The United States houses only five percent of the world’s population but over 20% of its prison population. There has been a dramatic increase in carceral numbers over the last several decades with much of this population being people with mental illness designations. Many scholars attribute this phenomenon to the process of deinstitutionalization, in which mental health institutions in the U.S. were shut down in the 1950s and ‘60s. However, disability scholar Liat Ben-Moshe argues that this is a dangerous oversimplification that fails to credit the deinstitutionalization movement as an abolitionist movement and to take into account shifting demographics between institutions and prisons/jails. This study considers how mass incarceration in the U.S. stems from a trend of isolating and punishing BIPOC and people with disabilities at disproportionate rates as it explores lived experiences at the intersection of mental health and incarceration. Findings inform an abolitionist agenda by highlighting the near impossibility of rehabilitation and treatment in an inherently traumatizing space.

Until the 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, youth under the age of 18 were mandatorily sentenced to death by incarceration for certain acts in 45 states. Adolescence is understood to be an impressionable period for the development of relationship and socialization skills. While a breadth of research has explored the impact of social ties on the experiences and outcomes of incarcerated adults, less research has examined the impact of relationships for those incarcerated in adult prisons as youths. Following the landmark Montgomery v. Louisiana case, hundreds of individuals originally sentenced as youth to die in prison were released and had to navigate a society and community vastly different from the one they left in their adolescence. The current study explores the impact of long-term incarceration on an individual's ability to navigate relationships with others during and after incarceration. A case study of five re-entered Black men shows how sharing traumatic experiences throughout incarceration forged deep bonds amongst "juvenile lifers" that extend beyond the prison setting and facilitated individual-level posttraumatic growth. Findings suggest revisions to the parole stipulation prohibiting engagement amongst those with felony convictions.

The purpose of this project was to create a platform where people could tell their stories about how their faith impacted their incarceration and their incarceration impacted their faith. There is no single path to pursuing faith in prison, and each person faces their own challenges and facilitators in doing so. There is power in stories, and we can learn so much from simply listening. Each story told through this project presents a unique experience of pursuing Christianity while incarcerated. This project interviewed three people who had pursued their faith during their time in prison. The goal of these interviews was to hear first hand the experiences of dedicating oneself to Christianity while incarcerated. Their stories were broken up into three sections, pre-incarceration, during incarceration, and post-incarceration to explore how each participant’s faith differed across the three phases. Main topics discussed include what religious services they had access to while incarcerated, what the main challenge they faced in pursuing their faith in prison, and how their faith impacted their reentry into society.

Homelessness in America continues to increase yearly, with a recent increase of 2% between 2019 and 2020 (State of Homelessness: 2021 Edition, 2021). Housing insecure individuals often remain unhoused because they experience different barriers and setbacks to their goals of financial and housing stability. While literature has uncovered some of the unique barriers homeless communities face, a majority do not touch on some of the deeper-rooted issues within their communities nor offer solutions for how housing insecure individuals can be supported by the public. For this study, five housing insecure participants were interviewed regarding their difficulties with being homeless, how compassion has shaped their lives, and what goals they have for regaining stability and security in their lives. Two themes emerged from these interviews: barriers to trust and connection and supports for attaining stability and safety. This paper aims to expose the different issues the homeless communities encounter to better understand their hardships and needs. Additionally, this paper offers solutions to encourage support for homeless communities on individual, organizational, and governmental levels.