Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Executive Leadership

First Supervisor

Dr. Kishon C. Hickman, Sr

Second Supervisor

Dr. Augustina West

Abstract

The United States incarcerates more individuals than any other nation, yet the effects ofincarceration remain underexamined in quantitative research. Although qualitative research has documented the traumatic sequelae of confinement, including post-incarceration syndrome (PICS), limited work has assessed the perceived adequacy of services available during incarceration, community reentry, and parole supervision. This study addresses that gap through a non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive quantitative design. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 31 formerly incarcerated adults using a 40-item researcher-developed tool, the Post-Incarceration Services Assessment Survey (PISAS), which examined perceived adequacy of in-prison coping services, community-based reentry resources, and parole officer support.

The findings indicated that participants perceived services across all three domains as generally inadequate, with the lowest ratings for parole officer support and for services addressing emotional and reintegration needs. These findings were interpreted through the mass incarceration trauma framework and the triphasic experience of incarceration, underscoring the need for trauma-informed, coordinated, and developmentally responsive supports across the incarceration-to-community continuum. Future research should replicate this study with a larger, more demographically and geographically diverse sample to support inferential and exploratory factor analyses of the PISAS. Such research should intentionally include younger formerly incarcerated individuals, women, and individuals in the early months after release, who were underrepresented in the present sample.

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