Paper short abstract:

If homelessness represents the clearest manifestation of exclusion, incarceration is the central mechanism of punishment. The dual moments come together in a powerful self-reinforcing nexus, revealing the interdependence of exclusion and punishment in American poverty policy.

Paper long abstract:

The US tendency to the understand poverty in terms of moral failings has two faces. The first face turns away from the poverty and misery of the economically excluded, relying on the saving power of low wage jobs. The other face turns towards the excluded individual, defining and treating him or her as a criminal. American men cycling through homelessness and incarceration experience both faces of the discourse, in often rapid succession. The incarceration/homelessness cycle which will be elaborated in this paper represents a force greater than the sum of its parts. For those trying to adjust after prison or jail time, homelessness reinforces social marginalization, alienation, and criminal status. While street homelessness was experienced by some of space of freedom from illegitimate authority, living on the street reinforced their isolation from mainstream social institutions, trapping at the same time as it liberated. Once living on the street, crimes of desperation, rabble management, and the close proximity of many ex-cons makes incarceration and reincarceration far more likely than it would be for the same people if they were not homeless. If homelessness represents the clearest manifestation of exclusion, incarceration is the central mechanism of punishment. The dual moments come together in a powerful self-reinforcing nexus, revealing the interdependence of exclusion and punishment in American poverty policy.