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Call for Papers. Special Number "100 Years of Social Work: Discussions and Perspectives on the Discipline's Past, Present and Future". Submissions in Spanish or English until the 30th October 2024 for publication in April 2025 (Issue 9). For more information please see the following link.
Get out of prison in Chile: uneven territorial concentrations and municipal absence
Authors
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Guillermo Sanhueza
Loyola University Chicago
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1971-7362
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Fernanda Ponce Navarro
Universidad Alberto Hurtado
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0258-4508
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Ignacio Godoy Delgado
Universidad Católica de Chile
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6057-5410
Abstract
This article analyzes the return of former inmates to their neighborhoods once they leave prison, emphasizing the needs and barriers that these individuals face in order to reintegrate into Chilean society and the apparent invisibility of this phenomenon. To do this, we calculated prison system’s discharge rates for each municipal territory, based on administrative data from the Prison Bureau (year 2016). Then, for the communes with higher rates we reviewed their websites as well as contacted them by phone to find out what services they may have available for people leaving prison and what were the procedures to obtain access to specialized, social services in the commune. Our results showed that: i) the return of former inmates to their communities occurs disproportionately for certain territories over others ii) most municipalities with highest rates had no specific programs to support the return of former inmates (neighbors who are coming back to the community) and that iii) the invisibility of this phenomenon (concentrations of individuals returning from prison) can have negative implications for both the social integration of the incoming neighbors and the social cohesion of communities where they return to.Keywords:
former prisoners; prisons; discharges; Chile; municipalities.References
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