Ninety-five percent of people that are incarcerated today, will eventually be released back into the community. Ensuring that their transition back to life beyond the jail or prison walls is as seamless as possible, is not just good for the returning citizen, it’s good for the communities that they are being released back into. It ensures that the returning citizen is less likely to reoffend, and that no one else within that community will become a victim of a re-offense.

Our Reentry Program assists returning citizens by assigning case workers to arrange, link, and even facilitate the integration of several layers of support services designed to reacclimate citizens back to society. These case workers are made up of licensed counselors that work to inform the returning citizen about available benefits, community resources, and even help with accessing employment opportunities and housing.

What Exactly Do The Counselors Do?

Our counselors aid returning citizens by providing and or coordinating the following services:

  • They assuming responsibility for ensuring the implementation of the person-centered plan. This is a plan that allows our team and the returning citizen to both understand what their needs are, and layout actionable steps toward addressing those needs.
  • Ensuring that the returning citizen is oriented to his or her services.
  • Promoting the ongoing participation of the returning citizen in discussions of his or her plans, goals, and status.
  • Identifying and addressing gaps in service provisions.
  • Sharing information on how to access community resources for job preparedness.
  • Advocating for the returning citizen.
  • Communicating information regarding progress of the returning citizen to the appropriate persons.
  • Involving the family or legal guardian of returning citizen, when applicable or permitted.
  • Coordinating services provided outside of the organization so that they returning citizen will now be left in limbo waiting for a need area to be filled.

Don’t The Jails Provide These Services?

Yes, and no. The jail does have a legal obligation to ensure that the returning citizen is setup in a way where they can at least function in society upon release. In order to fulfill that legal obligation, when an individual is released from jail, administrators often provide some pocket cash, information about resource centers, and a ride to re-entry center or a spot where they can catch a ride on public transportation. But that’s generally where the jail’s obligation ends. At that point, it’s entirely up to the returning citizen to navigate the brand-new world around them. They need to know how to navigate the use of smartphones, how to travel using public transportation, writing a resume and applying for jobs, and the list goes on and on. And while that might not seem like a mountain to accomplish for someone that’s been living in the world uninterrupted, for individuals that have been incarcerated and disconnected from all of that for years, or even decades, just placing an order at Starbucks can be tough. Between changes created by technology, alterations in the way we work and find employment, and difficulties with finding adequate transportation to get to and from appointments and work, readjustment following an individual’s release can be extremely challenging.

But that is where our team comes in. We help bridge the gaps in all of those processes and need areas. The work of our counselors is to guide, inform, and educate the returning citizen on everything they need to know in order to get them re-established, and functioning as a contributing member of society. We firmly believe that by aiding returning citizens in getting themselves positively re-established, we are simultaneously aiding the communities in which they will ultimately reside.