"I Went Through it so You Don't Have To": Faith-Based Community Organizing for the Formerly Incarcerated

This article examines how civil religion reworks state/citizen relations among the formerly incarcerated. Participant observation and interviews were collected at two sites: FORCE (Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality), a civic group of formerly incarcerated persons and former gang membe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the scientific study of religion 2016-12, Vol.55 (4), p.662-676
Main Authors: Flores, Edward Orozco, Cossyleon, Jennifer Elena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bills
Charities
Civil religion
community organizing
Data collection
Empowerment
Equality
formerly incarcerated persons
Imprisonment
Narratives
Political action
Reforms
Rehabilitation
Religion
Religious beliefs
Social integration
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Summary:This article examines how civil religion reworks state/citizen relations among the formerly incarcerated. Participant observation and interviews were collected at two sites: FORCE (Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality), a civic group of formerly incarcerated persons and former gang members, and Community Renewal Society, a larger, interfaith civic group that provided institutional backing for FORCE. Data collection occurred over 18 months, as the two groups utilized faith-based community organizing to advance legislative reform (Illinois House Bill 5723/3061) expanding the sealing of criminal records. Findings suggest that faith-based community organizing, together with formerly incarcerated persons' use of "redemption scripts," can facilitate empowering social integration. Whereas research on religion in the postincarceration experience has focused on rehabilitation and reentry programming, our findings suggest that civil religion can facilitate empowering social integration. Civil religion enables collective and political action by de-privatizing personal narratives.
ISSN:0021-8294
1468-5906
DOI:10.1111/jssr.12294