Community Relationship Quality and Reincarceration Following Rural Drug-Using Women’s Reentry From Jail

• Author: J. Matthew Webster,Michele Staton,Martha Tillson,Megan F. Dickson
• DOI: 10.1177/00938548211073603
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Date: 01 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 6, June 2022, 853 –871.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211073603

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2022 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

853

COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND

REINCARCERATION FOLLOWING RURAL

DRUG-USING WOMEN’S REENTRY FROM JAIL

MARTHA TILLSON

University of Kentucky

MEGAN F. DICKSON

J. MATTHEW WEBSTER

MICHELE STATON

University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Interpersonal relationships and social support are important factors in women’s successful reentry from incarceration, but

limited research has explored the role of women’s relationships to their communities during the reentry process. In the current

study, women were recruited from three rural Appalachian jails, screened for high-risk behaviors (including drug use and

unprotected sex), and interviewed at 12 months postrelease (N = 339). Interviews included the Relational Health Indices–

Community scale, a validated measure of women’s relationships in community contexts, with subscales for empowerment/

zest, engagement, and authenticity. Women who were reincarcerated during the 12-month postrelease period (43.4%) were

younger, less employed, more likely to have used illicit drugs, and reported lower-quality community relationships at

12-month follow-up. Multivariate logistic regression models indicated that the effect of community relationships may be

driven by the engagement and empowerment/zest constructs. Results suggest that community connectedness may relate to

more successful reentry outcomes for rural women.

Keywords: rural; community; relationships; women; recidivism

During the past 40 years, the population of incarcerated women in the United States has

grown at more than double the rate of men (Sawyer, 2018), with the number of women

in jails increasing 40-fold between 1970 and 2014 (Swavola et al., 2016). Rural jails have

contributed significantly to this trend, with the number of women in rural jails increasing by

43% between 2004 and 2014, compared with 29% in small/medium metro counties, and a

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Research reported in this manuscript was supported by the National Institute on Drug

Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award 1R01-DA033866. The content is solely the responsibil-

ity of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or

the University of Kentucky. The authors would also like to recognize the cooperation and partnership with the

Kentucky Department of Corrections and the local jails, including the Laurel County Detention Center,

Kentucky River Regional Jail, and the Leslie County Detention Center. Correspondence concerning this article

should be addressed to Martha Tillson, Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, University of Kentucky, 643

Maxwelton Court, Lexington, KY 40508; e-mail: martha.tillson@uky.edu.

1073603CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211073603Criminal Justice and BehaviorTillson et al. / COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS & REINCARCERATION

research-article2022

854 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

6% decline in urban counties (Kang-Brown & Subramanian, 2017). As populations of

incarcerated rural women increase, continued attention must be given to the needs of this

unique demographic as they reenter their communities and how to support desistance from

criminal activity, particularly among women with a history of substance use, who may also

require recovery supports.

Gendered pathways frameworks (see Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2012) suggest that cer-

tain concrete individual or interpersonal factors support women’s desistance after release

from incarceration (e.g., employment, sobriety, access to health services, or supportive

relationships with family, children, and peers; Arditti & Few, 2008; Berg & Huebner,

2011; Garcia, 2016; Huebner et al., 2010; Morse et al., 2014; O’Brien & Bates, 2005;

Staton et al., 2019). More broadly, however, the process of desistance for women is also

intertwined with stigma, self-concept, and identity management (Boppre & Reed, 2021;

Gålnander, 2020b). These phenomena are shaped not only by women’s relationships and

interactions with others but also by community context, which conveys normative mes-

sages of opportunity, acceptability, and belongingness (Clear et al., 2001; Gålnander,

2020a). For rural women specifically, who may return from incarceration to underre-

sourced areas and dense social networks, community and a woman’s relationship to it

may be a critical source of support or of alienation. However, women’s engagement or

empowerment relative to their communities remains an understudied area in criminologi-

cal research, despite its potential relevance to rural reentry.

LITERATURE REVIEW

INCARCERATED WOMEN

Research has highlighted incarcerated women’s vulnerability to diverse physical and

mental health concerns (Freudenberg et al., 2008; Maruschak et al., 2015), including sub-

stance use and misuse. National data indicate that justice system–involved women may

have more severe substance use patterns compared with men, with 72% of women incarcer-

ated in jails meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria

for a substance use disorder and 47% reporting drug use in the month before their arrest

(Bronson et al., 2017). Individuals who use substances often have pronounced mental and

physical health needs (Galea & Vlahov, 2002; Schulte & Hser, 2013), especially women,

who are at increased risk of adverse mental health (e.g., trauma, depression, and anxiety;

Covington, 2008) and physical health, including higher rates of hepatitis, anemia, hyperten-

sion, and diabetes (Covington, 2007), compared with their male counterparts. As chronic or

long-term conditions, these physical and mental health concerns have implications for

women’s care and well-being both during and after incarceration (Link et al., 2019).

WOMEN’S REENTRY AND RECIDIVISM

Much research has focused on the reentry period following incarceration and factors that

may lower the likelihood of recidivism (e.g., Alward et al., 2020; Link et al., 2019; Mowen

& Boman, 2019). Employment, abstinence from substance use, and access to health ser-

vices have been consistently shown to be associated with lower recidivism among women

(Huebner et al., 2010; Morse et al., 2014; O’Brien & Bates, 2005; Staton et al., 2019). These

factors may represent behavioral changes, as women engage in socially sanctioned activi-

ties and roles: earning income through paid labor rather than criminal activity, or seeking