How do people make sense of their continued reliance on unjust institutions? How do they evaluate potential for redress? Recent research highlights the state as a potential well of moral opportunities to promote dignity and inclusion (Lamont et al. 2016, 2017). Yet the everyday lives for residents of disadvantaged communities are often marked by conflictual interactions with state agents.

The incarceration rate in the United States is the highest of any developed nation, with a prison population of approximately 2.3 million in 2016. Over 700,000 prisoners are released each year, and most face significant educational, economic, and social disadvantages. In After Prison, sociologist David Harding and criminologist Heather Harris provide a comprehensive account of young men’s experiences of reentry and reintegration in the era of mass incarceration.