Volume 44, Issue 2 (Fall 2026)
By Durrell M. Washington, Taylor A. Reed-Jones & Kaelyn Sanders*
This Feature examines how housing and criminal legal system policies intersect to create barriers to stable housing for individuals returning from incarceration and their families. We define collateral displacement as the cascading process of forced or constrained separation from housing, family, and community that occurs when housing and supervision policies restrict where individuals can live, with whom they can reside or associate, and under what conditions families can reunify following incarceration. These policies can destabilize family housing during incarceration and subsequently constrain whether an individual returning from prison can reside with or receive housing support from family members.
Using New York City as a case study, we examine how federal, state, and local housing and supervision policies accumulate to constrain housing options for individuals returning from incarceration. We further show how public housing restrictions and association bans can destabilize family housing and relationships, extending the consequences of criminal legal system involvement beyond the individual directly subject to supervision or incarceration.
This creates a fundamental contradiction in re-entry policy: Families are relied upon to support successful reintegration while legal and regulatory frameworks can simultaneously restrict their ability to provide that support. We argue that housing and supervision policies affecting individuals with criminal records should be re-evaluated to determine whether they meaningfully advance their stated safety objectives or instead unnecessarily restrict access to stable housing. We also urge policymakers to reconsider supervision policies that limit family-based housing and association, provide greater protection for family reunification, and recognize the role that family support can play in facilitating successful re-entry.
*Durrell M. Washington Sr., Ph.D., M.S.W., is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, School of Social Work. Taylor A. Reed Jones, Ph.D., M.S.W., is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University College of Social Work. Kaelyn Sanders, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.
