An Assessment of Prisoner Reentry, Legal Financial Obligations and Family Financial Support: A Focus on Fathers

Andrea N. Montes, Danielle Wallace, Chantal Fahmy, Abigail Henson, Alyssa W. Chamberlain and Leah A. Jacobs
Additional contact information
Andrea N. Montes: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
Danielle Wallace: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
Chantal Fahmy: Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, College for Health, Community and Policy, University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 West Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., San Antonio, TX 78207, USA
Abigail Henson: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
Alyssa W. Chamberlain: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
Leah A. Jacobs: School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-17

Abstract: Scholars have found that family support is an important facilitator of successful reentry from prison to the community. At the same time, they have argued that owing court-ordered fines or fees, also called legal financial obligations (LFOs), can act as an additional barrier to reentry, especially for parents. There remains a need to test how LFOs impact the financial support formerly incarcerated parents receive from their families. The current study responds to this gap by employing logistic regression analyses of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data to test whether owing court fees is associated with formerly incarcerated fathers’ (1) perceptions of available financial support from family and (2) receipt of financial support from family. We find that owing court fees is not associated with perceptions of available financial support. However, owing court fees has a positive, statistically significant association with receiving financial support from family during the first three months after prison release. This relationship remains after accounting for whether the person owes child support or sees their children monthly. Our results suggest that LFOs may create a greater need for financial support among formerly incarcerated fathers, making the financial challenges of reentry a consequence not just for those who were incarcerated but for their loved ones as well.

Keywords: financial sanctions; legal financial obligations; familial support; prisoner reentry; collateral consequences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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