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20092009 24: 453 originally published online 8 MayJournal of Adolescent Research

Michelle InderbitzinInto the Community

Reentry of Emerging Adults : Adolescent Inmates' Transition Back

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Reentry of Emerging Adults

Adolescent Inmates Transition

Back Into the Community

Michelle InderbitzinOregon State University

This article is based on the sociological analysis of the experiences and per-spectives of five young men making the transition out of one states end-of-

the-line maximum security juvenile correctional facility and attempting to

reenter the community as emerging adults. As part of a larger ethnographic

study of violent offenders in a cottage, these young men shared their observa-

tions as they faced their futures with both fear and hope. Upon their release

from the institution, they found few people or services to rely on, and they

struggled the best way they knew to cope with new and frightening respon-

sibilities of independence and emerging adulthood.

Keywords: adolescent; inmate; reentry; emerging adult; training school

As difficult as growing up in a juvenile correctional facility can be, manyyoung people adapt to life in such institutions with impressiveresilience (Inderbitzin, 2005). Locked away from their families, friends,

communities, love interests, and opportunities for personal, psychosocial

development and maturity (Steinberg, Chung, & Little, 2004), they bide

their time, counting down the months and days, until their release with greatanticipation and no small amount of fear.

As the time remaining on their sentences winds down, many turn their

attention to the outside community and try to imagine their lives as emerging

adults (Arnett, 2000, 2004), envisioning the kind of men and women they

hope to be. From inside the institution, they reach out to find places to live,

friends to rely on, possibilities for jobs and college educations, and a support

system that might enable them to follow through on their best intentions.

The challenges are enormous; many will stumble, some will ultimately suc-ceed. For those who wish to becomeand to stayconforming citizens,

how might the odds be tilted in their favor? What is, or what should be, the

states role in helping them to create new lives in the community?

453

Journal of Adolescent

Research

Volume 24 Number 4

July 2009 453-476

2009 The Author(s)

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454 Journal of Adolescent Research

Snyder (2004) estimated that there are approximately 100,000 juvenile

offenders annually leaving juvenile facilities, jails, and prisons. He further

makes the following point:

Youth returning to their homes after their commitment to a juvenile custody

facility bring with them track records of failure. . . . The simple truth is that

the tangible and intangible costs to society of a youths failure to thrive fol-

lowing release from juvenile custody are so high that society must learn how

to reduce this risk. (Snyder, 2004, p. 54)

While there are many pathways into juvenile correctional facilities for

young offenders, there are few avenues out of the system. Mears and Travis

(2004) identified seven distinct youth reentry populations based on the

individuals age and legal status at the time of their incarceration and

release. The focus of the present article is on one of those trajectories:

young males incarcerated in the juvenile justice system as legal juveniles

and released from the same system as emerging adults, on or before their

21st birthday (Mears & Travis, 2004).

Reaching legal adulthood while incarcerated presents a number of unique

challenges. The transition to adult status generally entails a process of prepa-ration for the challenges and responsibilities of adult life (Arnett, 1998).

Arnett (1998) identified young Americans three individualistic criteria for

the transition to adulthood as accepting responsibility for oneself, making

independent decisions, and financial independence. Paradoxically, emerging

adults leaving juvenile correctional facilities were often on an accelerated

path to adulthood prior to their incarceration; being locked up then seemed to

stunt further growth.

A partial transition to adulthood often occurred very early for the juve-nile offenders in this study. Many of them came of age surrounded by

poverty and violence in their neighborhoods and families, sacrificing much

of their childhood in their quest for survival. They learned to live on their

own and to take care of themselves, sometimes financially supporting their

families with the proceeds of their drug sales. This accelerated path to

adulthood came to an abrupt halt, however, when they entered the institu-

tion, where their daily routine was set for them. There seemed to be at least

some truth to the common notion from prison culture that inmates physi-cally age but never get any older or more mature while serving their sen-

tences (Irwin, 1970). This is a situation that deserves close examination if

we are to reasonably attempt to improve juvenile justice outcomes. Upon

their release from juvenile correctional facilities, these emerging adults find

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Inderbitzin / Reentry of Emerging Adults 455

themselves back in the community with many new responsibilities and no

state-sponsored safety nets to help them meet those needs.

For juvenile offenders reentering the community as adults, there are sixbroad possible outcomes upon release: First, these emerging adults might

make good (Maruna, 2001) and desist from their criminal careers, building

successful conforming lives for themselves in the community. Second, some

of the released offenders will simply get by, surviving as best they can

through some combination of legitimate or illegitimate means (Merton,

1957). Third, they may continue criminal activity without getting caught

becoming the relatively rare but much admired criminal success story.

Fourth, they may be sent temporarily back to the juvenile system for violatingparole, in which case they will face the challenges of reentering the commu-

nity again in a relatively short time. Fifth, up to one third of the population

will be arrested for new crimes and be sent to adult prisons or jails (Mears &

Travis, 2004). Lastly, violent death at a young age is a distinct possibility for

members of this population (Bortner & Williams, 1997).

The emerging adults in this study faced many issues, large and small, in

returning to the community. On a macrolevel, many of them came from and

return to disorganized neighborhoods disproportionately influenced by theincarceration of young males much like themselves (Clear, Rose, & Ryder,

2001). Within such neighborhoods, there is generally a lack of jobs that pay

a living wage (Anderson, 1999). Emerging adults leaving the confines of

the juvenile justice system with little work experience and the stigma of

incarceration (Sullivan, 2004) face a particularly tough time in the labor

market. They face these challenges with virtually no preparation and no

idea what to expect as the state has largely abandoned its role in occupa-

tional reintegration (Hagan & Coleman, 2001, p. 362).

Along with difficulty in the labor market, this population of formerly

incarcerated young males often comes from troubled family situations, and

they face a lack of family support and resources. Additionally, they often

lack prosocial friends and romantic relationships (Steinberg et al., 2004).

Instead, their best resources may be their criminal capital, including friends

who may be willing to stake them and provide them with illegitimate

opportunities (Hagan & McCarthy, 1998) until they can find their way to

financially stable ground.

Some of these emerging adults face the additional responsibilities offatherhood (Arnett, 2004; Nurse, 2002; Sullivan, 2004). Along with their own

survival, they struggle to find a way to contribute to the support of their chil-

dren. If they cannot take on the traditionally male breadwinner role and

provide financial support, they may still have the option of contributing



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social capital to their childrens lives (Hagan & Coleman, 2001) by providing

child care, purchasing diapers, and being involved in the daily rituals of par-

enthood.Finally, for some members of this population, returning to the community

poses a real threat to their physical safety (Bortner & Williams, 1997). At

least two of the boys in this study received death threats while in the institu-

tion; their enemies awaited their release in hopes of settling old scores.

Arnett (2004) identified the distinguishing features of emerging adult-

hood as follows: the age of identity explorations; the age of instability; the

most self-focused age of life; the age of feeling in-between, neither adoles-

cent nor adult; and the age of possibilities, an age of high hopes and greatexpectations. The boys in this study were often in the early phases of

emerging adulthood, and they experienced and exhibited each of these

features. This population of emerging adults spent their waning adolescent

years in confinement, and they looked forward to their release when they

could work toward the goal of becoming self-sufficient.

The focus of this article is the crucial months before and shortly after

release from a juvenile correctional facility. The emerging adults in this

study were in the process of writing the scripts of their lives, many of themhoping to leave behind lives of crime but precariously walking the tight-

rope between their good intentions and the reality of their opportunities.

For those choosing conformity, it was a daily struggle, complicated by the

palpable frustration of blocked opportunities and a perceived lack of

resources and help. They felt that they had paid for their crimes but feared

they would be denied a real chance to move on with their lives, aware of

the collateral consequences of their crimes and that incarceration would

follow them long into their futures (Uggen & Wakefield, 2005).

As part of their reentry process, the emerging adults in this study worked

to figure out who they were and who they wanted to become, imagining

both hoped-for possible selves and feared possible selves (Knox, Funk,

Elliott, & Bush, 2000). Maruna (2001) explained the process like this: To

successfully maintain this abstinence from crime, exoffenders need to make

sense of their lives. This sense-making commonly takes the form of a life

story or self-narrative (p. 7). In my role as a researcher, I became the audi-

ence for their life stories, bearing witness to self-narratives in the making.

The transformations that take place in the training school are key.Adolescent inmates go in as boys and come out as something quite differ-

ent. The clues to their maturation and transformation can be found in their

experiences inside the walls. Unfortunately, at this critical time in their

development, stints in juvenile correctional facilities and the associated



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stigma likely do damage rather than promote resocialization and rehabilita-

tion. As Steinberg et al. (2004) argued, At a time when adolescents require

experiences that promote the development of responsible autonomy andcompetent interpersonal relationships, however, current methods of punish-

ment, such as incarceration in a secure facility, all but preclude the facilita-

tion of psychosocial development (p. 28).

Recently, sociologists and criminologists have challenged researchers to

go back in the field in order to better take context into account, noting the

smells, sights, and feel of our neighborhoods and criminal justice institu-

tions, and factoring that data into our theories and empirical findings

(Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999). With similar logic, Miller (1998) chas-tised the field for ostracizing and demonizing young offenders:

Our prisons and reform schools are filled with fabricated aliens made yet

more alien by those who should know better, but who insufficiently under-

stand the subjects of their research beyond narrow methodological parame-

ters or highly controlled settings which demean and impoverish human

experience. (p. 243)

This study is an explicit attempt to give voice to those young aliens andto offer a view of what the world looks like to emerging adults about to

reenter the community after spending a significant portion of their adoles-

cence in relative isolation, away from families, friends, women and girls,

education, and opportunities.

Method

Procedure

The data for this analysis come from a larger ethnographic study of

violent offenders in a cottage at one states end-of-the-line maximum-

security juvenile correctional facility (Inderbitzin, 2005; Inderbitzin, 2006).

I spent 15 months visiting the cottage, interacting with the adolescent

inmates and the cottage staff members; on average, I visited once a week

on weekends, during afternoons and evenings, when the boys would be

spending unstructured time in the cottage. Each visit lasted 6 to 8 hours,after which I wrote extensive field notes recording conversations, interac-

tions, and my impressions. Over the course of the fieldwork, I watched and

listened as several of the relatively long-term residents prepared for their

release and the exciting and terrifying prospect of going home.



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Research conducted in juvenile correctional institutions is often survey

or interview based; I hoped to contribute a fresh look at how youths experi-

ence punishment and how they mature in such facilities by becoming aparticipant-observer in the ordinary life of one cottage. As a moderate par-

ticipant (Spradley, 1980), I was able to both observe and to direct conversa-

tions, to gain information and perspective from both staff members and

inmates. As my relationships with the individuals grew, I was able delve

into more sensitive topics. As Becker (1970) suggested,

The field worker, because he has continuing contact with those he studies, can

gather data from them by multiple procedures, in several settings and in manymoods . . . since he can interview repeatedly, he can inquire about different

matters on different occasions. He can change his relation to people, dealing

with them differently as they come to know one another better. (p. 57)

The present article focuses on the cases of five emerging adults I came to

know quite well while they were in the institution. Through informal inter-

views and multiple conversations over many months within the institution,

they shared with me their autobiographical narratives, their hopes and fears for

the future, and their closely held ideals about the men they wanted to become.Their words and their stories were powerful. As Arnett (2004) explained,

It is important to listen to how people describe and interpret their lives . . .

but it may be especially important in emerging adulthood, because it is a

highly self-reflective time of life, a period when they think a lot about who

they are and what they want out of life. (pp. vii-viii)

This may be particularly true for individuals growing up in juvenile cor-

rectional facilities and preparing to return to the community as emerging

adults.

During the time of this study, each made the transition out of the institu-

tion and into adulthood, and I kept in touch with them through their first

months out. Through phone calls, personal visits, and updates from their

friends and families, I was able to keep tabs on each of them and to hear

how they were doing, what they were doing, and what they were thinking.

While it would have been beneficial to have more than five cases, it took

time to build mutual trust and cooperative relationships that could continueoutside of the walls. The institution, itself, chose not to keep records of its

graduates, preferring instead to cut the cord and hope for the best.

Additionally, while it is a small sample, the five individuals in this study fit

the specific profile of entering the institution as juveniles and exiting it as



8/25


legal adults. Their storylines (Agnew, 2006) and perspectives offer rich

detail and valuable insight into the process of prisoner reentry.

For this study, I have combined ethnographic methods of participant-observation with an element of the life history approach, concerned with a

faithful rendering of the subjects experience and interpretation of the

world he lives in . . . assigning major importance to the interpretations

people place on their experience as an explanation for behavior (Becker,

1966, p. vi). As prisoner reentry becomes an ever larger issue in the United

States, it seems particularly important to include the perspective of delin-

quent youths, themselves, in discussing the processes they go through in

returning to the community. As Messerschmidt (1999) suggested, onemust appreciate how adolescent male violent offenders construct and make

sense of their particular world, and comprehend the ways in which they

interpret their own lives and the world around them (p. 198). The thoughts

and feelings of emerging adults in the midst of leaving a juvenile correc-

tional facility are at the heart of this analysis.

Participants

The young men in this study were all violent offenders who had served,

on average, 3 years in one states end-of-the-line maximum security juvenile

correctional facility. Each of them came into the institution as juveniles; each

exited the razor-wire fence as legal adults. In real ways, they became col-

laborators in this research project: They shared their concerns and pointed out

what they believed to be the pressing questions. In ongoing conversations

throughout the latter part of their sentences, they specifically suggested that

the research focus on the process of getting out of the institution. It was their

primary concern, the biggest missing piece of the puzzle they faced in trying

to restart their lives after serving their allotted time for their offenses. While

names have been changed and identifying details have been left out of their

stories and their plans for the future in order to protect their anonymity, the

five individuals who offered their stories and perspectives to this analysis

were as follows: Kody, a 19-year-old African American, who had served 4

years in the institution; TJ, a 20-year-old African American, who was returned

to the institution after escaping his placement in a community group home;

Tony, a 20-year-old Latino, who had served more than 3 years and wasallowed to transition to a group home to complete his sentence; Alex, a

19-year-old Latino, who served more than 2 years; and Marco, a 19-year-old

Latino, finishing a 2 year sentence.



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Findings

This article focuses on the hopes and fears of boys literally growing upbehind bars, specifically looking at the experiences of five emerging adults

who had each spent several years incarcerated in a juvenile training school

and who went through the process of withdrawing from the inmate culture

during the time of this study. They looked to the future with great enthusi-

asm and great fear, and made plans they hoped they would be able to follow

once in the community. While many of the other boys in the cottage echoed

their sentiments, the five featured in this study seemed to capture much of

the feelings of individuals about to get out of the institution.

Looking to the Future: A View From Inside

Irwin (1970) suggested that looking outside and planning for the future is

an important activity in prison populations: Since the vast majority of con-

victs expect to return to the streets and they share their plans for this even-

tuality, the outside is an important dimension in the prison meaning world

(p. 86). In this cottage, as the individuals release dates approached and theybegan counting down the remainder of their sentences by days rather than

months and weeks, they faced the prospect of leaving the institution with

both excitement and trepidation. Their behavior in the cottage often changed

as they made the conscious choice to take fewer risks, no longer willing to

jeopardize their release over relatively minor annoyances inside. As Goffman

(1961) suggested, In total institutions staying out of trouble is likely to

require persistent conscious effort. The inmate may forego certain levels of

sociability with his fellows to avoid possible incidents (p. 43). As an exam-ple of this point, shortly before his transfer to a group home, Tony told me

that his roommate had offered to share marijuana with him that week, but he

chose not to indulge. In the past, he said that he would have engaged in the

illicit pleasure, but as his release neared, it no longer seemed worth the risk.

Earning the transfer to the group home had taken priority for him.

Others boys took the opposite approach and became less cautious, tak-

ing more risks and gambling more, once they had been assigned a firm

release date. Alex explained his own philosophy for getting along in the

cottage, saying, You learn to play the gameyou tell them what they want

to hear. . . . Its easy if you dont break the rules. He said that he often came

close to breaking the rules, that he would purposely toe the line, but that he

was careful not to blatantly cross that line. As he neared the end of his

sentence, I asked Alex whether the days were harder or easier with such



10/25


little time remaining in the institution. He replied that for him it was more

fun; he was able to take it all less seriously and be more of a smart-ass once

the end of his time in the institution was in sight.Similarly, their relationships with other boys in the cottage and staff mem-

bers seemed to take on less importance to each of the five emerging adults as

they counted down the days on their sentences. As their separate release dates

approached, Tony and Alex both withdrew from the people in the cottage,

bluntly commenting, What do I care what they think? The emphasis had

switched for them, from the immediacy of their peers in the cottage to a focus

on rebuilding their relationships with friends and families outside of the insti-

tution. They were able to start making plans for their futures without beingoverwhelmed by the frustration of their imprisonment. Wheeler (1961)

addressed this point and explained that the influence of the inmate culture

changes as an individuals release date approaches; inmates who are about to

reenter the community are more likely to embrace conforming values, and, in

fact, inmates appear to shed the prison culture before they leave it (p. 706).

In the process of shedding their training school culture, some of the boys

chose to spend more time alone during their last days in the cottage. Several

of them had attained high classification and status levels in the institutionby the time they left, and they faced the uncomfortable prospect of going

from being relatively big fish in a small pond to being on the lower rungs

of the social spectrum in their home communities. As the short-timers

turned their attention to concerns for the future, the immaturity and bravado

of the younger boys in the cottage seemed to become more annoying to

them. They said it was often easier to withdraw and ignore the other boys

in the cottage, rather than to listen and be forced to tolerate them.

Bartollas, Miller, and Dinitz (1976) suggested that boys about to be

released from juvenile correctional facilities have much on their minds:

During the final stage of institutionalization, these boys begin to demonstrate

extreme anxiety about making it in the community. They know that a return

to the old environment will be accompanied by the same temptations. . . .

Moody, insecure, but still determined, they make their way toward the day of

release. (p. 114)

Similar to the boys in this study, Bartollas et al. (1976) found in a differentend-of-the-line institution that some boys became more argumentative with

peers and began to dissociate from them as they completed their sentence.

Some of this anxious population chose to spend more time talking to sup-

portive staff members, discussing their plans and their worries about life on



11/25


the outside on their own. More than two decades later, it seemed that little

had changed.

Along with their other insecurities and fears, some of the individuals inthe cottage worried about having to further pay for past misdeeds. Tony, for

example, seemed nervous about crimes he had committed years earlier,

saying that he did not want to be punished for them so long after the fact,

now that he felt that he had grown up and changed. He asked several times,

They could have found me if they wanted me, right? He felt that he was

no longer the same person he was before he got locked up; he came into the

system as a kid, and 4 years later, he would come out to face the world as

an adult. He seemed a little intimidated at the thought, commenting, Yeah,hah? I wish I could just stay 17.

Plans of the Emerging Adults

Marco was planning to return to his hometown and live with his girl-

friend and his daughter. He was one of the few boys in the cottage whose

parents were still together, and he hoped to eventually be in a position to

take care of his mom and dad. In conversations toward the end of his sen-tence, it was clear that he had put a lot of thought into his plans for becom-

ing a more successful, smarter drug dealer on the outs. He said that his

time in the states toughest juvenile correctional facility had taught him

better ways to be a criminal and to make money; those were the skills that

he had learned and honed while in the juvenile justice system. Those were

the skills he would take with him when he left the institution.

Although Marco was clear about his plans to sell drugs when he got out, he

also talked about wanting to make his money and then translate it into a con-

forming business, possibly buying a video store or a theater because everyone

watches movies. He said that he didnt need to be a baller(a very successful

drug dealer), he just wanted to make enough money to take care of his daugh-

ter and his family and to maybe have a new car every year. Ultimately, his goal

was to make enough money so that he could go legit. He made clear that he

was not busted for selling drugs; he was caught for a drive-by shooting. He

claimed that he would not put in any more work for his gang, that he was

finished doing drive-bys. Instead, he would just selectively sell drugs and

make his money. His rationale is similar to a point that Irwin (1970) made:

Most deviants do not regret their past criminal actions, however; but they

often regret the stupidity and carelessness of their particular criminal careers.

Though they do not necessarily plan to refrain from all criminality, they often

plan to avoid the particular desperate cycle they were trapped in. (p. 89)



12/25


Tony was one of the few emerging adults in the Blue cottage who was

allowed to finish the last months of his sentence at a group home. After

serving 4 years in the maximum security facility, he was excited to get outof the institution, but he was also a little insecure. His insecurity made him

seem younger and more vulnerable than his 20 years. He had received his

final acceptance and was making plans to attend a university in a neighbor-

ing state, but he was worried about fitting in and making a good impression

in that unfamiliar setting. He said that he was thinking about getting his

tattoos (proclaiming his gang affiliation) removed, but, in the meantime, he

planned to buy a lot of long-sleeved shirts and wear them to class everyday

in order keep his past hidden from his new classmates. He wanted to avoidbeing labeled based on his appearance, hoping to hide his past and his dis-

credited status (Goffman, 1963) until the other students had a chance to get

to know the person he had become.

Alex, having watched his friends Tony and Marco leave the institution,

felt increasing levels of stress as his release date approached. One of his main

concerns was that he did not have a place to stay once he got out; he had

planned to move in with his girlfriend, but he said that they were both having

second thoughts. He was particularly frustrated by their problems because hefelt like he had been waiting for so long to get out, and once he had his free-

dom, he would have no place to go. At that point, he was not even sure he

would be able to find someone who would be willing to pick him up from the

institution when he was released. As he viewed it, his most realistic options

for the immediate future were illegal. He said that his drug dealing friends

had offered to stake him if that was what he wanted, which meant his baller

connections would lend him enough product to get him started selling drugs

and making money again. His second option was to go to California to stay

with his sister, which he also interpreted as an offer to sell drugs.

Although he claimed that he wanted to get out of the game, Alex basi-

cally resigned himself to the fact that he would probably return to selling

drugs when he was back out in the community. It was the one occupation in

which he knew that he could get paid (Sullivan, 1989). In discussing his prob-

able career dealing, he said that he believed that pretty much everyone

smoked marijuana, so the demand for his product would be high. In thinking

about business possibilities, he said that he could get marijuana for US$50

from his friend and then sell it for US$300. The way that he had it plannedand it was clear that he, like Marco, had planned out his future dealinghe

thought the only way he would get caught was if someone turned him in.

In one of our ongoing conversations over a period of many months, Alex

shared that he thought he was a pretty good person and that he would like



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to do good. In his ideal world, Alex said that he would like to work and

go to college but getting there was more complicated than it seemed. He

had filled out an application for admittance and was accepted to a commu-nity college, but he said that he was not able to send in his financial aid

forms because he did not know where he would be and he did not have a

home address to put on the form. Without financial aid, he said, college

would have to wait. Someday in his future, he thought he might like to live

in Colorado or someplace like that. With limited opportunity to travel

before his incarceration, Alex had never been to Colorado, but he said that

he thought that he would like to live in a place where it was hot in the sum-

mer and cold in the winter, someplace far away from his troubled past.Consistent with these wishes, Alex told me that he wanted to make money

and then get out of the life. Kody, too, had said almost the exact same thing

although for slightly different reasons. Like Marco and Alex, Kody also

claimed that his ideal 10 years down the road would be to live a straight life,

raising a family in some quiet little community where he could leave his past

behind him. All three of these emerging adults seemed to have the same

hopes and to share the vision of raising their own children in more conform-

ing situations. While they did not phrase it in sociological terms, it was clearthat they envisioned themselves aging out of crime (Gottfredson & Hirschi,

1990) and changing their life course trajectories (Laub & Sampson, 2003).

For Alex, crime was all about moneySelling drugs was simply the job

experience, the job skills, and the job connections that he had. Kody, on the

other hand, claimed to need the adrenaline that he got from engaging in ille-

gal activities; he said that he needed to get his fill of the rush before he could

get out of the game.

Kody eagerly anticipated getting out of the institution after being locked

up for nearly 5 of his 19 years. He faced the future with more confidence

than the others, secure in his abilities and his natural leadership and cha-

risma. He said that he would return to the city he grew up in and that he

planned to go back to selling dope for a while because he was addicted to

the fast life and needed to get it out of his system. He explained that he

hoped to eventually get out of the life and move away to a new neighbor-

hood and a new start, but first, he felt that he needed to get reinvolved in

the game. He claimed, however, that he would never be back in the justice

system. He believed, with an invincibility that was a clear reminder of hisyouth, that he would never be caught again. Rather, when he got out he

planned to sell dope, have a lot of sex, and then to essentially take the

money and run. Living through that transition would prove to be a chal-

lenge because Kody was certain that even though he had been locked up for



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several years, people would still remember him and would likely be look-

ing for him when he got out. He clearly believed his enemies had very long

memories.Knowing that he would have to find employment upon his release in

order to appease his parole officer Kody explained that he wanted to get a

job where he could sit in a back room somewhere and do his work. With

his enemies awaiting his return, he said that he did not want to work on the

front lines where someone could see him and come in and shoot up the

place. With such threats lurking, he said he would be prepared to duck

because I aint dying.

Kody was not the only resident in the institution who had threats hang-ing over his head. Several of the boys faced danger in getting out, as rival

gangs and other foes waited for their chance for vengeance. At least one of

the boys had a hit placed on him because his mother owed thousands of

dollars to a powerful drug dealer. While in the relative isolation of the insti-

tution, he had received death threats. Staff members were concerned for his

safety, and his counselor told me that the boys life would literally be in

jeopardy as soon as he exited the razor-wire fence of the institution, but

there was little that could be done to protect him after his release.In spite of the violence and the ugliness surrounding much of their lives,

many of the emerging adults in the cottage appeared to still believe in the

American dream. Most of the boys seemed to have accepted the mainstream

cultural goals and standards in some deep way, even though they had few

conforming role models and little access to attaining success through legiti-

mate means (Merton, 1957). They were essentially innovators who accepted

the cultural goal of wealth attainment and believed in the legitimate means of

attaining it, even though they were more likely to have access to illegitimate

means (Cloward & Ohlin, 1960; Merton, 1957; Sullivan, 1989). Some of

them held conforming occupational goals and many at least considered giv-

ing community college a try. Their goals were relatively modestOne boy

thought he might like to be a garbage man because it was honest work that

paid pretty well; others wanted to be counselors, hoping to someday help kids

like themselves (see the discussion of the professional ex- in Brown, 1991).

A couple of the boys hoped that their athletic abilities would open doors for

themThey spoke of wanting to play football in college, and with hard work

and a little luck, possibly earning the opportunity to play professionally.TJ shared one evening that a group of students from a state university

had come to tour the institution that day, and they had met with a number

of residents, including TJ, Kody, and Alex. TJ felt the students did not seem

to understand what the boys from the institutions lives were like, what



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choices they actually had. He explained how the students thought the boys

in the institution should just be able to go get jobs and work to put them-

selves through college to find a better life. Some of the university studentsused themselves as examples, stating that they were really poor or grew up

in bad neighborhoods but did not turn to criminal activity, how they instead

worked incredibly hard to get where they were. TJ said that he asked one

of the girls when she decided that she wanted to go to college. She said that

she had known for years, and TJ responded by telling her, Im 20 years old

and I dont even know if I want to finish high school.

TJ said that the boys from the training school talked about some of the

good things they were doing while in the institutionhow TJ had earnedhis cosmetology license, how Alex was accepted into community college,

how Kody was about to graduate from the institutions high school. He

explained to the university students that they can show that they are making

strides while in the institution, but it was going to be really difficult for

them when they got back on the outs after being incarcerated for so long.

TJ said one of the students asked about the residents going back to their old

friends and neighborhoods, and he agreed that it was a problem but made

the point that it is difficult to make new friends, saying, Do you want tomake a friend today? She apparently did not.

While all of the boys in the cottage looked forward to getting out of the

training school and returning to their families, friends, and neighborhoods, a

few echoed TJs concern about trying to make new friends. If you actually

want to change your life, they asked, where do you start? They knew that it

would probably take getting out of their old neighborhoods and making new

friends, but they generally did not know how to begin to make that happen.

In spite of the fact that their future plans often revolved around commit-

ting new crimes once they were released, many of the boys spoke of how they

could never handle being incarcerated again, saying that they had been

locked up for too much of their lives already. One told me that after being

locked up for several years, his mind just was not ready to do more time. In

separate conversations, two of the boys said that they would go out shoot-

ing if it came to thatThey would literally rather kill or be killed than be

locked up again. Whether such comments were a show of bravado or a dis-

turbing truth was difficult to determine, but the fact that they gave serious

consideration to such choices remains an important fact of their lives inside.Alex was the young man who seemed to have the fewest options and most

worries as his release date neared. He told me that most of his friends thought

he was dead or had moved; he did not think they knew he had been locked

up for several years. One friend he was still in contact with had told him that



16/25


he might be able to set him up with a job in construction, but he would first

need to purchase steel-toed boots and flannel shirts to be properly outfitted

for the work. Alex hoped to borrow US$100 from his grandparents in orderto buy work clothes, but he said, theyre kind of stingy with their money.

Ultimately, he hoped to work for a while and save enough money to attend

community college, but he had no clear career goals in mind.

First Months Out

Tony, at the age of 20 and only a few months before mandatory release on

his 21st birthday, was transferred to a group home to complete the last fewmonths of his sentence. At the group home, he was able to get a job through

a summer youth program; he enjoyed his job, saying that his boss was hella

cool. The job gave him a chance to earn money, to gain job skills, and to feel

normal again. He said in one conversation that he was learning to have fun

without drugs or alcoholan important step for him. After he was released

from the group home, Tony went to live with a cousin in a neighboring state.

He attended a state university and completed his first quarter with a 3.56

grade point average. His cottage counselor called from the institution tocheck in on him; when he hung up the phone, the counselor shouted with real

joy, Finally, a success! The success proved to be short lived, however. By

the next academic quarter, Tony had dropped out of school and all attempts

to locate or contact him have been unsuccessful.

Kody, without the option of finishing his sentence in a group home, returned

to the city and reentered the game, as he had always known he would. As he

had also predicted, he had many enemies waiting for him including, some

speculated, the police. A childhood friend of his told me that he heard that the

police were making bets on how long Kody would make it on the outs before

being sent to the pen. As it turned out, Kody was in jail within a few months

of his release. At the end of this study, the 19-year-old young man was facing

20 years in prison as he awaited trial for gun and drug charges.

Marco returned to his home community to live with his parents and

reunite with his girlfriend and daughter. Alex kept me updated on his prog-

ress, telling me Marco was arrested shortly after his release, but he claimed

it was just a case of mistaken identity and there were no long-term conse-

quences. Perhaps, more importantly, Marco lost the stable, legitimate jobhe had acquired. As Alex explained it, Marco was driving a forklift, which

he was not properly trained to do, and he ran it into another forklift. His

manager yelled at him and called him stupid. Unable to endure such an

insult, Marco challenged his manager to a fight. When his boss refused to



17/25


fight him, Marco walked out and quit. At last report, he was once again

using drugs and getting high, and he had not yet found a new job.

Institutionalization was a real fear for the individuals who embraced theidea of doing good but had not developed social skills suitable for the job

market or succumbed to deflated aspirations during their time in the train-

ing school (Inderbitzin, 2007). After their release, exhausted by the diffi-

culty encompassed in the daily struggle to lead conforming lives, the

individuals in this study sometimes considered incarceration a viable alter-

native to their struggles in the community.

As much as the emerging adults from the cottage may have looked for-

ward to getting out of the institution, their own observations and experi-ences suggested that some of their number would become dependent on the

structure that is so much a part of being incarcerated. A clear example was

provided when I spoke to Alex a few weeks after his release back into the

community. In a telephone conversation, he said that he was finding life

on the outs extremely difficult as he fought continuously with his live-in

girlfriend and was repeatedly turned down for even low-skill jobs. In voic-

ing his frustration, Alex added that maybe he belonged in jail, saying,

maybe I was more at peace when I was locked up. When reminded ofhow much he had hated the institution and complained about it when he

was there, he laughed sheepishly and agreed, but it seemed that he was

already forgetting what life in the institution had been like. Goffman (1961)

explained this process of selective amnesia like this:

And yet it seems that shortly after release the exinmate forgets a great deal

of what life was like on the inside and once again begins to take for granted

the privileges around which life in the institution was organized. The sense

of injustice, bitterness, and alienation, so typically engendered by theinmates experience and so commonly marking a stage in his moral career,

seems to weaken upon graduation. (p. 72)

In a later phone conversation, Alex told me that he was planning to go

across the state to see his old friends and make some money. He said one

of his friends was a drug dealer with a lot of money and resources. He had

offered Alex a job in one of the two legitimate businesses he owned, but

Alex felt certain if he moved to that community, he would get back intoselling drugs and the same old stuff. He had put in a couple of calls to an

exoffender program, which was supposed to help place him in a job, but

those working in the program never returned his calls. Alex was particu-

larly frustrated by his lack of options; he felt strongly that he had paid his



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dues and really tried to change while incarcerated, but the system then

kicked him out to try to make a new life all on his own.

Despite the turbulence of their relationship and the uncertainty of hiscircumstances, Alex married his girlfriend less than a month after his

release. After a long struggle to find employment, he moved to a different

city for a job; at last contact, he thought his new wife was pregnant. It was

difficult to predict how fatherhood would affect him, as Sullivan (2004)

explained,

Moving in with a partner and becoming a parent are high-risk events for a

young person sufficiently involved with the criminal justice system to haveexperienced secure confinement. Such an event can be an opportunity to start

over or it can turn into one more experience of failure in a downward spiral

of cumulative disadvantage. (p. 66)

TJ, already a father and with some experience living in the community

as an adult who served time in a group home, was highly motivated to get

a stable job with benefits in order to take care of his infant daughter. As a

first step, he returned to live with his grandmother in the city and planned

to use cottage staff members connections to get a foot in the door of con-forming employment. Similar to what others have found, in the short term,

at least, TJs love for his daughter and bid for paternal responsibility lost

out to the temptations of smoking marijuana and a life of relative leisure in

the community (Maruna, 2001). At last contact, his motivation to get a job

had dissipated; apparently aware that he would be unable to pass standard

drug screening tests, TJ had abandoned the job search.

In the first months after returning to their neighborhoods, the emerging

adults in this study found that the maturity and respect they had workedhard to earn in the institution did not easily translate to their lives out in the

community. Just as staff members warned the boys they would be little fish

if they ended up in adult prisons, they found themselves as little fish swim-

ming in unfamiliar terrain when forced to start new lives as adults in the

same communities in which they had struggled as youths.

Discussion and Conclusions

In this study, I have tried to give voice to a population that is rarely heard

(Lane, Lanza-Kaduce, Frazier, & Bishop, 2002): emerging adults strug-

gling to build lives for themselves after spending many of their formative



19/25


years in the juvenile justice system. As others have pointed out, even with-

out having been incarcerated, the risks associated with being a minority

male are alarming, and these social facts do little to help us understandwhat it means to come of age negotiating this social terrain (Hunter et al.,

2006, p. 424). By listening to even a small sample of emerging adults learn-

ing to stand alone (Arnett, 1998), we may gain a deeper understanding of

the issues they consider most important and what might be done to tilt the

odds in their favor.

Arnett (2004) found that emerging adults identify three criteria for the

self-sufficiency required for adulthood: taking responsibility for yourself,

making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent.While the emerging adults of this study may have experienced some of

these traits as adolescents, when they completed their sentences and left the

juvenile correctional facility, they had all three criteria forced upon them.

Even as they were excited by this chance at independence, they recognized

a frightening truth: The hated safety net of the institution would no longer

be there to support them.

The emerging adults in this study expressed their strong belief that the

transition out of a juvenile correctional facility was one of the most sig-nificant challenges they would ever face. Tony explained how difficult it

was to make the right decisions, especially for those former delinquents

who really wanted to make good (Maruna, 2001) and turn their lives

around. From his perspective, any significant attempt to improve the juve-

nile justice system should focus squarely on helping young offenders make

a successful transition back out in the community. As Petersilia (2001) sug-

gested, at the point of release, most inmates have an initial strong desire

to succeed (p. 361); for young people reentering the community as emerg-

ing adults, it is incumbent upon the juvenile justice system to support such

aspirations and to help them build the foundation for conforming lives.

Unfortunately, as shown in the stories and perspectives of the five emerg-

ing adults profiled in this article, individuals exiting the juvenile system face

a myriad of challenges with few resources at their disposal. In fact,

Despite its putatively rehabilitative aims, it is all too often the case that

young offenders finish their time with the justice system and move into the

adult world with just as many, if not more, problems than when they firstentered. (Steinberg et al., 2004, p. 23)

Youth returning from stints in juvenile prisons bring with them track

records of failures (Snyder, 2004, p. 54) and generally face the outside



20/25


world with little to no money or savings, few marketable skills, and no his-

tory in the legitimate labor market to help their employment prospects

(Sullivan, 2004). Maruna (2001) explained the problem clearly: Thesocially excluded street offenders in this sample face far more obstacles to

reintegration, because in most cases they were never integrated in the main-

stream in the first place (p. 14).

In the western state of this study, there was virtually no continuum of care

for emerging adults being released from juvenile institutions. Staff members,

steeped in the ideology of the administration and clear in the definition of

their own roles, spoke of having to cut the cord and sever contact with the

individuals they had helped to raise. One young man in the cottage clearlyrecognized the irony of this policy, remarking that it did not seem to make

sense to put adolescents in institutions for several years and to then drop them

completely as soon as their sentence expired. Because of that, he said, you

cannot make true friendships in such institutions, especially with the staff

members. The only friendships that seemed to survive involvement with the

juvenile justice system and remain readily available outside of the walls were

with deviant peers (Johnson, Simons, & Conger, 2004).

During the time they served in the institution, some attention was directedto basic education, and most of the boys were employed in menial labor

around the facility, arguably helping to teach them conformity to working

class values (Platt, 1977). Upon their release, however, the emerging adults

in this study found themselves at loose ends with a great deal of time and

freedom suddenly at their disposal. With little training or support from the

juvenile justice system or their home communities, none of the five made a

successfulor at least a directtransition to conforming adulthood. While

emerging adulthood is a time of life when many different directions remain

possible, when little about the future has been decided for certain (Arnett,

2000, p. 469), without a safety net or a clear transition plan, the boys in this

study put their futures at risk every time they walked out their doors and

every time they contemplated committing a new crime.

The juvenile justice system could certainly do more to help its young

charges prepare for life on their own. As Butts and Mears (2001) have

argued, Get-tough policies weakened the integrity of the juvenile justice

system, but growing evidence about the effectiveness of new ideas in pre-

vention and rehabilitation may save the system yet (p. 171). Less precari-ous bridges to the world outside of the institution could be built by

implementing wraparound services in the community (Pullman et al., 2006)

with better job training and the teaching of practical vocational skills,

which may translate into opportunities for employment. In addressing the



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emotional toll of returning home, more opportunities for counseling should

be offered to emerging adults experiencing stress and anxiety. After living

for years in relative isolation, juvenile correctional facilities could help toease the transition by offering to bring in amenable family members

(including parents, girlfriends, and children) for voluntary counseling ses-

sions. Having professional support available might be one way to help

smooth the path for a more successful reunion.

In addition to trying to work with willing family members, the juvenile

justice system should work to establish more effective community partner-

ships, helping again to bridge the gap between life in the institution and life

outside of the walls. Certainly for those requesting help, as Alex did whenhe repeatedly tried to get information from an exoffender program, there

should be someone there to answer the phone and offer some advice.

Connecting volunteer mentors with exoffenders looking for support and

guidance might ease the transition to adult freedoms and responsibilities.

Tony and TJ, the two boys who spent part of their sentences in community

group homes, were in the best position to successfully take responsibility for

their own lives and actions. Time in the group homes allowed these emerging

adults to get a taste of freedom, but more importantly, they were placed injobs where they could learn new skills and build a record of employment in

the labor force. Both Tony and TJ were able to earn and save money from

those jobs; those funds were then waiting for them upon their release. Unlike

Alex, they did not feel compelled to turn to their criminal friends to get staked

in the hopes of earning some quick cash. Since every individual adjudicated

delinquent in this study would be released no later than his 21st birthday, it

would make sense to provide more options for these young offenders to fin-

ish their sentences at group homes where they can get jobs and earn and save

money for their transition to independent lives.

Anderson (1999) suggested that outlook is key and he generally argued

that the community needs to do more to help its young people develop

conforming aspirations. Further, the community should then support those

aspirations by making conforming choices and opportunities readily avail-

able to the youth who seek them. This seems especially true for juvenile

offenders returning to the community after being locked up for months and

years, young people who have literally grown up behind bars and emerged

as adults with a whole new world of choices and consequences awaitingthem. Anderson (1999) explained,

Simply providing opportunities is not enough. Young people must also be

encouraged to adopt an outlook that allows them to invest their considerable



22/25


personal resources in available opportunities. In such more positive personal

circumstances, they can be expected to leave behind the attitudes, values and

behavior that worked to block their advancement into the mainstream. Atpresent, it is clear, many of these young men and their female counterparts

are being written off by a mainstream society, a truth they know full well.

And the world is poorer for their loss. (p. 289)

As Anderson eloquently suggested, the five young men in this study

Alex, Tony, Marco, Kody, and TJwere clearly written off by their fami-

lies, their communities, and by the juvenile justice system charged with

raising them into emerging adulthood. The individuals in this study walked

out of the juvenile institution full of excitement, hope, trepidation, and fear,

and within a matter of months, each was overcome by the frustration of

trying to find their way in a world that made no place for them.

The potential in each of them withered during their time in the institu-

tion, and they keenly felt the lack of opportunities upon their release. These

emerging adults who had survived difficult childhoods and endured the

pains of imprisonment (Inderbitzin, 2006; Sykes, 1958) with admirable

resilience during their adolescence faced the biggest challenge of their

young lives when they left the institution. Arnett (2004) suggested,

For people who are unhappy, who feel their lives are headed in the wrong

direction, who desire to make a dramatic change for the better, emerging adult-

hood is the time to do it . . . emerging adulthood represents an opportunity

maybe a last opportunityto turn ones life around. (p. 190)

The possibility for fresh starts and dramatic change seemed to fade quickly

for this population; the stakes seem to be raised for offenders exiting the

states end-of-the-line juvenile facility. They were fully aware that if they

returned to crime, their next conviction would earn them a stint in adult

prison.

In watching the five individuals of this study make the transition from

the institution to their first months back in the community, it became clear

that they were truly lost when left on their own and expected to behave as

responsible adults. As representatives of a much larger group of incarcer-

ated adolescents, their experiences suggest that emerging adults leaving

juvenile correctional facilities will have a particularly hard time changingthe trajectories of their lives. Equipped with few resources, they face enor-

mous challenges and the highest stakes of their young lives: Mistakes made

at this precarious juncture will have effects long into adulthood.



23/25


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Michelle Inderbitzin is an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University. Her

research interests are primarily in juvenile corrections, juvenile justice, prison culture, and

prisoner reentry; her research on these topics has been published in theJournal of Adolescent



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Research,Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, International Journal of Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology, and theJournal of Transformative Education. Along with her on-

campus courses, she currently teaches classes and works with adult male inmates in theOregon State Penitentiary and Oregon State Correctional Institution, and with young women

in the states primary juvenile correctional facility for females.

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Journal of Adolescent Research 2009 Inderbitzin 453 76

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