心理成分的结构。受访者重视的数据中出现了与成功的每个组成部分相关的各种主题。