Breaking the cycle: Empowering formerly incarcerated individuals for successful reentry.

Step by step, they approach the gates of freedom, their hearts heavy with anticipation and trepidation. These individuals, once confined within prison walls, now stand on the precipice of reentry into society. But as they take those first uncertain steps towards a new life, they are confronted with a daunting reality: reentry feels impossible.

The lack of support, legal barriers, stigma, and meager wages create an intricate web of challenges that extend far beyond their sentence. In a system plagued by recidivism, where more than half struggle to find stable employment and two out of three are rearrested, the question is: How can we break this cycle and empower the formerly incarcerated to reintegrate successfully into society?

Re-entry Feels Impossible.

Over 640,000 people return to our communities from prison yearly, and another nine million are released from local jails. However, due to the lack of institutional support, imposed legal barriers, stigma, and low wages, most prison sentences extend far beyond prison walls. Over half of the formerly incarcerated cannot find stable employment within the first year of returning. Two out of three former prisoners are re-arrested and more than 50% are incarcerated again. 

The process of previously convicted criminals re-offending and re-entering the prison system is known as recidivism. “Without employment opportunities and bare necessities such as housing, food, or clothing, successful reentry into society seems nearly impossible for former prisoners,” said Liz Benecchi at the Harvard Political Review.

Preparing for Re-entry.

How can we best prepare the formerly incarcerated for reintegration into life outside prison? How can we break the cycle of recidivism? Some experts claim that rehabilitation (rather than punishment) is the answer; others believe that correctional education programs are the best way to end recidivism; and others prioritize mental health and substance abuse treatment for returning citizens. Helping inmates maintain family ties while incarcerated is another way to reduce recidivism, improve an individual’s likelihood of finding a job after prison, and ease the harm to family members separated from their loved ones. 

There are many other promising reforms “targeted to address the core behavioral issues that result in criminality, with the goal of reducing the likelihood that inmates reoffend either while incarcerated or after their release” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. All are worthy of consideration.

Peer Support.

One notable effort towards reducing recidivism we’d like to highlight in this article is using peer specialist support teams, in particular, The Mental Health Peer Support Team Re-Entry Pilot project. The project was conceptualized to leverage peer experiences to empower justice-involved persons to transition from jail into communities successfully. 

Impact evaluators from the University of Texas in Dallas assessed the impact of the peer support specialist program on project outcomes: reduced re-arrest, decreased symptomology of mental health and substance use problems, and increased life domain functioning, including residential stability, employment, life skills, and self-care. 

Some notable findings are worth mentioning here. First, lived experience was valued. Of the peers who supported returning citizens, those with lived experience, or a history of involvement with the criminal justice system, were deemed most helpful. 

Lived Experience in Reentry. 

Participants believed that a peer’s lived experience is crucial for building rapport, establishing credibility, and and it is necessary for practical experience in addressing client needs, the evaluators said. In response to peers who don’t have similar lived experiences, one participant said, “You have peers that don’t have the experience the client has…they’re like, you just read a book and that’s how you learned that – you don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

Lived experience was considered the most valuable tool in working with clients, more so than any degree, according the participants.

Reducing recidivism.

To reduce recidivism, symptomology of mental health and substance use problems, and increase life domain functioning, peers who regularly use their lived experience to help re-entering citizens address clients’ mental health and substance use, housing, and employment needs appears promising. 

Today’s recidivism crisis calls for a paradigm shift from prison as punitive institutions to rehabilitative ones. Implementing rehabilitative practices of prioritizing mental health care, education, and creating a prison-to-work pipeline would lower recidivism rates in the United States. Having lower rates of recidivism does more than reduce crime rates; it also reduces prison populations, saves taxpayers' dollars, and ensures that prisoners are serving their purpose of reform and improvement, according to Harvard Political Review author Liz Benecchi. 

Interested in becoming a peer supporter? Learn more here.