How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC's Justice System

Victims of violence that end up in the emergency room can return within two years with more injuries because of retaliation efforts. Philadelphia’s Healing Hurt People is a hospital-based violence intervention program that assists individuals who need medical care and mental health services. The hospital and social work collaboration helps reduce emergency room costs.

A Portland shelter’s Homeless Prevention Program provides rent assistance to families who have not yet been involved with social services and are about to lose their homes. In 2022, the program helped 93 families pay back rent, pay past-due utilities, or create payment plans with their landlords.

In Oakland, California, the privately funded Ahimsa Collective offers housing, money for necessities, and restorative justice support services to formerly incarcerated people to ease the pressure of transitioning to life outside of incarceration.

The Returning Citizen Stimulus program provides temporary cash assistance to people recently released from prison, who face steep barriers to finding jobs and stable housing when transitioning out of incarceration. The payments started in 2020 and have helped more than 10,000 former inmates get on their feet, with 42 percent of recipients finding employment within five months of their release.

A New Way of Life gives formerly incarcerated women something that most did not get from prison: treatment for the trauma that so many incarcerated women suffered from domestic violence. As an antidote to a system geared to punishing wrongdoing without addressing its causes, New Way provides housing and supportive programs, many of which are taught by women with similar experiences. Some of the women tell their stories of lives repaired and families reunited thanks to New Way's interventions.

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

The West Virginia Council of Churches formed a network of community reentry councils to help people leaving prison line up basic necessities, from housing to employment. The councils use their members' community connections as a bridge between prison officials, who won't release people if they lack plans for a place to live, and returning citizens, whose housing, counseling, and employment needs can determine the difference between success and another stint in prison on a technical parole violation. Grants from two foundations helped the Council of Churches expand its network during the pandemic.

The Homecoming Project pays homeowners to rent their spare bedrooms to people just released from long prison sentences, providing welcoming, free, stable housing option to people whose re-entry is often hamstrung by housing instability and grim, restrictive halfway houses. Only 12 formerly incarcerated people were served in the project’s first year, but the service providing its clients with six months of housing hopes to serve as a pilot for other organizations outside the Bay Area. All 12 have jobs and six have gone on to live independently.

San Diego County’s Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility was redesigned to look less like a jail and more like a community. The newly designed facility prioritizes rehabilitation over punishment by providing educational facilities, like a fully stocked library, and mental health services. While the impact is still unknown, the goal is to make reentry transitions easier and decreasing recidivism rates.

For people reentering society after prison, the Reentry Initiative offers them the services and support they need. The program, housed at California State San Bernardino, provides former inmates the tools they need to avoid recidivism and rebuild their lives. Some of the classes offered are computer literacy, job readiness, and anger management – but fundamental to it all is cultivating a culture of respect and community amongst participants.