Introduction to the Special Issue on Radical Social Work with People Living in and Exiting Correctional Systems

As the liberal world order faces destabilizing change, the prison/crime industrial complex remains a stronghold of state and corporate coercive power. People are locked up in the US in numbers that are unprecedented in our own history and internationally, an overwhelming proportion of those ensnared are people of color and poor whites from abandoned communities; and a confluence of economic, political, and ideological investments block reform. While social work research related to the criminal justice system is increasing—particularly on the topic of reentry services—we noted a lack of current scholarship on prisons from a radical social work perspective. To address this gap, Journal of Progressive Human Services (JPHS) put out a call for articles that describe efforts to respond to the social, economic, and health needs of people in and leaving correctional institutions in ways that challenge dominant paradigms and power structures. The aim of this special issue was to examine how radical social workers can build empowering collaborations across stakeholder groups impacted by the criminal justice system to push for redistribution of social and economic resources. We chose to use the phrase “radical social work” to reconnect to JPHS’ post-Marxist roots. Marxist and neo-Marxist theories have influenced the social work profession since its inception (Reisch & Andrews, 2002). Settlement House workers, Rank and Filers, Welfare Rights Movement organizers, and founders of the Bertha Kappa Reynolds Society all recognized capitalism as the driving force behind poverty, exploitation, and suffering. Likewise, JPHS’ predecessor, the Catalyst: A Socialist Journal of the Social Services, was founded to provide a socialist voice within social work scholarship. Marx and his progeny continue to bring our focus to material disparities and their relationship to power disparities, both on the societal level as well as among social workers and the individuals, families, and communities with whom we work. We looked for articles clearly connected to a critical perspective not only on the criminal justice system but also on its place within capitalist structures and their supporting ideologies.