Dismas Home Board Member Casey Cavanaugh recently completed her degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at the University of New Hampshire – congratulations, Casey! Part of fulfilling her degree requirements included a dissertation on barriers to re-entry for justice-involved women, and we’re sharing the report here on our blog to spread knowledge and understanding of the impact of our programs. Please see https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2903 for the complete dissertation.
“In conjunction with the rise of restorative justice, the United States is presently met with a need for rehabilitation and reentry services for justice-involved individuals. In the age of evidence-based practice, it is important for these programs and services to reflect on “what works” in order to operate ethically and in the best interest of clients. The literature disproportionately analyzes effective interventions and programming for men, and few program evaluations capture the unique experiences of justice-involved women in reentry and consider effective programming for this population.
This study evaluates eight major barriers/facilitators of reentry that will be of particular relevance to the literature, including continued justice system contact, physical health, substance use, mental health, employment, money management, relationships and community, and housing. Historically, studies disproportionately emphasize barriers and challenges while excluding facilitators and successes. Each of the eight items may be beneficial or detrimental to one’s reentry depending on context and personal experiences. Relatedly, these various measurements capture a more comprehensive picture of “success” beyond solely recidivism, which addresses a key recommendation made by the National Reentry Resource Center (Buck Willison, 2023).
This report analyzes results from a survey administered to current and former residents of the Dismas Home of New Hampshire. It briefly highlights literature on each barrier/facilitator, offers descriptive statistics from the DHNH survey, and outlines themes derived from qualitative narratives describing participants’ experiences with these barriers/facilitators.” (Cavanaugh, 2026)
Click here to read Casey’s report!