Building Bridges: Exploring Support Systems of Justice-Involved Individuals

Having access to a person who encourages prosocial behavior and discourages antisocial behavior for justice-involved individuals is a key factor in the reentry process. The gender-responsive literature suggests that social support is an especially salient factor for justice-involved women. However, limited research has examined positive support person’s willingness to become involved in the reentry process. Using a sample of 179 justice-involved men and women enrolled in a reentry program designed to train support persons in rehabilitative skills, the current study aims to examine the willingness of support persons of justice-involved individuals to attend a reentry program. The findings demonstrated that less than half of justice-involved individuals had support persons participate in the program. Furthermore, women were significantly less likely to have support persons attend the reentry program than men. The implications of these findings for reentry and the gender-responsive framework are discussed.