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189 Appendix B Research Methods As with all research, this project evolved from the original research proposal to the final product.And, as with all qualitative research, the researcher was an important aspect of the data collection and analysis. In this appendix, I detail the way this project unfolded and my role as researcher. Research Design and Recruitment The original design of this study called for repeated interviews with women who were returning to the community from prison, along with interviews with their friends, family, and other members of their social networks. The purpose of this was threefold: tracking changes in the women’s lives, especially over their key first year after prison; establishing greater rapport; and inductively identifying topics of interest and relevance to the women. Executing this plan was no small feat. I needed to be able not only to identify appropriate women but also to establish enough rapport and trust quickly so that they would talk with me again and refer me to others in their lives. I decided that working with a social service program geared toward a returning prisoner population might help increase access and establish an initial level of trust.This is a common approach when seeking access to a hard-to-reach population (Jones 2010; Maruna 2001; Miller 2001). Given that the nature of the study was to find a theoretically rich sample, rather than a generalizable one, this approach was well suited to my goals. All of my interviews were recruited through the Mercy Home and included both current and former Mercy Home residents. Initially, however, I worked with another organization, which was both a residential program and a drop-in center whose target population was women engaged in prostitution. For about seven months, I volunteered there, helping women prepare for the GED, accompanying them on field trips, and doing street outreach.1 One of the women I met was Delilah, who was then an outreach worker there and who told me about the Mercy Home, where she had lived when first released from prison several years before.I contacted the Mercy Home,first just to learn more about it, and arranged to meet with the executive director.At the same 190 A p p e n d i x B time,my progress at the first organization was faltering.I had the support of its executive director to conduct my study, but the service coordinator was more wary of allowing me to invite the women there to participate in interviews. In addition, the organization itself was struggling financially and organizationally . Soon, there were dramatic staff changes, including the replacement of the executive director, and numerous layoffs (including Delilah). I continued to volunteer and spend time there, but my hope that it would serve as a source of interview recruitment faltered, and eventually I drifted away. My interview with the Mercy Home’s executive director was therefore particularly serendipitous . She was open and welcoming.The Mercy Home had participated in research projects before (most notably in a program evaluation conducted by a well-known and well-liked faculty member from the University of Illinois at Chicago who then served on its board).The director introduced me to several other staff members and asked if I wanted to conduct my research there. She suggested I come in and introduce the study to the women.They could then decide themselves whether to participate.We arranged a time, in September 2003, shortly after this initial meeting, for me to speak with the women. I was nervous in this first meeting. If I made an unconvincing or unlikable first impression, the women could opt out (or, rather, not opt in). I knew there would be substantial social distance between us, and I was afraid this would affect their willingness to talk with me. I bumbled through my introduction , explaining what I wanted to do and what I wanted from them. I passed around informed consent forms and asked any interested women to sign them. I gathered the forms, thanked them, and left. I was tremendously relieved to see that most or all of the women who were at that meeting had indeed signed the form. Once the interviews were under way, more women, who had either moved in after that first meeting or had been out of the house that day, approached me and asked to join the project. Once the initial group had moved out of the house a few months later, I again recruited...

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