Reentry and Housing
Helping people released from prisons or jails to find safe places to live is critical to reducing homelessness and crime and to ensuring stable housing situations for the children, families, and neighbors of released prisoners. Research has shown that people who do not find stable housing in the community are more likely to recidivate than those who do: according to a qualitative study by the Vera Institute of Justice, people released from prison and jail to parole, who entered homeless shelters in New York City, were seven times more likely to abscond during the first month after release than those who had some form of housing.1
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Justice Center Work
The Justice Center is coordinating a project that will help policymakers and practitioners address access to appropriate housing for people released from prisons and jails. To maximize the value of the products that the Justice Center publishes, the Justice Center staff has engaged housing and service agencies at all levels of government, along with corrections administrators and state officials. |
In the Report
The Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council is a comprehensive guide for policymakers and practitioners interested in addressing the challenges people face when they are released from prisons and jails. Related Policy Statements: |
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Reentry in Action
Illinois: St. Leonard’s Ministries The Illinois State Department of Corrections pays St. Leonard’s ministries, a Chicago-based housing and services provider, just under what it costs the Department to supervise a given number of parolees. In return, St. Leonard’s not only provides housing and other social services for the parolees but also assumes a large share of the responsibility for their supervision. See more housing programs featured in the Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council |
Additional Resources
Check out relevant news clips, publications, legislation, and helpful websites about reentry housing issues. Most recent additions: Toolkit for Connecting Supportive Housing Tenants to Employment
7/16/2008: Newark Star-Ledger (NJ): Court bars towns from moving sex offenders |
The Justice Center has received funding support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Open Society Institute to develop resources that will help corrections and human services administrators, housing officials, state legislators and other relevant policy makers and practitioners address access to appropriate housing for people released from prisons and jails.