How Your Time Behind Bars Defines You

The Stigmatization of Incarcerated Individuals

Abstract

This paper focuses on the stigmatization of incarcerated individuals by exploring their time during incarceration and the process of reentry. This is illustrated through the stressors they experience inside prison and outside to show how their criminalized identity puts them under intense social scrutiny where their morality is questioned by society. The way they look, act, and talk are all judged under a negative light due to their past actions. There is an emphasis on their struggles searching for employment and housing specifically due to how this stigma tends to affect this part of their lives post incarceration. The high risk of recidivism, also known as returning back to correctional facilities, could be prevented with the use of stigma reduction and rehabilitative measures taken by jail and prison systems.