This study raises basic questions about reentry programs in the United States and the discourses of reentry that currently frame policy, research, and programs. We compare Nordic discourses with those in the United States and illustrate how the latter curtail a more complex understanding of the presence of loved ones in the life of an incarcerated father. We found that U.S. reentry discourses in general are future-oriented and convey hopelessness about the capacity of loved ones separated by prison to be positively present—physically and imaginatively—to each other. We conclude the study with implications for a humanizing curriculum.
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