Doing time, filling time: Bureaucratic ritualism as a systemic barrier to youth reentry

a r t i c l e i n f o This paper contributes to knowledge about the challenges of youth reentry by examining how transitional services can function as a barrier to – instead of a support for – healthy reintegration of youth. Using participant observation conducted in 2003–2004 at a juvenile aftercare program in Philadelphia, we explore a pervasive problem that Merton (1940) termed " bureaucratic ritualism. " Case workers and administrators became beholden to daily demands related to billing, paperwork, and meeting minimum standards, supplanting the larger goal of individualized care for young people returning from placements. Outputs, not outcomes, became the measure of success. We identify a number of reintegration activities that were ritualistic in nature and explore the features of the system that encouraged ritualistic responses by aftercare workers. Finally, we identify a group of aftercare workers, which we call " proactive caregivers " who resisted the organizational pressures to become bureaucratic ritualists. Although an impressive literature has developed around adult prisoner reentry, youth returning from confinement have received comparatively little attention. Depending on how broadly the concepts of " youth " and " confinement " are measured, between 81,000 and 200,000 young people are released into communities annually (Mears & Travis, 2004; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2012). Scholars who have studied the issue point out that the reentry process is unique for adolescents, who must undergo a " dual transition " from facility to community and from adolescence into young adulthood (Altschuler & Brash, 2004). Young people encounter some of the same challenges as their adult counterparts, such as finding employment and redefining their role within their families and households upon their return (Petersilia, 2005). Others, such as being reintegrated into schools or negotiating relationships with delinquent peers are specific to youth. The educational deficiencies faced by these incarcerated youth are particularly striking. report that fewer than 20% of young adults incarcerated as juveniles or adults have diplomas or GEDs. As with adults, the likelihood of failure is high. Within five years of release, as many as 85% youth are re-arrested (Trulson, Marquart, Mullings, & Caeti, 2005). Aftercare programs and post-release supervision are designed to facilitate a smooth transition from facility to community during a period of time in which young people are particularly likely to encounter problems that place them at risk for re-offending In preparation for this reintegration phase, …