abstract: 'In this study, I analyze the experiences of people leaving prison and

  jail, using the concept of urban neoliberal debt peonage. I define urban

  neoliberal debt peonage as the push of race-class subjugated (RCS)

  formerly incarcerated people into the low-wage labor market. I argue

  that urban neoliberal debt peonage is a social process of economic

  extraction from and racial control of RCS groups structured by state

  bureaucracies and corporate employers. I provide evidence for this

  argument using participant observation and interview methods in a large

  northeastern U.S. city at an employment-oriented prisoner reentry

  organization that I call ``Afterward.{''''} People came to Afterward

  seeking employment, but were forwarded to work that was often unstable

  and unable to support subsistence living. Unstable low-wage work did not

  alter people''s social and economic situations enough to preclude them

  from engaging in income-producing criminal activity that comes with the

  risk of reincarceration. Meanwhile, the criminal justice system

  extracted money from the formerly incarcerated via debt collection, and

  corporate employers benefited from neoliberal policies that give them

  tax breaks for hiring Afterward clients. While not identical, the social

  process of urban neoliberal debt peonage echoes that of post-Civil War

  debt peonage and convict leasing.'
affiliation: 'Prior, FB (Corresponding Author), Assumption Coll, 213 Kennedy Mem Hall,500
  Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609 USA.

  Prior, Francis B., Assumption Coll, 213 Kennedy Mem Hall,500 Salisbury St, Worcester,
  MA 01609 USA.'
author: Prior, Francis B.
author-email: Fb.prior@assumption.edu
author_list:
- family: Prior
  given: Francis B.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/2329496521991578
eissn: 2329-4973
files: []
issn: 2329-4965
journal: SOCIAL CURRENTS
keywords: 'crime; law; and deviance; inequality; poverty and mobility; racial and

  ethnic minorities; Marxist sociology; labor and labor movements'
keywords-plus: RACE; INCARCERATION; INEQUALITY; JUSTICE; STATE
language: English
month: OCT
number: '5'
number-of-cited-references: '45'
pages: 446-462
papis_id: 6a5145f3755cc2bf92a5090fc8c105cc
ref: Prior2021urbanneoliberal
times-cited: '1'
title: 'Urban Neoliberal Debt Peonage: Prisoner Reentry, Work, and the New Jim Crow'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000693327900003
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '2'
volume: '8'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2021'