Building Recovery Capital: The Role of Faith-Based Communities in the Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated Drug Offenders

Abstract

Recovery capital is an important concept in the field of addiction studies. A person’s access to recovery capital can mean the difference between the termination of addiction and successful reintegration or ongoing criminality and drug use. Increasingly, religious institutions are playing a vital role in the provision of social services, including addiction services that provide access to recovery capital. This article begins by exploring the concept of recovery capital and its utility in the successful reintegration of offenders. It then uses a case study to show how one’s religious organization plays an important role in providing the necessary recovery capital for the desistance of drug abuse and for a successful reintegration into the community. Through in-depth interviews with several persistent adult offenders, this article demonstrates that religious organizations may play an important role in providing the recovery capital that so many persistent drug offenders are lacking.