How Trauma-Informed Care Leads to Post-Jail Success in Pennsylvania
This story is part of Second Chance Month 2025. Click to view more on the state and success of the Second Chance Act.
Pinebrook Family Answers, a community-based organization in Allentown, Pennsylvania, operates Leaving Jail: A Trauma-Informed Reentry Program for Women. The program is available in county jails across Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties in Pennsylvania, providing comprehensive support to incarcerated women preparing to reenter their communities with or without further correctional supervision.
Serving women aged 18 and over who are assessed at a medium to high risk of recidivism, the program addresses barriers to reentry such as drug and alcohol dependency and trauma. It has served 75 women from the fall of 2023 through February 2024, with a goal of reaching 150 women during the ongoing grant period.
SCA funding is crucial to the program’s success
The Leaving Jail program stands out because women are not always considered as a specific segment of the criminal justice population. Grant funding from the Second Chance Act (SCA) has been crucial to the program’s success, which is built on the following:
- Individualized assessments: Program staff use assessments that are designed for or validated on women to determine participants’ unique needs.
- Long-term, trusting relationships: Leaving Jail offers a seamless continuum of support from incarceration to community reintegration. Participants stay matched to the same reentry specialist throughout—an approach that helps build strong relationships.
- Focus on underlying trauma: Recognizing the high prevalence of trauma among incarcerated women—97 percent of program participants in Lehigh County reported significant trauma before incarceration—the program focuses on addressing these underlying issues. Services include evidence-based classes, one-on-one case management, and collaborative reentry planning covering essentials such as housing, employment, mental health, and family reunification.
- Valuable partnerships: Leaving Jail has a strong network of partners to help connect participants to needed services, including regional victims resources; county mental health, probation and parole, and substance use agencies; housing supports; and recovery groups.
The program has offered participants critical supports that have resonated with them on a personal level.
“I learned how to deal with thoughts and emotions that could have a very bad negative outcome if not channeled correctly,” said one participant. “I learned what my warning signs were, what my triggers were, and how to respond instead of react.”
She credits Living Jail staff with helping her identify strategies for building a filter between her thoughts and her actions.
“To the average person, this might not seem like much,” she said, “but to someone who is hopeless, this is the key to life or death.”
Another participant overcame significant challenges, including a history of drug addiction, recidivism, and family involvement in the criminal justice system, and ultimately achieved stable employment, housing, and reconnection with family. Originally wary of the Leaving Jail program, this participant is continuing therapy even after completing the program to maintain trauma and mental health care.
The Leaving Jail program has seen significant successes and has received positive feedback not only from participants, but also from community partners. Positive results in reducing recidivism are evidenced by an evaluation completed by the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges.
The 2020 study found that “the more pre-release programs that an incarcerated individual completed, the less likely it was that she returned to jail later,” and that “successful completion of post-release services significantly affects their return to jail.”
SCA grant funding has indeed been a major factor in the Leaving Jail program’s success and the positive impact it has made on participant’s lives—as well as the communities they return to.
