While research suggests a growing proclivity amongst contemporary fathers towards emotional involvement and child caregiving, studies indicate that most men still experience unrelenting pressure to provide financially for their family. For some fathers, the ability to spend time with their children is contingent on financial provision. Fathering, therefore, can be dependent on employment. The intersection of Blackness, maleness, and a criminal record, however, often results in employer discrimination, which hinders reentering Black men’s ability to secure legitimate revenue streams and achieve fathering expectations. In response to these barriers, many men agentically create opportunities for themselves in order to provide for their families. Framed using Sites of Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth, the current study draws from qualitative data and adds to the literature by focusing on the act of hurdling rather than the hurdles faced upon reentry. Findings demonstrate how hustling upon reentry is not a display of persistent criminal character but, rather, reflects a resilient response to systemic racism and blocked opportunities. The discussion on policy implications is led by participant suggestions on how to deter criminal activity while providing opportunities for men with criminal records to support their families.

Over the last decade, criminal justice scholars have increasingly endorsed "evidence-based practices"; however, some criminologists have voiced concerns over the varied methodological rigor used by evaluation researchers, differing definitions of evidence, and lack of critical exploration as to why programs may be (in)effective. This article argues that evaluability assessments (EAs) can answer these concerns. Through a case study of an EA used on a prison-based fatherhood program, this article demonstrates how EA's approach leads to a more precise understanding of outcome operationalization, and allows for the democratization of research, which is particularly important in a carceral setting.

Parenting from prison is dramatically different than parenting in the community. The removal from home and redefinition of self that occurs within the carceral setting often leads incarcerated parents to feel anxious and inadequate in their parental role. While some prison-based parenting programs (PBPPs) can assuage these issues, they often lack contextual relevance, which can make participants frustrated and dissatisfied. Using an example of a prison-based fatherhood program, this article argues that in order for PBPPs to have sustained positive outcomes, they must also address the issues enmeshed in parenting from prison.

Scholars have found that family support is an important facilitator of successful reentry from prison to the community. At the same time, they have argued that owing court-ordered fines or fees, also called legal financial obligations (LFOs), can act as an additional barrier to reentry, especially for parents. There remains a need to test how LFOs impact the financial support formerly incarcerated parents receive from their families. The current study responds to this gap by employing logistic regression analyses of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data to test whether owing court fees is associated with formerly incarcerated fathers’ (1) perceptions of available financial support from family and (2) receipt of financial support from family. We find that owing court fees is not associated with perceptions of available financial support. However, owing court fees has a positive, statistically significant association with receiving financial support from family during the first three months after prison release. This relationship remains after accounting for whether the person owes child support or sees their children monthly. Our results suggest that LFOs may create a greater need for financial support among formerly incarcerated fathers, making the financial challenges of reentry a consequence not just for those who were incarcerated but for their loved ones as well.

Within the context of racial caste and the “stickiness” of criminal labels, men struggle to craft positive masculine identities. Contesting racial-criminal stigma requires men of color to challenge controlling images of violent Black men. Analyzing narratives of 45 millennial men in Philadelphia, we identify redemption bids and redemptive generativity as ways of defying social stigma. Redemption, which has been highlighted in the desistance literature, is a central concern of the men of color we studied, regardless of prior law-breaking or system involvement. Because a criminal history is presumed regardless of past behavior, many men of color engage in performances of “making good” similar to those who were actively engaged in the work of desistance.