Building Recovery Capital: The Role of Faith-Based Communities in the Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated Drug Offenders

• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0022042617696916
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042617696916

Journal of Drug Issues

2017, Vol. 47(3) 370 –382

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042617696916

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Article

Building Recovery Capital: The

Role of Faith-Based Communities

in the Reintegration of Formerly

Incarcerated Drug Offenders

Kristen Connolly1 and Robert Granfield1

Abstract

Recovery capital is an important concept in the field of addiction studies. A person’s access to

recovery capital can mean the difference between the termination of addiction and successful

reintegration or ongoing criminality and drug use. Increasingly, religious institutions are playing

a vital role in the provision of social services, including addiction services that provide access

to recovery capital. This article begins by exploring the concept of recovery capital and its

utility in the successful reintegration of offenders. It then uses a case study to show how one’s

religious organization plays an important role in providing the necessary recovery capital for

the desistance of drug abuse and for a successful reintegration into the community. Through

in-depth interviews with several persistent adult offenders, this article demonstrates that

religious organizations may play an important role in providing the recovery capital that so

many persistent drug offenders are lacking.

Keywords

addiction, recovery, reentry, faith-based, recovery capital

Introduction

Nearly one of every 100 U.S. citizens is currently incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and jails,

80% of whom abuse drugs or alcohol (NADCP.org). In 2012, 2.2 million people were incarcer-

ated in the United States, and more than 50% of them were incarcerated for drug-related offenses

(Carson & Golinelli, 2013). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2014), approximately

77% of those who are incarcerated for a drug-related offense will reoffend within 5 years of their

release. These high rates of incarceration, drug abuse, and recidivism persist, despite a potlatch

of our best efforts at drug control legislation. This persistence makes it very clear that we must

look for a solution beyond criminal sanctions if we desire to curtail the illegal drug use and addic-

tion that far too often leads to recidivism after release.

In many instances throughout the recent past, government agencies have been criticized for

their inadequate response to the needs of minorities or the extremely impoverished. This criti-

cism is especially salient in the case of the needs of the postrelease addicted (Dyson, 2006; Van

1University at Buffalo, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kristen Connolly, Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.

Email: klconnol@buffalo.edu

696916JODXXX10.1177/0022042617696916Journal of Drug IssuesConnolly and Graneld

research-article2017