51
The Re-Entry of Ex-Offenders:
A Study of a Halfway House
Linda Sue Miller
For years we have had the police apprehend offen-
ders, turn them over to the courts and prosecutors,
who in turn commit them to prison - none taking the
burden of seeing the results of their jurisdiction after
punishment.
Johnnie Poindexter (1976)
All ex-offenders face a difficult period of transition
upon release from prison and return to "free" society.
Few agencies or individuals are aware of the hardships
of re-entry, and even fewer members of society have
accepted the responsibility to amend the situation.
The halfway house, which is the setting of my
fieldstudy, is one of the few institutions which attempts
to facilitate ex-offender re-entry. In this paper I will
focus on the ex-offender's period of transition be-
tween penal and "free" society: his or her necessity to
adapt to regained autonomy, the time "lost" from
"free" society, and the stigma of being labelled an
"ex-convict."
Originally, I had planned on conducting my
fieldwork at a coed or female halfway house, hoping
that I would have the opportunity to actually live in the
house. I was disappointed at the uncooperative reac-
tions I was greeted with by many Bay Area female
halfway houses. One halfway house director decided
that the house was too small for a fieldstudy. One
director did not want the residents or the staff to "be
subject to a fieldworker's interrogation." A state-
controlled work furlough program postponed my
fieldstudy because of clearance procedures, although
the residents' visitors are not required to obtain this
clearance. After my discouraging encounters with
coed and female halfway houses I toyed with the idea
of conducting a fieldstudy on the seclusiveness of
halfway houses. Then I approached an all-male half-
way house. I met with Paul Dickson of Allied Fellow-
ship Service and my fieldstudy on ex-offender re-
entry became possible.
Background
It is important to keep in perspective the process of
which the halfway house is a part. There were
1,068,907 adults arrested in California in 1975
(California Department of Justice 1974-5). There
were 16,575 adults sentenced to jail or prison in
California that same year (State of California 1975). A
1972 estimate indicates that for every one hundred
crimes, fifty are reported, which lead to twelve arrests,
six convictions and two offenders sent to jail (Taggart
1972:6). The large discrepancy between the number
of crimes committed and the number of adults sent to
prison is the result of complex cultural and economic
problems, ranging from plea bargaining and what
criminologists call "the theory of normal crimes," to
poverty and racism in the legal system.
After a period of years (minimally one third of one's
sentence) a prisoner can be released on parole. The
majority return to prison or jail within six months;
within five years, seventy-five percent of them are back
in jail. Until 1962, parolees were by law restricted from
associating or living with each other. The California
Department of Corrections considered this communi-
cation to be only detrimental to the ex-offenders' re-
habilitation. In 1962, CDC formally agreed to allow
certain facilities to house parolees for the purpose of
assisting their re-entry into society. This was the be-
ginning of ex-offender halfway houses.
Allied Fellowship House:
Structure, Ideology and Rules
At Allied Fellowship House I conducted a one-
month fieldstudy. I visited the house at least five days a
week - observing, interviewing over twenty staff and
residents, and participating as much as I could. Both
staff and residents knew my status as a fieldworker. All
interviews were voluntary and I have used
pseudonyms for all the residents involved.
In 1962, AFS began to provide its services to
parolees. The Fellowship believes that by providing a
man with room and board, they are alleviating a basic
worry. With this service, together with job and educa-
tional counseling, the ex-offender can ease back
rather than be shocked back - into society.
AFH is composed of two large old houses in East
Oakland. They are decorated with poems and posters
expressing the equality of people of all races. The
Tenth Avenue house consists of living quarters for
nine parolees and one house manager, upstairs. In the
downstairs there are the dining room, living room,
kitchen, and office. The Ninth Avenue house consists
of living quarters only. Here, the capacity is ten
parolees and one house manager.
Currently Paul Dickson serves as director, Jennifer
is Paul's assistant, Rocky is house manager, Bennie and
Johnnie are assistant house managers, and Rachael is
the job and educational counselor.The house man-
ager, his two assistants, and the cook, Herman, are all
ex-convicts. Their past experience as prisoners serves
two beneficial functions: 1) they know exactly what
incarceration and re-entry entail, and 2) this under-
standing can diminish the distance and resentment
that usually prevail between staff and residents in
offender-related institutions. Staff and residents have
a common basis of communication, and the staff can
serve as a positive role model.
AFH does not structure communication or daily
activities, but tries to maintain a substitute family at-
mosphere. The men live together in a cooperative
situation with each person having the responsibility of
a chore and to clean up after himself. The men are
expected to be considerate and respectful of all in the
house but there are no false expectations that the men
are to feel the closeness of kin with each other.
There are only four major rules at AFH which all
men must agree to:
1) Alcohol in any form is not permitted in either
house or on the premises.
2) Drugs in any form other than tobacco are
prohibited.
3) Violence or threats of violence against anyone
are prohibited.
4) Possession of any weapon is prohibited.
If any man breaks any of these rules he can be and will
be expelled immediately from the program and the
house. The staff's philosophy is that the program itself
is not worth risking or ruining for one man.
The Residents
At AFH I met a total of nineteen residents. Thirteen
of the men are Black, three are Chicano, and three are
White. Nearly all of the men are from lower-class
families. The men live in the halfway house by choice
and because they have no other place where they can
go. Often they have little, if any, communication with
their families.
At this time in their lives, they often focus on prison
and legalities rather than on their return to "free"
society. Legal jargon, legal issues, prison experiences
and cliche's such as "life of crime" are woven into their
speech. The residents more often describe themselves
as "cons" (convicts) or "addicts" than as "ex-
offenders." Prison experiences affect not only their
speech but even their choice of heroes. George
Jackson, a famous prisoner of Soledad Prison, is often
mentioned in a heroic sense. It seems as if the men
have not yet internalized their recent change in status.
The men sometimes categorize themselves accord-
ing to the type of crime they have committed and the
severity of the prison they were sentenced to. First,
approximately half of the residents have committed
drug-related crimes, such as burglary or pimping, in
order to purchase heroin. They often refer to them-
selves as "addicts" or sarcastically as "dope fiends."
These men were sentenced to drug offender prisons
or occasionally to the more severe state penitentiaries.
Second, a few of the men were labeled as "crazy"
because of the suicidal way in which they had commit-
ted a crime. It was as if they had wanted to be caught.
These men were confined to a hospital-like prison or a
county jail.
A third category could include those men that had
committed severe acts of violence. These men usually
had grown up in a ghetto where violence was accepted.
Their crimes are not isolated acts but rather part of a
consistent pattern in their lives. Although there are
men in prison who have committed other types of
crime, such as embezzlement, forgery and sex-related
crimes, these men usually do not come to live in half-
way houses, although at the time I conducted my
fieldstudy at AFH there were exceptions: two men in
the house had committed rape.
Of the nineteen residents and six staff members that
I met, I extensively interviewed seven men. I have
chosen to include three life histories in this article, one
from each of the above crime categories. These men
differ according to the type of crime they have com-
mitted, the severity of the penitentiary they were sen-
tenced to, and the degree to which they have made
progress in re-entry.
Hector
My first contact with a resident occurred in the mid-
dle of a Friday afternoon in May. Hector needed
transportation to a job interview. I offered to drive
him and we talked during the forty-five minute car
ride. Hector was born in a Los Angeles ghetto
Spanish Harlem. He grew up knowing the streets and
their violence, but he was not actively involved in street
life. At nineteen Hector, a married man by then, began
to shoot heroin. To support his habit Hector robbed.
For a few years he was able to keep his job and support
his habit with burglaries. By 1973, Hector's habit cost
him $100 to $200 a day. Hector lost his job and began
to pimp his wife to support his habit. A few months
later he was arrested on a burglary charge, but he was
quickly released on his "Own Recognizance" (OR).
Immediately, Hector left town (violating parole and
OR) and moved to Northern California to stay with his
sister.
At his sister's house, Hector seriously thought about
his life and his situation. He decided to "dry up" and
"do something." In a few weeks he had "kicked his
habit" and enrolled in school. In school he learned
about "his people" (Mexicans) and his "complexes"
(Chicano psychology). Although Hector was violating
his parole, he single-handedly undertook the process
of re-entry. A Chicano community program hired
Hector as a youth coordinator and for ten months
Hector successfully worked as a part of the "institu-
tion." After ten months Hector decided to inform his
parole officer of his whereabouts. Though his parole
officer accepted Hector's re-entry, there was still a
warrant out for his arrest from when he had been
released on his OR. Hector went back to the courts to
52
be proven guilty and sentenced to nine months. After
ninety days Hector went before the parole board. He
explained to the board that he had successfully re-
habilitated himself without their help and for this he
wanted to be released, but he was refused because of
his "attitude toward parole." One hundred eighty
more days passed before Hector was released from
prison.
Each week passed without a job. Hector began to
"fall back into his old ways." Fortunately, his
parole officer understood the situation and referred
him to AFH. Here, Hector has been helped in his
job efforts. He is working temporarily as a salesperson
at a clothing store and at the same time Rachael (the
job counselor) has been providing Hector with job
interviews for permanent work. Hector feels that AFH
has "saved" him. He states that he likes the staff be-
cause they are capable and, more importantly, because
they treat him like a capable person. Hector regards
the staff as people who try to understand and work
with him. He says that it is not important to him that
the house managers are ex-convicts, though he does
feel that the staff should understand his minority
status as a Chicano and as an ex-convict.
Hector firmly believes that he will be able to "make
it" again. Before Hector moved into AFH he had stop-
ped believing this. Now Hector also ahs a good possi-
bility of winning a large sum of money in a law suit
regarding his wife's death. Hector believes that if he
can locate a job and if he avoids the temptation of
associating with - as he describes them - other "dope
fiends," he will once again be able to re-enter society.
Hector holds an opinion common to many residents
in the halfway house i.e., that ex-convicts have a very
difficult time findingjobs and yet, ironically, they sup-
ply many-jobs to other people -judges, lawyers, jail
guards, and parole officers. Even more ironic is the
fact that the very ex-convicts who are the staff mem-
bers of the house have their jobs only because of other
ex-offenders. Hector seems to be saying that people
should be grateful to ex-offenders for while present-
ing their cases in court, serving time, and reentering
society, they were creating jobs. Many ex-convicts ex-
pressed this same idea that people in "free" society owe
something to ex-convicts. The more traditional view is
that offenders are imprisoned because offenders owe
something to society. Who owes whom? Who oppres-
ses whom? The perspective an individual holds is de-
termined by which side of the cell wall he or she has
lived on.
Phil
Phil is a young man who is having a harder time than
most fitting into the program. He is less reserved and
less cautious than most of the men. Possibly this is
because he has not gone through typical incarceration
nor has he ever been completely immersed in a "life of
crime" or street life, as many of the residents have.
Phil was born in Virginia, fifth in a family of thirteen
children. His mother moved them often from rela-
tives' homes to apartments to housing projects.
"Moms" was strict - a churchgoer and a hard worker.
She always did small jobs - such as making aprons -
to make a little extra money. His father was in the
service and visited them when he was on leave. Phil
always felt as if they were the poorest family in the
poor neighborhoods that he grew up in. He describes
himself as the "cooty boy" and he blames it on his
economic situation. Phil spent most of his life in Ohio,
not very happy and very interested in "little girls." The
illegal involvement he did have consisted of the candy
stealing that he and his sister did. As he looks back on it
now, Phil laughs at the foolishness of not stealing
something better to eat. He and his sister knew it was
"wrong" but if you are hungry it seems all right. They
never told "Moms."
At age fifteen, Phil ran away from home because of a
conflict with his mother. He moved in with an older
sister. Later he moved back home because he was
wrongly accused of stealing money from his sister's
house. He had stopped going to school by this time,
though he liked school. After two weeks of living with
his mother again, Philjoined thejob Corps and moved
into their dormitory. Phil said that he learned about all
kinds of people there - homosexuals, pimps, older
ladies that sleep with young boys, and drug dealers. He
"learned how to talk to ladies" - to say what he
thought they wanted to hear. But still Phil was a fairly
quiet boy. He worked, earned money, bought nice
clothes and a car, and then he moved home.
This time at home Phil was no longer a "cooty boy."
He said that he developed "instant friends." He was
and is very skeptical of friends of this sort. Phil feels
that most people are only your friends when things are
good and as soon as things turn bad, friends are
nowhere to be found. Phil declares that he is not this
type of friend.
He was not happy living at home, and he had too
much "pride" to stay with other people. Phil lived in his
car for five months and then joined the Navy. He did
not like the Navy but he did like the economic security.
Phil went to Viet Nam as a volunteer radio controller
on a ship. He stated that there were ghettos and pre-
judice on the boat as there are in the city. Phil has a
tendency to notice races and expect racism in every
situation, even in "nonracist" environments such as
halfway houses, and this attitude may account for his
conflicts with many men in the house.
After two years of the Navy, Phil moved to Oakland,
worked as a janitor, and started college. By this time
he had become a more outspoken person. At this
time in his life he was independent and economically
secure. He had "pretty lady friends," though he
thought that most of them were just interested in his
money. He also had a good male friend and his situa-
tion seemed secure.
Then evervthing collansed- Phil wAs ]Air off hic inh
53
and missed three days of class looking for a new job, so
he was dismissed from school. Soon, he found himself
without any money and without anything to do. He did
not want to return to the Navy and he was too "proud"
to ask for help from his friends or family, so he walked
into an Oakland bank and wrote a note asking for
money. The bank teller handed over the money and
Phil drove home. The police caught him sooner than
he had expected because a citizen had reported Phil's
license plate number.
Phil said that he had anticipated jail. He decided to
act crazy in order to be sentenced to a prison for the
mentally disturbed. In fact, Phil thinks that playing
crazy was a courageous and smart plan. He stated that
''not many criminals have the courage to be labeled
crazy, on account that it will be on your record all of
your life." His ploy was successful. Phil thought the
mental hospital prison was "like heaven!" He said
there was a library and it was possible to sit and study
all day. After ninety days Phil was asked if he wanted to
leave, but he replied that he was not ready yet.
During his stay in the institution Phil's mother vis-
ited him once. Other outside contact consisted of the
information that staff members and certain prisoners
provided. After one year, Phil decided that he was
ready to return to society. Phil is now waiting at AFH
for final court approval of his release, but he is having
a difficult time finding ajob. Phil begins college again
this summer. He wants to become a psychiatric techni-
cian, or a narrator for a tour, or a speech therapist in
an elementary school.
Phil is a controversial resident at the halfway house.
Many men feel that he tries too hard for attention and
that he is obnoxious. A few men accept him as a "good
little kid." Part of the staff does not feel that Phil
should be in the program because he is a nuisance.
Another part of the staff feels that his personality
should not determine his program eligibility. The staff
solved this problem just recently by arranging for Phil
to be placed in another halfway house that requires
less autonomy.
Most of Phil's life has been spent in a state of inse-
curity. He grew up in economic insecurity. Then he
chose Job Corps and the Navy for security. Again his
economic situation fell apart. This time Phil looked to
psychiatric penal institutionalization for security. Now
Phil is ready to try aain. AFH tried to help and now
another halfway house is providing aid. Where will
Phil go next if his economic security is again
threatened?
Bennie
Bennie, an assistant house manager at AFH, was
incarcerated in a maximum security state penitentiary
for a total of six years. These six years in prison have
had a great impact on Bennie's life. Bennie was born
on a farm in Oklahoma. He first saw an automobile
when he was ten years old. Now, Bennie drives a
motorcycle and a Cadillac (a present from a "lady-
friend") and wishes that his house were on wheels.
Bennie appears to lead the fun life of a bachelor, but
there is also in Bennie a sincere concern for ex-
offenders. He wants to help other ex-convicts and he
has found that the only legal way to do this is through
an institution such as AFH. At AFH Bennie can help
other ex-convicts learn to "survive" on the "outside."
The difference between survival on the "outside"
and survival on the "inside" (prison), Bennie
explained, is that on the "outside" people must play
certain games. '.'There is a whole society in prison," he
said. "San Quentin is a city. Everything that goes on on
the 'outside' goes on in there, except in prison it is
more intense." In prison, Bennie sees the games as
being stripped away. In prison, he became aware of
people's needs. Bennie also became aware of himself.
"I can't remember how things were before prison,"
he declared. Now, out of prison and working, Bennie
still does not consider himself as a part of the "institu-
tion." (This same view is held by Johnnie, the other
assistant manager.) Bennie has learned to adapt to
"free" society, but he still feels separate from it. His
process of re-entry consists of acceptance and minimal
mental adaptation to society's rules, games, and
wrongs. The games that San Quentin stripped from
him have now returned to confront him.
Bennie's prison experience has made him feel alien-
ated from the "institution," the President of the Un-
ited States, and the "games of free society," but he has
adjusted in order to live in "free" society. His analysis
is that he adapts to the games, rules and wrongs so as
not to be wronged by them. Like many residents at
AFH, he forcefully declares that he will not be put back
in prison again.
Life at AFH
When I visited AFH, the staff, residents and I ate
dinner together, watched "the fights," together, and
talked with each other. The residents have only one
organized group activity and that is dinner. At dinner,
announcements are made and at Wednesday's dinner
a very informal meeting is held in which residents and
staff discuss minor grievances. Dinners are not man-
datory, so sometimes there are slip-ups in group com-
munication, but important personal communication
occurs privately and follows no particular schedule.
The residents of AFH appreciate the halfway house,
but they have their reservations. As mentioned before,
ex-offenders do not feel that they owe anything to
society to compensate them for the amount of time
they spent and worked in prison. Therefore, any
seemingly unnecessary demands that the house places
on the residents are quickly spoken against. For exam-
ple, at one Wednesday dinner meeting that I attended
Rocky told the residents that they were not allowed to
install inside locks on their bedroom doors. He re-
minded the residents that they already have outside
54
locks and that inside locks could only mean one thing
- that something is happening inside the room that
the staff should not find out about. Rocky asked for
comments and Hector voiced an objection, stating that
a man needs his privacy. Rocky answered by saying
that a man could suddenly have a heart attack or an
epileptic fit and if the door was locked it could cost the
man his life. Dinner table conversation changed but
the issue did not seem resolved. After dinner Rocky
approached Hector in the kitchen and said that he
respects the residents' privacy but he also becomes
suspicious if he knocks on a door and a man does not
want to allow him to enter for five minutes. Rocky said
that this makes him wonder if the man has a lady
upstairs or if he is shooting drugs or drinking alcohol.
"Why won't the man open his door? What does he have
to hide?" Rocky asked. Hector conceded Rocky's ar-
gument and the issue was settled.
The men are tired of being restricted and they do
not expect a halfway house to restrict them. Even
though the residents of AFH have fewer restrictions
placed upon them than any other halfway house in the
area, they will quickly protest any personal in-
fringements that the staff sees as necessary. Protesting
and a show of temper follow and then the staff and
residents try to reason with each other calmly and
rationally. The staff, of course, makes the final deci-
sion but hopefully the decision seems just.
Society's Part in Re-Entry
The common factor for most of the ex-offenders at
AFH is a past of poverty. Johnnie, the assistant house
manager, described it as the hypocrisy of growing up
oppressed. He grew up in a Black ghetto where the
elementary school teachers tell the children that
everyone in America can work and become rich, but
then Johnnie would walk home to stand in the un-
employment line with his father who needed and
wanted ajob but was unable to get one. The hypocrisy
and oppression extended even further. When young
Black boys vandalize or steal, they are often met with
kicks and racist shouts from police rather than being
properly scolded or apprehended, Johnnie explained.
He completed his explanation by telling me that when
a person is oppressed by someone who seems un-
reachably far away, the oppressed person strikes back
by oppressing someone else.
If the "hypocrisy" of the United States' economic
and racial patterns help to determine a man's de-
viance, the same hypocrisy will also affect the man's
re-entry into "free" society from prison. If an ex-
offender once again faces the old hypocrisies and he is
not satisfied with unemployment or welfare checks,
most likely he will once again offend the rules of soci-
ety. Mike is an AFH resident who will not be satisfied
with unemployment nor a low paying job. Although
Mike is only nineteen, his past income, though illegally
obtained, was well over ten thousand a year. He be-
lieves that to "live comfortably" in the U.S. a man
needs to earn twenty to thirty thousand a year. Mike
explained to me that if he can find a job that pays
twenty to thirty thousand a year, he will "stay clean." If
he can not find a job which pays this much, part of
Mike's income will again be illegally obtained. Mike
grew up with street life income and he accepts its
availability. Economics and discrimination greatly af-
fect every man's life. This is true for an employed man,
an unemployed man, an offender and an ex-offender.
When an ex-offender is released from prison he
does not expect that he will often be harshly discrimi-
nated against after he is released. He soon realizes that
even though he served his time in prison he still is not
accepted into society as an equal. AIn ex-offender al-
ways carries the stigma of a deviant.
I asked one resident if he is honest about his past as
an offender to prospective employers. He explained
that if he receives a job application that asks, "Have
you ever been arrested?" he knows that the employer is
not ready to accept him as an equal and he "may as well
not bother to apply." Another resident told me that
sometimes he will answer honestly to such questions,
but often he will lie. Then, if he is hired, after a week or
two he will tell his employer that he is an ex-convict.
The resident feels that if his employer can see him
work efficiently then perhaps the resident's ex-
offender status will not determine his eligibility for the
job. This resident feels that often he is judged by his
ex-offender status alone.
"Free" society must be receptive to ex-convicts in
order for ex-convict re-entry to occur. The ex-convict
quickly becomes aware of the dilemma: that society's
relationship with its deviants is hypocritical. Society
expects its ex-offenders to rehabilitate; yet at the same
time society does not accept its offenders as ever being
totally rehabilitated. The ex-offender - especially the
ex-felon - does not regain equal status after impris-
onment. The ex-felon no longer has the right to vote,
may notjoin the police force and may not be employed
by civil service agencies. Many companies will not hire
ex-convicts because ex-convicts are considered a fi-
nancial risk by bonding agencies. Society's punishment
of its offenders extends beyond imprisonment, and
a society which does not fully re-integrate its ex-
offenders punishes them for life.
The Halfway House's Part in Re-Entry
Like all people, ex-offenders need food, shelter and
clothing. In order to obtain these things a man must be
employed. A job is probably the most determining
factor in a man's re-entry. (See Hector.) AFH believes
that if an ex-offender is to re-establish himself in the
community he needs to be employed or enrolled in
school. At AFH, Rachael and Jennifer both concen-
trate on this facet of re-entry. Rachael learns where
and when job openings are available and sometimes
she will even develop ajob for a resident. Skills Bank,
55
an organization which helps ex-offenders locate jobs,
is another employment resource for AFH residents,
and The California State Employment Development
Department is also accessible.
Every weekday, Monday through Friday, a man is
expected to be awake and out of bed by nine o'clock.
He is to spend the majority of the day searching for a
job or taking care of other relevant business, such as
applying for a social security card or driver's license or
finding a place to live. At the end of the week each man
writes a progress report on his activities. Rachael and
Jennifer read the progress reports and continuously
meet with the men to discuss more job or educational
options and to discuss specific problems that a man
might meet while job seeking. This one-to-one contact
between staff and residents is an example of the in-
formal counseling provided at AFH. If a staff member
notices that a resident is having problems, regarding
employment or otherwise, the staff member meets
with the resident privately to discuss the problem and
possible solutions.
Economic insecurity and society's hypocricies are
major problems in ex-convict re-entry. If a man can
reach a position of economic security and if he can
survive and overcome discrimination, then he will be
able to re-enter society. Again, of course, this is contin-
gent on whether society will accept him. Obviously,
this is difficult to achieve. AFH, by assisting the ex-
offender in his first two months out of prison, has
made successf'ul re-entry more realistic. Whereas the
recidivism rate for an unaided ex-offender is between
seventy-five and eighty-five per cent, AFH's re-
cidivism rate is below twenty-five per cent.
The process of re-entry is a very tenuous, critical
period in an ex-offender's life. His nervousness is ex-
pressed by the quantity of cigarettes he smokes and the
quantity of'liquor he consumes. His first step in solving
the problems is facing them. If an ex-offender views
his dilemma realistically he has a greater chance of
successf'ul re-enitry. With job and educational counsel-
ing from a group of concerned people, the process of
re-entry can be eased a great deal. With an aware and
receptive society, re-entry can become a complete real-
ity.
members of' society who ar-e personially confironted
with ex-offender re-entry. I could begiin by interview-
ing the families and fr-iends of ex-offenders. Another
possible source would be employers and bonding
agencies.
Allied Fellowship House serves a purpose in the
process of re-entry. It provides men with basic survival
ingredients and lessens worries. AFH aids an ex-
offender in his critical transition period. I feel very
grateful toward AFH. I appreciate the institution and
staff for taking an active part in the re-entry process,
and I feel thankful to the staff and residents for being
cooperative and open with me in a crucial period of
their lives. I hope I did AFH justice in describing the
institution, the staff and the residents in their efforts to
confront the difficult psychological and sociological
problems of ex-offender re-entry.
REFERENCES CITED
Poindexter, Johnnie
1976 "A Report on Allied Fellowship." Oakland:
Allied Fellowship Service.
State of California
1974-5 "California Department of Justice Report
on Crime and Delinquency."
1975 California State Abstract
Taggart, Robert
1972  The Prison of Unemployment. John Hopkins
University Press.
Conclusion
This fieldstudy has been heavily influenced by an
ex-convict perspective - perhaps too heavily. The
attempt has been to provide insight into ex-convict
re-entry as experienced by the ex-offenders them-
selves. By studying a halfway house and by interview-
ing only ex-offenders, I am focusing my study on the
situation that the individual exconvict must face and
how he does or does not confront it. I chose to focus on
the individual rather than focusing on the society
which also faces or avoids the situation of deviant
re-entry.
If' I were to expand on this study I could study
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