Michelle Inderbitzin

Reentry of Emerging Adults Adolescent Inmates' Transition Back Into the Community

This article is based on the sociological analysis of the experiences and perspectives of five young men making the transition out of one states end-of-the-line maximum security juvenile correctional facility and attempting to reenter the community as emerging adults. As part of a larger ethnographic study of violent offenders in a cottage, these young men shared their observations as they faced their futures with both fear and hope. Upon their release from the institution, they found few people or services to rely on, and they struggled the best way they knew to cope with new and frightening responsibilities of independence and emerging adulthood.

A Look From the Inside Balancing Custody and Treatment in a Juvenile Maximum-Security Facility

This article is based on an ethnographic study of a cottage for violent offenders in one states maximum-security training school. Staff members working in the cottage were the institutions front line in its attempts to hold the youth accountable for their crimes while also trying to resocialize and rehabilitate young men who were growing up with few conforming role models. As such, cottage staff members were put in the difficult position of juggling their roles as corrections officers, counselors, and surrogate parents. To effectively do their job, they had to find ways to balance the rhetoric of rehabilitation with the punitive reality of daily life in the institution. This article details the juvenile justice career paths of the staff members in the cottage and provides a sociological analysis of the roles, responsibilities, and interactions of the staff members with each other and with the young men in their care.

Lessons from a Juvenile Training School: Survival and Growth.

This article examines the lessons learned by youths confined to a maximum-security juvenile correctional facility. Using data from an ethnographic study of a cottage of violent offenders in one state’s end-of-the-line training school, the author describes the lessons the institution and its staff members hoped to teach the young people in their care and the informal but vital lessons the inmates indicated they had learned during their incarceration. The continued viability of training schools as a response to serious and violent juvenile offenders is analyzed and discussed.

Guardians of the State’s Problem Children An Ethnographic Study of Staff Members in a Juvenile Correctional Facility

Cottage staff members in a juvenile training school play a crucial role in the state’s attempts to rehabilitate or resocialize adolescent offenders. As the predominant adult influences in the lives of juvenile inmates during their incarceration, cottage staff members set the tone and help to define the institutional experience for the youth assigned to the living unit. In this ethnographic study of one cottage of violent offenders, the author examines and discusses the crucial role of cottage staff members who, in many ways, embody the spirit of parens patriae and serve as their adolescent inmates’ guardians, keepers, counselors, and role models.

Imagining a Liberal Education Critically Examining the Learning Process Through Simulation

Transformative pedagogy and a learning-centered paradigm are at the heart of a liberal education. In this article, the authors present a case study detailing a simulation they created in an interdisciplinary course in one university’s core curriculum. Although the simulation and the larger course appeared to have engaged the students, after years of socialization to be passive receptacles of information, they seemed to find it difficult to break out of the traditional classroom experience; indeed, they had difficulty even imagining alternative forms of learning. Such resistance suggests the need for more innovative and transformative learning experiences as central components of today’s liberal education. The sharing of ideas and practices to strengthen oppositional teaching cultures is suggested to mitigate the cost of engaging in transformative pedagogy.

Leading by Example: Ways That Prisoners Give Back to Their Communities

Prisons can be busy places, filled, in part, with motivated individuals determined to make the best of their time behind bars. This chapter is coauthored by two young men who have each served more than half of their lives in correctional facilities. They have been both witnesses to and instigators of important personal and institutional changes facilitated by prisoner-led clubs and volunteer-assisted programs and activities. In the maximum-security men’s prison where they currently reside, prisoners create and participate in any number of classes and groups. We describe in this chapter how many men in prison work to better themselves, to support and mentor their peers, to reach out to at-risk youth, and to contribute in meaningful ways to community partners and nonprofit groups.

Learning and Practicing Citizenship and Democracy Behind Bars

Many prisoners were convicted of crimes and incarcerated before they had developed a clear understanding of what it means to live and participate in a democratic society. As adults, much of what these incarcerated individuals know about democracy and citizenship they have learned within the prison environment. This chapter is coauthored with elected leaders of the Lifers’ Unlimited Club at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Leadership in prisoner-led clubs reinforces principles of democracy by showing prisoners that their voices do count and that they can make a difference in their daily lives. These young men deal with the deprivation of liberty through positive means, “rejecting the rejectors” by becoming stronger and better citizens in prison than many of their counterparts in the outside community.

Introduction: The Significance of Voluntary Sector Provision in Correctional Settings

In this chapter, the authors lay out the rationale and structure for this innovative edited collection. The chapter begins with an explanation for why the voluntary sector is an important area of inquiry for the USA, the UK, and other countries seeking alternatives to mass incarceration policies and prison overcrowding. The authors also introduce the background and context for the work, as well as present a brief summary of related research. Last, they introduce the four main sections of the book, the authors, and the relevant themes. They conclude the chapter by inviting the reader to think about critical questions surrounding the role of the voluntary sector in correctional settings.

Outsiders and justice consciousness

The foundations of my justice consciousness lie in two books that share the name “outsiders.” I was introduced to S.E. Hintons novel before I was a teenager and it was my first real contact with the “Greasers,” the “Socs,” and a world of juvenile delinquency divided by social class. Written by a 16‐year‐old girl around the time I was born, I think it was this book that initially sparked my fascination with juvenile delinquency and the study of crime. I pursued this interest in college and became concerned with inequality and the ways in which our social surroundings shape our choices and our life chances. Reading Howard S. Beckers classic statement of labeling theory in his version of Outsiders changed my perspective again and I have never looked at the world in quite the same way since.

Juvenile Corrections in the Era of Reform: A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Studies

In this article, the authors synthesize knowledge from select qualitative studies examining rehabilitation-oriented juvenile residential corrections and aftercare programs. Using meta-synthesis methodology, the authors extracted and coded content from 10 research studies conducted by five authors across criminology, sociology, and social welfare disciplines. The total number of published works based on those studies analyzed was 18. Collectively, these studies offer insight into three major components of the juvenile correctional experience: therapeutic treatment and evidence-based practices, the shaping of identities and masculinities, and preparation for reentry. This analysis is particularly important as the United States is currently in an era of reform during which policymakers are increasingly espousing the benefits of rehabilitation for youth offenders over punishment. These studies took place before, during, and after this era of reform, and yet, the findings are surprisingly consistent over time, raising key questions about the effectiveness of the reform strategies.