While many prisoners share the public and policy makers’ concerns about returning to their former neighborhood when they are released from prison, recently released ex-prisoners often do not have the resources to move to a new neighborhood. Using multiple in-depth interviews with female ex-prisoners in Chicago, the author addresses how these women frame their often disadvantaged and racially segregated neighborhood contexts so that they are consistent with their desire to desist from offending. While some women believed they should avoid old neighborhoods, many reframed their neighborhood context as a neutral or positive force, both for them and the community. Three common frames emerged in the data, all of which emphasize the women’s self-efficacy and agency: drugs are unavoidable and so neighborhood is irrelevant, there is comfort in familiarity, and their pasts can be used to help and inspire others in their community. In addition, the author addresses the ways in which these frames are influenced by their involvement in drug treatment programming and by race, class, and gender. These findings suggest a need to expand how research and policy address the neighborhood context of prisoner reentry.
(Publisher abstract provided.)