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Prisoner Reentry pp 245–305Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Can Released Prisoners “Make It”? Examining Formerly Incarcerated Persons’ Belief in Upward Mobility and the “American Dream”

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Abstract

The American Dream is rooted in the notion that anyone who works hard enough and has the necessary skills can achieve a comfortable lifestyle, despite economic or societal barriers. Given that formerly incarcerated persons already must overcome a host of barriers to successfully reenter society from prison, an interesting and unanswered question concerns whether or not formerly incarcerated persons’ believe in the American Dream, and the implications of these beliefs. This chapter addresses this gap in the literature using a sample of 258 formerly incarcerated persons participating in, or staff members of, prisoner reentry programs in New York State. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis was used to determine the characteristics of formerly incarcerated persons most strongly related to the belief in the American Dream, and correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the belief in upward economic mobility and psychological well-being, the forecast of rearrest, and concealment of one’s criminal record on applications. Analyses reveal that the vast majority of formerly incarcerated persons believe that the American Dream is obtainable for all people in society, and that any former prisoner can “make it” if they want to do so. Among the factors related to the belief that all people can achieve, the American Dream include lower perceptions of personal stigma (due to being a former prisoner), lower scores on a scale for the illegitimacy of the criminal justice system, having served less time in prison, less formal education, identifying more strongly with other former prisoners, and remorse for prior crimes. Stronger agreement that any former prisoner can “make it” was significantly related to group identification, lower perceptions of stigma, having more parole violations, feelings of remorse, current employment status, not living in New York City, being married, and believing that the criminal justice system is illegitimate. Those believing more strongly in the American Dream had higher self-esteem, were more satisfied with their life as a whole, were less likely to forecast a rearrest, and less likely to conceal their criminal record on applications. Implications of the findings for prisoner reintegration policy and practice are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Respondents who checked the box indicating that “I’m not religious or spiritual” were recoded as 1 for practicing their religious or spiritual beliefs is “not at all important.”

  2. 2.

    Braman (2004) likewise reported that “…no inmate whom I spoke with claimed to feel pride in being incarcerated. While there are undoubtedly some inmates who do feel this way, even the youngest and least abashed drug dealer I interviewed expressed shame and regret” (p. 108).

  3. 3.

    An alpha coefficient higher than 0.70 is generally considered an acceptable level of internal consistency (Nunnally 1978). Although this scale has an alpha slightly below this threshold, Schmitt (1996) argues that “there is no sacred level of acceptable or unacceptable level of alpha” (p. 353), and that scales with lower levels of reliability may be quite useful. However, interpretation of constructs with lower reliability has “the potential for underestimating any relationships between the measured variable and other variables of interest” (Schmitt 1996, p. 352).

  4. 4.

    The OLS regression equations were checked for outliers (using regression diagnostic statistics) and for problems of multicollinearity among the IVs (using variation inflation factor [VIF] statistics). The regression diagnostics used to flag potentially problematic cases included centered leverage values of two times the mean to check for non-outlying influential cases; studentized residuals ±3 to check for extreme outliers; and Cook’s D > .05 to check for influential cases (see Belsley et al. 1980; Cohen et al. 2003; Cook 1977). The regression results presented here are for OLS regression equations with outliers removed.

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  1. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Thomas P. LeBel

  2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Matt Richie

  3. Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

    Shadd Maruna

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    Stan Stojkovic

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P. LeBel, T., Richie, M., Maruna, S. (2017). Can Released Prisoners “Make It”? Examining Formerly Incarcerated Persons’ Belief in Upward Mobility and the “American Dream”. In: Stojkovic, S. (eds) Prisoner Reentry. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57929-4_6

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