“We’re Being Released to a Jungle”: The State of Prisoner Reentry and the Resilience of Women of Color

• DOI: 10.1177/0032885519852089
• Author: Janet Garcia-Hallett
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519852089

The Prison Journal

2019, Vol. 99(4) 459 –483

© 2019 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032885519852089

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Article

“We’re Being Released

to a Jungle”: The State

of Prisoner Reentry

and the Resilience

of Women of Color

Janet Garcia-Hallett1

Abstract

The punitive carceral system is expected to tame people of color into

docile bodies through their imprisonment. Furthermore, the oppressive and

punitive U.S. context embodies patriarchy and injustice in which women of

color endure unique obstacles at the intersection of race and gender. Given

the power structures built to destabilize women of color before and after

incarceration, this study uses interview data to examine their perseverance

through carceral systems. The findings illustrate how oppressive regimes

shape postincarceration obstacles and explore how women of color combat

social-structural inequalities after incarceration.

Keywords

women of color, gender, race, ethnicity, resistance, reentry

Introduction

“You just gotta have your guards up; be ready, roll your sleeves up, put the

boxing gloves on, and fight your way through the jungle because we’re being

released [from prison] to a jungle.”

—Lucinda (Formerly Incarcerated Woman of Color)

1University of Missouri–Kansas City, USA

Corresponding Author:

Janet Garcia-Hallett, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Missouri-

Kansas City, 5030 Cherry Street, Cherry Hall Room 434, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA.

Email: GarciaHallettJ@umkc.edu

852089TPJXXX10.1177/0032885519852089The Prison JournalGarcia-Hallett

research-article2019

460 The Prison Journal 99(4)

Historically, public discourse has condescendingly associated women of

color with resembling and behaving like wild animals. This includes racist

depictions of them as monkeys, having animal-like qualities (Moody, 2012),

as well as describing them as masculine, angry, and bitter (Cooper, 2010;

Jones & Norwood, 2016; Moody, 2012). Inequities in social-structural cir-

cumstances may further create a metaphorical jungle of barriers inflicted

upon women of color, promoting an oppressive regime of criminalization.

This metaphorical jungle contains law enforcement officials who treat

women of color as animals to be feared and to be presumed dangerous (Jones

& Norwood, 2016). The punitive carceral system is, thus, expected to tame

women of color into “docile bodies” (Foucault, 1977) through their impris-

onment. Furthermore, the oppressive and punitive U.S. context is filled with

patriarchy and injustice in which women of color endure unique obstacles at

the intersection of at least two marginalized labels—race and gender

(Crenshaw, 1989, 1993; Potter, 2013; Roberts, 1993).

The above quote from Lucinda, a formerly incarcerated woman of color,

suggests that resilience is necessary for women of color to survive the meta-

phorical jungle of postincarceration barriers—especially, as double minori-

ties. Fighting one’s way through a jungle, however, implies that there is some

expectation of freedom beyond its perimeters. Yet, reentering society postin-

carceration may not necessarily lead to this sense of freedom, given the

social-structural context that continues to dehumanize women of color.

Situated within Black feminist theory, this article explores how women of

color fight through this metaphorical jungle of postincarceration circum-

stances. It begins with a review of various power structures in employment,

housing, and interactions with social practitioners and law enforcement, and

how these power structures are built to destabilize women of color. Then,

findings are presented from interviews with formerly incarcerated women of

color on how they remain resilient and empower others as they overcome

inequities across various socio-structural forces.

Literature Review

Historically, racial-ethnic hierarchies have marginalized women of color

through the institutional racism that spans a variety of socio-structural

domains in everyday life. By way of their social position in a racialized soci-

ety, women of color are often fraught with inequalities inflicted upon them

vis-à-vis systematic oppression. They are disproportionately affected by cir-

cumstances like constrained opportunities to earn equitable income or obtain

legitimate work (Bobo, Zubrinsky, Johnson, & Oliver, 1995; Reiman &

Leighton, 2017; Shapiro, 2004), segregated residency in disadvantaged