Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition

Reentry after release from incarceration is often presented as a story of redemption. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Those being released must navigate the reentry process with diminished legal rights and amplified social stigmas, in a journey that is often confusing, complex, and precarious. Making use of life—history interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic fieldwork with low—income urban residents of color, primarily Black men, Calvin John Smiley finds that reentry requires th...