Exploring the Liminal Process of Reentry Survivorship

Arden Richards-Karamarkovich

Advisor: Janani Umamaheswar, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society

Committee Members: Robert J. Norris, James Willis, Janet Garcia-Hallett

Enterprise Hall, #318
March 31, 2025, 12:00 PM to 02:00 PM

Abstract:

Reentry research to date has thoroughly explored the desistance process, and formerly incarcerated individuals’ exposure to structural harms that jeopardize their literal and social lives. There is thus a wealth of scholarship that highlights the high risks of “poor” outcomes after incarceration. I pivot away from these foci to instead center the experience of surviving these hardships. Drawing on theoretical scholarship in survivorship and liminality, I explore the concept of “reentry survivorship”—defined as the act of surviving the disproportionate risks of early death that formerly incarcerated individuals face as well as successfully overcoming cycles of harm, such as incarceration, poverty, and homelessness. Through interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals, I present findings that explore how those who have “survived” the criminal legal system construct survivor identities, experience the emotional complexities of being a survivor, and face on-going adversities that are rooted in their past survival. Together, these findings show that reentry survivorship is a liminal process—formerly incarcerated individuals are survivors, yet their exposure to multiple structural harms continues their need to survive. By centering formerly incarcerated individuals’ survival, I shed novel light on the complexities and nuances of reentry outcomes and experiences.

With these findings, I argue that reentry survivorship is a theoretically useful concept because it allows us to explore reentry outcomes outside of rigid dichotomies. In doing so, we can better understand the ambiguities of agency and structure, success and failure, and survival and harm. These findings also yield practical implications, as I discuss the importance of maintaining space for the emotional experience of survivorship in all its complexity and potential ways to disrupt formerly incarcerated individuals’ cycles of liminal survival.