An Assessment of Prisoner Reentry, Legal Financial Obligations and Family Financial Support: A Focus on Fathers

Abstract

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.

Reclaiming Parenthood After Incarceration: The Nexus of Determination to Desist, Fulfillment of Parental Responsibilities, and Recidivism

“…At the same time, resources should be made available to enable returning parents to provide for their children. Returning parents experience greater financial stress during reentry because they need to support not only themselves but also their children (Michalsen, 2011; Montes et al, 2021). Having children to care for also disadvantages them in the job market because employers may deem returning parents as less-than-ideal job candidates because of their parenting responsibilities and thus needs for flexible work schedules.…”

“The biggest thing you can rob is somebody's time”: Exploring how the carceral state bankrupts fathers through temporal debt

“…A breadth of research has examined the financial implications of carcerality, and the oppressive amount of financial debt previously incarcerated individuals and their families are subjected to (Haney, 2018; Montes et al, 2021). The concept of temporal debt, particularly within the context of fatherhood, however, has remained unexplored until now.…”

The Association between Perpetuation of Intimate Partner Violence and Family Support on Couples with an Incarcerated Partner

“…However, it is essential to note that men and women have similar and differing risk markers [26]. In the literature, family connectedness is a significant source of support for incarcerated individuals [16,38]. The factors of familial support vary, as do the needs of the individual [39].…”