New research explores how personal connections to civil society organizations (CSOs) can buffer the negative effects of incarceration on political participation beyond traditional voting. Using data from Chicago, this study reveals a counterintuitive finding: while involuntary criminal justice contact generally reduces all forms of political engagement, prior involvement with CSOs strengthens nonvoting political activities among those who've been incarcerated—even in states that restore the franchise immediately after release. The findings challenge simplistic assumptions about civic disengagement post-incarceration and suggest complex pathways to sustained political influence outside electoral processes.
📍 Key Context
| The Civic Voluntarism of "Custodial Citizens": Involuntary Criminal Justice Contact, Associational Life, and Political Participation was authored by Hannah Walker and Michael Leo Owens. It was published by Cambridge in POP in 2018. |
