Reentry Week

Reentry Week was a celebration of Second Chance Month in 2021.

The NRRC is once again hosting Second Chance Month in April 2023!
Learn more

During the week of April 26–30, the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) shone a light on the importance of reentry and the responsibility we all have—as federal, state, and local agencies, as partners across the country working in reentry, and as citizens—to understand why reentry matters and how to set communities and neighbors up for success.

Over the course of the week, the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) and the Second Chance Act training and technical assistance providers offered resources in the form of podcasts, publications, webinars, and more. These materials blend research supported content with practical considerations and lived experience. Featuring experts and people with lived experience, the Reentry Week resources cover employment and education, behavioral health and housing, youth and families, making reentry work, and the importance of evaluation.

REENTRY WEEK HIGHLIGHTS

Kristen Mahoney

Join Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Kristen Mahoney, as she kicks off Reentry Week 2021, highlighting the importance of reentry and celebrating reentry programs around the country.

Silas Darden

Watch Deputy Director for Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Silas Darden, provide a complete orientation to the five jam-packed days of events and resources during Reentry Week 2021.

Learn why Reentry Matters from those who live it in our video gallery of just a small sample of videos we received from dozens of Second Chance Act grantees and stay tuned for more videos throughout the year!

NRRC Website

Watch our new welcome video to learn all about the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC), the nation's primary source of information and guidance in reentry, and the Center's work to advance reentry knowledge, facilitate information exchange, promote what works, and provide information for people returning to communities and their families.

REVISIT REENTRY WEEK

Featured Webinars
View the Reentry Week Featured Webinars Archive

Reentry Week badge image

Jump into the featured webinars archive and revisit the week's content across education, employment, housing, behavioral health, youth and families, making reentry work, and the importance of evaluation.

Second Chance Act Grantee Events
Second Chance Act Grantees Celebrate Reentry Week 2021

Grantee Events table

In recognition of Reentry Week 2021, Second Chance Act grantees around the country hosted events to celebrate the importance of reentry and the success of the men and women they serve.

Share Your Experiences
Reentry Week Feedback Form

Reentry Week feedback form

The NRRC is always looking for input from those seeking reentry resources. Your input helps the Center continue to improve in meeting the growing needs of the justice and reentry fields. During Reentry Week, we would like to hear from you!

REENTRY WEEK CALENDAR

MON 26 Education and Employment

See All for Monday

Featured Event Building Partnerships for Successful ReentryPanelists will discuss their education and reentry initiatives—a college-run reentry program operating within an on-campus reentry center and a collaborative partnership between a state department of correction and regional Workforce Development Board.

Featured Webinar Expanding Access to Postsecondary Education in PrisonIn this webinar, presenters discuss the law that reinstates Pell access for people in prison and highlight how postsecondary education in prison operates now as well as new considerations for corrections and higher education institutions.

Featured Publication After the Sentence, More Consequences: A National Report of Barriers to WorkThis report presents national and state-by-state overviews of the nearly 30,000 state and federal consequences of conviction that directly block people from being hired or create barriers to obtaining occupational licenses essential for certain jobs.

Featured Video Reentry Talk with Christine Kidd, Center for Employment Opportunities In this Reentry Talk, Christine Kidd of the Center for Employment Opportunities provides commentary on the importance of employment skill development and placement for returning citizens.

TUE 27 Behavioral Health and Housing

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Featured Event The Role of Housing Supports in ReentryAround the country, many communities are facing a lack of affordable housing. People who have been involved with the justice system face additional barriers that make finding housing especially difficult.

Featured Webinar Looking Beyond a Conviction: Opening Doors to Public HousingHousing access is critical for reentry success. In this webinar, staff from the Vera Institute of Justice and practitioners from the field discuss best practices for providing access to public housing for formerly incarcerated people.

Featured Publication Best Practices for Successful Reentry for People Who Have Opioid AddictionsPeople who are leaving incarceration face a significantly higher risk of relapse, overdose, and overdose-related death than people in the general public. Because of these odds, reentry is a critical time to provide rapid access to pre- and post-release treatment as well as informed supervision to people who have opioid addictions.

Program Highlight Three Things to Know About Implementing Telehealth in Correctional FacilitiesTelehealth has rapidly expanded opportunities to provide health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at a time when offering in-person services can have dire consequences. In this article, The Council of State Governments Justice Center shares ...

WED 28 Youth & Families

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Featured Event Developing Comprehensive Reentry Plans for YouthThis webinar will explore key dimensions of the reentry planning process for youth with leaders from the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice and Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

Featured Event Using Distance-Based Child-Parent Engagement Strategies in Correctional FacilitiesIn this webinar, Second Chance Act grantee corrections and human services agencies will share strategies for visits, programming, and supports to encourage developmentally appropriate child-parent engagement during a national pandemic.

Featured Webinar Putting Research into Practice: Giving Youths Real Second ChancesThis webinar discusses the need to understand both how juvenile justice agencies can implement research-based practices to prepare youths for reentry and youths’ perceptions about reentry and other findings of the Juvenile Reentry Measurement Standards project.

Featured Publication Identifying, Engaging, and Empowering Families: A Charge for Juvenile Justice AgenciesThis white paper reviews the literature on the relationship between family contact and outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system and identifies ways that agencies can better engage families to promote increase contact and active involvement.

Program Highlight Supporting the Well-Being of Children and Their Incarcerated Parents During and Beyond the PandemicThe National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers University shares how corrections agencies have adapted and what lessons the field should take to ensure parent-child contact during incarceration occurs as the pandemic continues.

THU 29 Making Reentry Work

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Featured Event Engaging Communities to Create Sustained Change in ReentryIn this webinar presenters will discuss how coalition building and community engagement in the reentry process can lead to long-term system change and sustainability.

Featured Publication Changing Systems, Changing Behavior: Five Ways Corrections Agencies Can Work to Reduce RecidivismThis brief highlights five emerging strategies that state corrections agencies have employed to implement an evidence-based approach to reducing recidivism.

Featured Video Reentry Talk with Vivian NixonIn this Reentry Talk, Vivian Nixon of College & Community Fellowship discusses the important work of Second Chance Act grantees and the individual needs of the people they serve.

Featured Podcast The Importance of MentoringThis Reentry Week podcast features Lester Young from JustLeadershipUSA and focuses on the importance of mentoring as an affective service for returning citizens.

FRI 30 The Importance of Evaluation

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Featured Event Screening and Q&A of “Video Shorts” on Timely Evaluation TopicsThis event features a screening of four, 2-minute animated videos on, why evaluation matters, improving evaluation readiness, assessing and improving cultural responsiveness, and adapting evaluation during COVID-19 and other contextual disruptions.

Featured Publication Improving Evaluation Readiness for Second Chance Act ProgramsThis resource brief summarizes key steps that Second Chance Act grantees and their research partners can take to build their program’s evaluation readiness and increase capacity for evaluation.

Featured Publication Assessing and Enhancing Cultural Responsiveness in Second Chance Act Programs Through Research and EvaluationThis resource brief describes how evaluation activities can assess a reentry program's cultural responsiveness and identify strategies for improvement.

Featured Infographic Why Conduct a Rigorous Evaluation?This infographic highlights why evaluation matters, the components of a rigorous evaluation, and the limitations of non-rigorous evaluations.

Partners Joining BJA and OJJDP in Reentry Week

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Follow all things reentry

#ReentryMatters | #ReentryWeek21

This Web site is funded in whole or in part through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this Web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).