Doing a Bid: The Construction of Time as Punishment

Juxtaposing the sociology of time with the sociological study of punishment, we interviewed 34 former inmates to explore their memories of how they constructed time while “doing a bid.” Prison sentences convey macro-political and social messages, but time is experienced by individuals. Our qualitative data explore important theoretical connections between the sociology of time as a lived experience and the temporality of prison where time is punishment. The interview data explores the social construction of time, and our findings demonstrate participants’ use of the language of time in three distinct ways: (a) routine time, (b) marked time, and (c) lost time

Eating Disorder Pathology Among Individuals Living with Food Insecurity: A Replication Study

Eating disorders (EDs) are stereotypically associated with thin, White, affluent women and girls. One result of the ED stereotype has been a relative dearth of ED research with marginalized communities. The aim of the present study was to replicate recent findings showing an association between severity of food insecurity (FI) and increased ED pathology. Participants included 891 clients at an urban food bank. Results replicated previous research with participants in the most severe FI group reporting significantly higher levels of ED pathology, dietary restraint, anxiety, and depression. Findings provide further evidence that the thin, White, affluent, female ED stereotype offers a flawed portrait, and also highlight the need for additional psychological research that focuses on marginalized populations to address disparities in access to care. Both scholars and clinicians need to move away from the stereotypical portrait of who is and is not at risk for developing an ED

Convicted and Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry

Through the compelling words of former prisoners, Convicted and Condemned examines the lifelong consequences of a felony conviction. Felony convictions restrict social interactions and hinder felons’ efforts to reintegrate into society. The educational and vocational training offered in many prisons are typically not recognized by accredited educational institutions as acceptable course work or by employers as valid work experience, making it difficult for recently-released prisoners to find jobs. Families often will not or cannot allow their formerly incarcerated relatives to live with them. In many states, those with felony convictions cannot receive financial aid for further education, vote in elections, receive welfare benefits, or live in public housing. In short, they are not treated as full citizens, and every year, hundreds of thousands of people released from prison are forced to live on the margins of society. Convicted and Condemned explores the issue of prisoner reentry from the felons’ perspective. It features the voices of formerly incarcerated felons as they attempt to reconnect with family, learn how to acclimate to society, try to secure housing, find a job, and complete a host of other important goals. By examining national housing, education and employment policies implemented at the state and local levels, Keesha Middlemass shows how the law challenges and undermines prisoner reentry and creates second-class citizens. Even if the criminal justice system never convicted another person of a felony, millions of women and men would still have to figure out how to reenter society, essentially on their own. A sobering account of the after-effects of mass incarceration, Convicted and Condemned is a powerful exploration of how individuals, and society as a whole, suffer when a felony conviction exacts a punishment that never ends.https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mono/1064/thumbnail.jp

Clothing Makes the Man: Impression Management and Prisoner Reentry

Building on the wealth of prisoner reentry scholarship focusing on the process of transitioning home, this article examines clothing and reentry, and the complex interplay of how clothing has meaning for both the wearer and the viewer during this process. Prisoner reintegration research demonstrates that former prisoners are in need of a multitude of items, yet the purpose of clothing as a function in impression management is rarely considered. This article contends that clothing plays an important role in mediating social interactions for men returning to the community. Drawing on ethnographic data from a two-year interdisciplinary project in Newark, New Jersey, we present empirical evidence that clothing supports substantial notions of identity and performance. Through the notion of liminality, we explore three typologies that reveal how clothing pertains to male performance and social practice: (1) loss of identity, (2) reclamation of identity, and (3) creation of identity. We find that clothing is a tool through which former prisoners are able to reengage with society as someone other than as a former prisoner

Jumpsuit to Button-Down: Clothing Used as Resistance in Prisoner Reentry

There is a vast body of literature across academic disciplines on prisoner reentry, yet little is known about how men and women use clothing as a form of resistance and personal embodiment of politics to negotiate the reentry process. Drawing on ethnographic data from a two-year interdisciplinary project in Newark, New Jersey, we present “outsider-within status” and the notion of transformative resistance to examine how former prisoners reentering society use clothing to disguise the mark of prison, conceal their felon status, and reshape their public persona with the goal of becoming an accepted member of the community. By conceptualizing how men and women construct their wardrobe as a form of embodied politics to negotiate reentry and resist the label felon, we offer three contributions to the field of critical criminology by: pushing against the orthodox identity of “felon,” which is inherently criminal; focusing on the culture of resistance that arises during reentry; and offering a perspective of reentry that embodies personal politics

Listen to What I Say, Not How I Vote: Congressional Support for the President in Washington and at Home

Are legislators' party affiliations or is district partisanship the greatest predictor of legislative support of the president? Do members of the U.S. House emphasize different policy positions when casting roll calls than when communicating their positions to constituents? We theorize that party is less important in legislators' district-oriented behavior than in roll-call voting. When casting roll calls, legislators are agents facing multiple principals, namely, political party leaders and their district constituencies. When engaging in district-oriented behavior, the only key principal is the legislator's constituency. Copyright (c) 2010 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Sexual Trauma Uniquely Associated with Eating Disorders: A Replication Study

Objective: Extensive research supports the contention that trauma exposure is a nonspecific risk factor for the development of eating disorders (EDs). Limited research has investigated the relative association of diverse types of traumatic events with EDs in the same statistical model. In a recent exception, Breland et al. (2018) found that only sexual trauma predicted ED pathology among female veterans when both sexual trauma and combat exposure were examined simultaneously, even though combat exposure alone had been previously identified as an ED risk factor. Given the current replication crisis in psychology, it is important to investigate if this finding replicates in different populations. This study investigated whether results from Breland et al. (2018) would (a) replicate in a distinct population (i.e., participants living with food insecurity) and (b) hold when 3 additional traumatic events were included in the statistical model. Method: We hypothesized that self-reported sexual trauma would be uniquely associated with ED pathology as compared to combat exposure, wreck/crash/accident, serious body-related accident, and life-threatening illness or injury. Results: Using a cross-sectional logistic regression model, sexual trauma was the only independent predictor of EDs in the model, thus replicating the findings of Breland et al. (2018) in a different population. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of (a) investigating multiple traumatic events in the same statistical models and (b) careful screening of traumatic events in patients presenting with EDs

An Exploratory Examination of Internalized Weight Stigma in a Sample Living with Food Insecurity

Internalized weight stigma (IWS) is associated with various health concerns, regardless of body size. One weakness of existing IWS research is that it largely lacks diverse study populations. One recent exception, however, found increasing IWS was associated with higher levels of food insecurity (FI) in a low-income, majority Latinx sample. Using the same sample (N = 530), the present study further explored levels of IWS as compared to documented (mostly White/European) samples; we also investigated IWS in relation to three dichotomous eating disorder (ED) outcomes (e.g., any/no vomiting). Finally, based on previous qualitative findings regarding dietary restraint in the most severe level of FI, we explored the independent contribution of dietary restraint and IWS to cross-sectional risk of ED pathology. Results indicated that individuals living with FI experience IWS at concerning levels. Additionally, IWS played a small yet significant role in cross-sectional risk for ED pathology regardless of FI severity, while dietary restraint contributed to independent risk only in those with the most severe FI. Findings suggest that IWS is prevalent in this marginalized population, associated with ED pathology, and that the effect of dietary restraint on risk for ED pathology appears to uniquely impact those living with severe FI