|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
Almost Home. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, March 2008, Pages: 256
For many inmates of the Federal Bureau of Prisons confinement to a halfway house marks both the final stage of the prison experience and the beginning of the post-prison experience. While technically still in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, inmates are expected to prepare themselves for release from custody while in residence in a halfway house and, the staff of these facilities are expected to aid in that process. I have decided to analyze a particular halfway house and the time inmates spent there within the theoretical concept of 'rite de passage' in order to highlight the transitional nature of both the inmates residing there and of the facility themselves.
Before showing how inmates at this facility are best understood as liminal personae, I will first create a general history of halfway houses and then placed them and their use within the Federal Bureau of Prison's within that history. Once halfway houses have been situated within a particular historical context, I then locate this facility within a specific community and set out to provide a description of inmate's lived experiences while residing there. With this description and understanding of life at the halfway house in place, I then use the theories of rites of passage to direct my analysis of this form of correctional practice.
This work is meant to offer a starting point from with which to address the needs of the increasing number of inmates being released from federal institutions. If inmates are to successfully reintegrate back into their home communities, then federally funded halfway houses must prepare them for the challenges and obstacles they will face upon releases.
|
|
|
|
