More than 80,000 prisoners in state, federal, and private prisons work for private and for-profit industries in the United States, which is a relatively small, but rapidly growing, portion of the total number of incarcerated individuals. The main purpose of this article is to use critical concepts from Foucauldian theory to explore the relationship between incarceration and labor exploitation in the U.S. prison system. To do this, this article reviews the core Foucauldian concepts and assumptions that are relevant to explaining prison labor; applies those concepts and assumptions to the prison labor issue; and discusses a possible way for conducting an empirical study. Additionally, three implications for social work, policy intervention, and the Korean society in reference to the theory are discussed. This article suggests that understanding Foucault should be a priority to tackle forced control, unequal power, and the immobility of social and economic status embedded in the most marginalized and vulnerable populations.

This study reviews theoretical comparisons regarding reentry issues of incarcerated people in order to promote a better understanding of individuals’ criminal desistance. There are three major competing criminal desistance theories, and they include the subjective (identity) theory explaining an individual’s subjective processes, structural (social bonds) theory focusing on structural conditions, and integrative (subjective-social model) theory describing personal commitment and motivation combined with structural resources. First, identity defined as a sense of self is directly linked to one’s motivation and behavioral guidelines. Thus, identity theory assumes that intentional changes in one’s sense of self are necessary for criminal desistance. The theory posits that only justice-involved individuals who intentionally transform their identities can attempt to utilize structural support to help them pursue change. Second, the structural theory on social bonds provides an appropriate theoretical foundation on how social bonds, such as employment, affect criminal desistance through a series of exogenous circumstances called turning points. Employment is an important example of a social bond for justice-involved individuals since it provides structure to one’s life. Third, the integrative model assumes that personal characteristics may interact within social contexts, in that an individual has to identify, select, and act within the structure they live in, through their cognitive transformation. This article also briefly discusses two major methodological challenges deriving from the utilization of the theory.