Visualizing masculine identity narratives as central to the re-entry process

This article draws on data from a set of visual ethnographic interviews with men within six weeks of release from incarceration. This liminal timeframe is when individuals grapple with the reality of their incarceration while also imagining what their life will be like on the outside. Scholarship has focused on the way individuals plan for, and are provided support for, material realities like employment and housing upon release. I argue that scholars must also be attuned to identity-level experiences of prerelease re-entry, as identity narratives that emerge during this timeframe fundamentally shape a person’s re-entry experience. This article focuses on one key identity narrative: that of the masculine self, further mediated by racial and class-based identities. During prerelease re-entry, men form narratives about performing masculinity during incarceration, and how they hope to embody what it means ‘to be a man’ upon returning home. I explore how intersectional identity narratives, steeped in social and ideological norms, fundamentally shape possibilities of the re-entry process.