Halfway Home

A remarkable work of scholarship and reportage by a noted sociologist that will forever change how we look at life after prison Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who must live with a felony record. Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and later a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America's most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with the new reality of jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast. As The Color...