“We’re Here to Help”: Criminal Justice Collaboration among Social Service Providers across the Urban-Rural Continuum

Abstract

Recent social movements have called for an end to mass incarceration and the diversion of funds from police and carceral institutions to social services. However, such a restructuring is limited without addressing the commonplace collaborations between criminal justice actors and social service practitioners. In an interview study with 66 social service providers who offer services to formerly incarcerated people, we examine practitioners’ relationships with the criminal justice system. Participants overwhelmingly report a reliance on direct collaboration with the criminal justice system to address a multiplicity of barriers people face when returning home to cities with weak social and economic infrastructures. Participants also described a moral frame situating themselves as mediators amid tensions between community members and the criminal justice system. Social service providers’ deep financial, logistical, and ideological entrenchment across the criminal justice system has several implications for the afterlife of mass incarceration and the capacity to reimagine justice.