Transportation Barriers to Successful Reentry among Returning Citizens: A Qualitative Interpretive Meta-synthesis

Abstract

Over 600,000 individuals return to United States communities from prison each year. Transportation has been identified as a major barrier to successful reentry. Applying qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis to achieve a deep understanding of reentry transportation obstacles, 11 articles with 362 male and female participants were identified. Two themes emerged from our analysis: (1) “Transportation connects complex obligations,” highlighting the critical role that transportation plays in the successful navigation of post-release conditions; and (2) “Transportation deficiencies exacerbate vulnerability,” revealing how transportation factors intertwine with structural issues to increase precarity.

Gendered Prison and Reentry Experiences: Perspectives From Rural People on Parole

“…The Census Bureau additionally considers factors such as population thresholds, density, land use, and distance to further refine the definition of rural beyond "what is not urban" (Ratcliffe et al, 2016). This study took place in Wyoming, the lowest population density U.S. state, where many federal, state, and municipal government agencies use the term "frontier" to describe much of the state because it cannot be accurately characterized as rural due to population densities than can number six people or fewer (National Center for Frontier Communities, 2018a;2018b;Wyoming Department of Health, 2018). The experiences of people on parole in Wyoming, which is arguably the most rural part of the United States, offer valuable insights into the gendered experience of incarceration.…”

“…The realities of mass incarceration directly impact reentry experiences for people returning to rural areas of the United States, where they face considerable reentry challenges including limited housing, employment, and transportation (Bowman & Ely, 2020; Norberg et al, 2021), lack of affordable and reliable childcare (Cabeldue et al, 2018), restricted social privacy that heightens public awareness and stigmatization of their crimes (Huebner et al, 2019), and limited substance use and mental health treatment services (Webster et al, 2015). The United States incarcerates almost 1.8 million people in prisons and jails, and every year more than 600,000 people are released from prison and nine million from jail (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2021).…”

Transportation Among Returning Citizens: “You Just Want to Stay Down and Get High”

“…Reentry success varies with transportation access, which typically means access to public transit systems or a private vehicle. Relying on public transportation for returning citizens has been found to be inefficient and cost prohibitive (Nordberg et al, 2021a).…”