Your Money, Your Goals - Focus on Reentry: Criminal Justice

Second Chance Month
April 2023

Written
Topic:
General Reentry

Your Money, Your Goals - Focus on Reentry: Criminal Justice

Focus on Reentry: Criminal Justice guide cover

Continuing their efforts to financially empower individuals involved with the criminal justice system and their families, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a revised Focus on Reentry: Criminal Justice guide as part of their Your Money, Your Goals financial empowerment resources. The guide is designed to help frontline staff working with individuals in jails and prisons, pretrial diversion programs like drug court, community reentry groups, and other social services groups address the unique financial challenges of individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

The guide is designed to help people understand and access financial products and services that best support their needs while incarcerated or when they return to their families and communities, including how to:

  • Prepare their finances for incarceration, such as getting a credit freeze, securing a power of attorney, or managing debt while incarcerated
  • Obtain identification documents such as social security cards to help ease the transition process
  • Identify and prioritize payments for both criminal justice-related debt and consumer debt
  • Choose a bank or credit union account and/or prepaid card
  • Calculate their take home salary after deductions, particularly for those getting a paycheck for the first time
  • Access credit reports, including inside correctional facilities, and monitor and address identity theft
  • Understand the background screening process and individual rights when applying for jobs

This free resource is available both online – in downloadable, auto-fillable and auto-calculable format – and in print as a Companion Guide to the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit, and can be ordered in bulk by correctional facilities. 

Access the guide