Social Support During Reentry: Family, Mentor, Religious, Parole Officer, and Social Service Roles

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231166154
• Author: Lin Liu,Patricia Becker,Thomas J. Mowen
• Date: 01 July 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2023, Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2023, 1053 –1070.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231166154

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2023 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1053

SOCIAL SUPPORT DURING REENTRY

Family, Mentor, Religious, Parole Officer, and Social

Service Roles

LIN LIU

Florida International University

PATRICIA BECKER

The College of New Jersey

THOMAS J. MOWEN

Bowling Green State University

Existing research on social support and reentry primarily focuses on a single dimension of support, such as family or com-

munity support. Informed by the social support perspective, this study assessed how combined support from family, mentors,

religious groups, parole officers, and social service agencies influences reentry outcomes. Given that the social support one

receives during reentry is time-variant rather than static, longitudinal multilevel modeling was employed to examine how

temporal changes in social support were associated with temporal changes in recidivism and drug misuse among people on

parole. Results indicated that simultaneous support from family, parole officers, and social service agencies exerted protective

effects on reentry outcomes. However, community-based mentoring programs had no significant effect on recidivism, and

religious and social service support increased substance misuse. Policy implications derived from this research are discussed

to address the intersection of various sources of social support.

Keywords: differing forms of social support; reentry; recidivism; drug use

Mass incarceration policy in the United States produced an unprecedented growth in

both the prison and jail populations. More than 2.2 million people were incarcer-

ated in jails or prisons in 2018, a sixfold increase since the 1970s (Cloud et al., 2020).

The tremendous growth in the U.S. prison population was followed by a high volume of

people seeking reentry after incarceration (Huebner & Shannon, 2022). According to a

series of reports on prison populations by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2010 to

2017, nearly 625,000 people were released from prison each year, which averaged

around 12,000 per week (Bronson & Carson, 2019; Carson, 2014; Carson & Golinelli,

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lin Liu, Department of

Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, PCA-366A, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami,

FL 33199; e-mail: linliu@fiu.edu.

1166154CJBXXX10.1177/00938548231166154Criminal Justice and BehaviorLiu et al. / Social Support and Reentry

research-article2023

1054 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

2012). COVID induced an even greater number of people to transition out of prison: we

saw a 15% decrease in the incarcerated population during 2020, which was the largest

single-year decrease recorded since 1926 (Minton et al., 2021). Various reentry initia-

tives have been established to provide reentering persons with support and resources

regarding health, housing, and food insecurity to facilitate their successful reentry

(Berghuis, 2018). However, studies using both official data (Alper et al., 2018; Durose

& Antenangeli, 2021; Durose et al., 2014; O’Connell et al., 2019) and self-reported

recidivism measures (Cartier et al., 2006; Farabee et al., 2014; Loughran et al., 2009)

have consistently shown an alarmingly high rate of reentry failure. For example, by the

fifth year after release, one study found that over three-fourths of formerly incarcerated

people had been reincarcerated (LaCourse et al., 2019).

Studies explaining why some returning citizens achieve reentry success while others do

not have underscored how support and resources play a vital role in severing from their

criminal past (Harding et al., 2019; Wallace et al., 2016). Newly released individuals who

had no access to social services and received little support from their family and commu-

nity were at a higher risk of resorting to illegal activities and substance misuse to cope with

traumatic experiences, such as food insecurity, homelessness, social isolation, and mental

health struggles (Fries et al., 2014; Moschion & Johnson, 2019). In addition, social support

studies have revealed that the emotional, relational, and material supports returning citi-

zens receive came largely from family and friends, social service agencies, community

organizations, and reentry programs (Bares & Mowen, 2020). While a plethora of studies

were dedicated to understanding the impact of a single dimension of social support, such

as family (Harding et al., 2019; Sugie & Augustine, 2020), parole officer (Bares & Mowen,

2020; Chamberlain et al., 2018), or a religious organization (Clear et al., 2000), we know

very little about the impact that joint effects of different forms of social support may have

on the reentry experience. Do individual- and community-related supports both affect

reentry? Do formal and informal supports have equivalent weight in reentry success? With

limited research regarding the comparative effects of these different forms of support,

policymakers and practitioners are ill-equipped to develop evidence-based programs of

effective social support for facilitating reentry.

This study sought to fill this gap and contribute to the emerging understanding of

social support and reentry outcomes. It expanded prior work that focused primarily on

single domains of social support to explore how combinations of different forms of sup-

port (family, community organizations, parole officers, and social services) influence

reentry outcomes. This study also assessed the longitudinal change in a predictor’s effect

on reentry outcomes. Prior research revealed that the transition from prison to society is

a dynamic rather than static process. During reentry, individuals may tap into various

forms of resources while they rebuild relationships with family and friends and carve out

new daily routines. Consequently, the forms of support an individual receives may vary

over time (Harding et al., 2019; Western, 2018; Western & Sirois, 2019). Support may

also vary across individuals (Mowen & Boman, 2018). Thus, some people may have

access to more sources of support and among those with the same sources of support,

variations in the duration of support may contribute to different levels of reentry failure.

To explore how these ways reentry are affected by forms and durations of social support,

we adopted a longitudinal multilevel modeling strategy that used multiple waves of data.