UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Fifty years of punitive criminal justice policies have created a growing population of older incarcerated individuals who are now eligible for community release but lack the social or economic capital to rebuild their lives, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of California, Irvine.
Now, that team will examine how formerly incarcerated individuals form networks upon their release from prison and how such relationships help with navigating reentry back into the community.
Led by Derek Kreager, Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) co-funded faculty member and associate head of the Penn State department of sociology and criminology, the team recently received a one-year, $328,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging to specifically study a reentry program for older men transitioning from long-term prison sentences back into their communities.
The project originally developed from seed funding from SSRI, which allowed the researchers to study the Cumberland House Reentry Program’s development and delivery from its inception. The Cumberland House Reentry Program is the first of its kind, departing from traditional community corrections programs by immersing older, previously incarcerated men into a peer-run house designed to build and enhance peer and community social ties.
“Traditionally, the criminal justice system does not want formerly incarcerated individuals to be around similar peers because there’s a persistent belief that they will negatively influence one another and reoffend,” Kreager said. “However, research shows that older former incarcerated men are less likely to go back to crime and would strongly benefit from the help of peers. The Cumberland House provides a peer safety net while they navigate reentry.”
The study will take a mixed-methods social networks approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data from interviews, surveys and administrative data. The team will collect both dynamic network data of house residents and staff, and qualitative data related to health and interpersonal relationships. They will then analyze the effectiveness of the program and determine whether it would translate into realistic future network interventions.
A major component of the team’s research design will involve social network analysis in which the researchers will map individual and group social networks, determining how house residents connect with one another and others outside the house for social support. David Schaefer, co-principal investigator of the study and professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, will conduct the network analysis.
“We’re hoping to create a full story through using interviews and social network analysis to figure out how relationships develop and why they may change over time,” Schaefer said. “We’re asking people if they’re worried about this relationship or that relationship, or who’s helping them navigate finding jobs or reconnecting with their families? There’s a lot of questions that are untested here, so we’re eager to see how things change over time.”
The team also includes SSRI co-funded faculty members Sarah Brothers, assistant professor of sociology and public policy; Brandy Henry, assistant professor of education; and Kristina Brant, assistant professor of rural sociology. Brothers, who is trained in ethnography, will study the group directly and watch in real-time as they interact with each other and the community. Henry’s role focuses on the health component of the study and will conduct interviews with the staff. Brant will conduct interviews and work with Brothers on understanding the men’s experiences.
Kreager said he hopes that the project will have a long-term benefit to the community because studies about peer-led interventions in criminal justice are rare and understudied.
“This may provide insight into future interventions, especially as it relates to health and other reentry outcomes like employment,” Kreager said. “We’re eager to see if this is something that can be replicated in other communities and how communities might respond to this type of intervention as well.”
Other investigators on the project are Nicolette Bardele, postdoctoral scholar at the Criminal Justice Research Center; Andrea Hazelwood, graduate student in criminology at Penn State; Jinwon Suh, graduate student in rehabilitation and human services conducting monthly surveys of Cumberland House staff and peer mentors, and Divine Lipscomb, a formally incarcerated individual and Penn State graduate who helped design the surveys and interviews for the project.