‘I’m Scared to Death to Try It on My Own’: I-Poems and the complexities of religious housing support for people on the US sex offender registry

In the US, street-based sex workers and people convicted of offences are both ‘special populations’, often with additional conditions community supervision. People experience a complicated mix assistance surveillance as they re-enter society post-conviction, including numerous restrictions on housing employment. As result, especially likely to homelessness upon release. This article uses I-Poems drawn from interviews volunteers professionals who navigate obstacles re-entry that govern offender registry. We focus religious affiliations (n=38) provide urgent support during process. I-poems feminist technique for analysing qualitative data forefronts voices not heard distils complex experiences into accessible narratives. While few in our study overtly exploited re-entering persons registry, most was problematic subtler ways: we found registrants asked accept constrained choices involving labour, participation, romantic other personal relationships order receive assistance. Given secondary stigma attached work offences, obscurity within which many these religiously-affiliated programmes operate, humanise reveal complexities coercion, calling, supportive housing.