Documents the transition to adulthood for a particularly vulnerable population: young inner-city men of colour who have, by the age of eighteen, already been imprisoned. How do such precariously situated youth become adult men? What are the sources of change in their lives? Falling Back is based on over three years of ethnographic research with black and Latino males.

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. No Love for the Brothers: Youth Incarceration and Reentry in Philadelphia
2. "Because That Is the Way You Are": Predictions of Failure and Cultural Assaults Inside Mountain Ridge Academy
3. "You Can Take Me Outta the 'Hood, But You Can't Take the 'Hood Outta Me": The Experience of "Reform" at Mountain Ridge Academy
4. "Nothing's Changed but Me": Reintegration Plans Meet the Inner City
5. "I'm Not a Mama's Boy, I'm My Own Boy": Employment, Hustling, and Adulthood
6. "I Just Wanna See a Part of Me That's Never Been Bad": Family, Fatherhood, and Further Offending
7. "I'm Finally Becoming the Person I Always Wanted to Be": Masculine Identity, Social Support, and Falling Back
8. "I Got Some Unfinished Business": Fictions of Success at Mountain Ridge Academy's Graduation Ceremony
Conclusion

Notes
Index