Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Ex-Felons Are Slow to Vouch for Other Former Offenders
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
04 May 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · Black Ex-Felons Are Slow to Vouch for Other Former Offenders

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Black former offenders “need to see strong evidence" that the formerly incarcerated person has really changed, said Sandra Susan Smith, a University of California professor of sociology who did a study on the subject. Smith discovered that ex-offenders who have good jobs are reluctant to put their own reputations at risk by vouching for recently released friends and relatives. The employed ex-offender’s attitude is, “If I don’t see evidence of real change, then I’m not doing anything.”

Mass Black Incarceration

Related Podcasts

Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
24 June 2022
Savannah Eldrige is the founder of Coaliton to Abolish Slave
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
01 September 2020
The United States “criminalizes Black Americans,” but Black men “are not looking to be controlled” by this racist system, said Douglas
 Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
25 August 2020
The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, IWOC, “is committed to the militant organizing of prisoners that takes its leadership and focus from

More Stories


  • Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    Not Your Daddy's COINTELPRO: Obama Brands Assata Shakur "Most Wanted Terrorist"
    01 Oct 2025
    In 2013 Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder declared Assata Shakur a Most Wanted Terrorist, placing a $2 million bounty on her head. The late Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report Managing…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Paris Climate Agreement is the Global Climate “Movement’s” Two State Solution
    01 Oct 2025
    The Paris Climate Agreement is akin to a two-state solution for a planet on the brink, a falsehood giving the ecocide perpetrators cover for their crimes.
  • Assata Shakur
    No One Can Stop The Rain
    01 Oct 2025
    Assata Shakur wrote the introduction and this poem for the 1990 book Hauling Up the Morning: writings & art by political prisoners and prisoners of war in the U.S.
  • Charo Mina Rojas
    Until Dignity Becomes Customary: the Determination of Francia Márquez Mina
    01 Oct 2025
    Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez Mina is strengthening diplomatic relations with African countries and their connections with Colombia's African descended communities.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    In Honor and Memory of Assata Shakur
    01 Oct 2025
    They called Assata Shakur a fugitive; we claim her as a compass. Her work and her words will continue to chart the path toward our liberation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us