Re-Entry Resources

ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORTED THE FILMS

New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
NJISJ is a research and advocacy organization dedicated to the advancement of New Jersey’s residents and urban areas. Their approach is to identify, analyze, and address the issues that cause social and economic disparities.

Integrity House
Integrity House is committed to help individuals and families through an effective and measurable system of comprehensive Therapeutic Community addictions treatment and recovery support in a way that brings about positive, long-term lifestyle change.

Women Who Never Give Up
Women Who Never Give-Up (WWNG) is a New Jersey based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families get justice in the prison system. Gale Muhammad, Founder and CEO of WWNG has worked tirelessly over the past 20 years by advocating and lobbying for changes in the criminal justice system.

ORGANIZATIONS HIGHLIGHTED IN THE FILMS

Anchor of Hope
Anchor of Hope was founded by Omar Shabazz to provide housing and services in Newark to men coming home from prison.

Corporation for Supportive Housing
The Corporation for Supportive Housing is a national nonprofit organization and community development financial institution that helps communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Friends of the Lifers Youth Corp
Friends of the Lifers works with young Adults ages 12-21 with troubled juvenile backgrounds and assist them in changing from troubled men and women to productive individuals in their communities. They are committed to instituting self help programs and facilitate the successful reentry of ex-offenders into the community by providing housing, jobs and training programs for young adults. Their programs serve low income families and the elderly.

Integrity House
Integrity House was founded by Dave Kerr in the mid 60′s while he was a parole officer in Newark. Many of Integrity’s clients, called student members, come from families fractured by poverty, violence, educational failure and loss of hope. 65% of the student members come from New Jersey Urban Centers and 35% are from other areas of the state including suburban or rural areas. Integrity House serves adult men and women, adolescent males and women with children. Dave Kerr also writes 2 blogs on NJ.com- Newark Live and NJ Voices: Opinions from New Jersey

Nehemiah Group
Founded in 1999, The Nehemiah Group exists to equip, mentor, counsel, and empower transitional men and women striving to recover from a life of crime and life-controlling problems. They provide a comprehensive approach to recovery for each person including the physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their lives. Their vision is to provide a refuge for people desperately seeking to change their behavioral destructive lives, to become productive and healthy members of society. Highly focused on employment and entrepreneurial training.

New Jersey Parole Board
The New Jersey State Parole Board (SPB) is New Jersey’s lead reentry agency, and works to ensure ex-prisoners return to society as law-abiding citizens. As required by law, appointed Parole Board Members and staff conduct more than 20,000 hearings per year, solicit input from victims and decide parole matters. SPB sworn parole officers supervise more than 15,000 offenders statewide. SPB’s Community Programs Unit partners with government, non-profit and private agencies to connect ex-prisoners with vocational, mental health and related services, targeted to break the cycle and risk of crime. Also running FORGE, a reentry initiative for women parolees.

Prison Nation Radio
Devoted to helping formerly incarcerated people and their families find success during and after prison. Recognized for his provocative and inspirational presentations, host, Michael Jackson offers programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families, as well as for Volunteer and Professional Aftercare providers. Internet Talk Radio focused on issues that affect inner city communities. Host: Michael B. Jackson

Offender Aid and Restoration
OAR is one of the leading provider of services to formerly incarcerated adults in New Jersey. Our name is a new twist on an old acronym. OAR (Options Addressing Re-Entry) means that we offer new options for individuals re-entering society after being involved with the criminal justice system.

Redeem-Her
Redeem-Her is an inmate and ex-offender directed, self-help, service organization. Redeem-Her has its roots inside the confines of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey. Founded by women who sought to change the culture of the institution to one of cooperation, community, and service. Redeem-Her exists to bridge the gap between incarcerated women and their community.

Women Who Never Give Up
Women Who Never Give-Up (WWNG) is a New Jersey based non-profit organization dedicated to helping families get justice in the criminal justice and prison system.

GOVERNMENTAL, NONPROFIT AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Our work is based on the principles of the Religious Society of Friends, the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. New York Office

Community Education Centers, Inc.
Community Education Centers, Inc. (CEC) is a leading provider of reentry treatment and education services for adult correctional populations throughout the United States. CEC is firmly committed to partnering with government agencies to provide intensive reentry treatment and education programs that focus on changing addictive and criminal behaviors, preparing offenders for reentry, and ultimately reducing recidivism.

eYES Newark
eYES Newark empowers the Newark community to connect Newark’s youth and their families with needed services by providing easily accessible, up-to-date, and accurate information about available resources.

Greater Camden County Renaissance Group
The Greater Camden County Renaissance Group exist to bridge the information gap and to connect people, providers
and resources. Offers provider search capabilities.

JointFX
Michael B. Jackson is the founder of Prison Nation Radio and the author and publisher of several books,including the best-selling New York Times Top Choice, “How to Do Good After Prison: A Handbook for Successful Reentry”. A native of Newark, NJ and formerly incarcerated, MBJ is also an inspirational speaker and the founder and host of the Internet based radio station Prison Nation Radio. Mr. Jackson has worked in adult and juvenile corrections and parole for more that 32 years. He has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers and has appeared on several national radio and television shows.

Public Access to Counting the Costs Documents
Michael Jackson has also compiled prisoner transcripts, reports, legislative bills, including the historic 2010 legislation, reports about juveniles and many other resources and reports from around the country. Provides myriad information on incarceration and reentry all in one place.

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-NJ
NCADD-New Jersey works in partnership with and on behalf of individuals, families, and communities affected by alcoholism and drug dependence to promote recovery through excellence inprevention and treatment initiatives.

New Jersey Association on Correction (NJAC)
To promote social justice and human dignity in the policies and institutions which govern offenders and victims of crime through educational, legislative, and rehabilitative programs.

New Jersey Department of State/Office of Faith Based Initiatives
The mission of the Office of Faith Based Initiatives is to develop relationships and strengthen partnerships with federal and state agencies, corporations, foundations, institutions of higher learning, and capacity building training organizations in an effort to create greater access to funding and other resource opportunities for Faith Based and Community Based Organizations.

New Jersey Resource Guide for Women
Governmental resources for addiction services, housing, community action programs, education, health, adoption and foster care, employment, legal services and more.

NJSuccess
The NJSuccess site is a collaboration by the members of the Prisoners Self Help Legal Clinic and the Prisoners and Their Families Project. NJSuccess is an interactive database of community resources for people leaving prison and can be used to search for resources and programs for people who are coming home from prison.

NJ Dept of Corrections

COUNTY SMART BOOK – ALL COUNTIES
A resource guide for social services staff and offenders returning home from prison. Each county’s Smart Book is created by different collaborators. All county links below are pdf format.

NJ Dept. of Corrections: Understanding the Prison System: A Resource Guide for Family Members of the Incarcerated
Incarceration is often a difficult time for inmates, their families and friends. There are usually many questions about the rules and regulations governing the operation of the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) that relatives and friends want answered.

NJ Dept. of Corrections: What About Me? When a Parent Goes to Prison A guide to discussing your incarceration with your children. Many of the men and women currently incarcerated are parents of children under the age of 18. It is estimated that 1.7 million children have a father in prison and 200,000 children have a mother in prison in the United States. Approximately ten million, or one in eight children, have experienced parental incarceration at some point of their lives. The link between generations is so strong, that half of all juveniles in custody had a father, mother, or other close relative who has been in jail or prison. The What About Me guide is designed to help children, and families and caregivers, who have a mother, father, or close family member who is incarcerated.

Newark Office of Reentry
The Office, located at City Hall, is devoted to helping formerly incarcerated people return home from prison or jail and become successful, productive members of the Newark community. The Office has developed several programs that help formerly incarcerated individuals find work, reunite with their families, and obtain supportive services such as mentoring, case management, and housing. The Office also serves as a primary referral source to community-based organizations and other resources. Since it opened its doors less than nine months ago, the Office has served more than 700 formerly incarcerated individuals and connected them to job placement, mentoring, case management and other services.

One Stop Career Centers
Are you looking for a job? The New Jersey One-Stop Career Centers is the place to start. Located throughout New Jersey, One-Stop Career Centers offer services (free of charge) to help you develop the skills needed to succeed in a 21st century work environment.

Prodigal Sons and Daughters Redirection Services, Inc.
Prodigal Sons and Daughters Redirection Services, Inc. assist socially outcast and disenfranchised persons to achieve optimum success by adopting thought and action processes engaged in by highly effective people; their example being used as a guidepost to others struggling to emerge from similar conditions.

Second Chance Campaign of New Jersey
The mission of the Second Chance Campaign of New Jersey is to achieve the safe and successful reintegration of adults and juveniles returning home from incarceration by promoting policies that remove barriers to productive citizenship. The Campaign agenda includes measures that will improve the safety and security of New Jersey’s families and communities, save state and municipal dollars, and promote racial equity.

The Drug Policy Alliance, New Jersey
Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, directed by Roseanne Scotti, is dedicated to making New Jersey a leader in drug policy reform. New Jersey’s ineffective and counterproductive drug policies have increased the harms related to drug use and wasted taxpayer money. Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey advocates for effective drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights.

UIH-Family Partners
The mission of UIH Family Partners is “To build effective families through innovative and culturally sensitive programs for parents and children.” For nearly 150 years, UIH Family Partners has faithfully provided client-centered and outcomes-focused programs aimed at bolstering fragile families and equipping vulnerable, and underserved people with the tools they need to grow into independent, productive adults and contributing members of the community.

Ujima Ministries
Urban Women’s Center
Ujima Ministries social services are non-sectarian, assisting the poor and disenfranchised, regardless of race, creed or ethnic origin.

Volunteers of America Delaware Valley
Volunteers of America Delaware Valley is a professional human services organization that annually serves more than 11,000 men, women and children in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. They shelter homeless people and help them find permanent housing. They also help people struggling with behavioral health issues or development disabilities. And help ex-offenders re-enter their communities, reconcile with their families, and resume their working lives.

LISTSERVS AND BLOGS

NJCommunityandCorrectionsWorkingSummit · Impacting Communities of Color

Greater Essex County Reentry Providers Network
The goals of the Greater Essex County Reeintry Providers’ Network are to develop a network of reentry providers that engages in open dialogue and exchanges of best practices, shares technical and intellectual resources and works toward a unified vision of reentry policy and practice, and to plan and execute strategies that make New Jersey a more welcoming home for returning formerly incarcerated individuals where they can become productive members of the community.

MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

National Media Guide Search by Zip Code

NJ Newspapers

National and New Jersey Media

PUBLICATIONS

American Friends Service Committee — Coming Home
The publication, Coming Home is a series of interviews with twenty men and women, many of whom were prepared to spend most, if not the rest, of their lives behind bars for crimes of armed robbery, drug dealing, assault, and murder. Following their release, they are succeeding in making a positive life for themselves and those whom they love.

Coming Home For Good: Meeting the Challenge of Prisoner Reentry in New Jersey Final Report of the New Jersey Reentry Roundtable In October, 2002, the New Jersey Institute for Justice and the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute began a year long initiative gathering policy makers, researchers, community and faith-based organizations, service providers and other key New Jersey stakeholders to take a comprehensive look at the phenomenon of prisoner reentry: how individuals leave the custody and control of the New Jersey criminal justice system and reintegrate into society. This New Jersey Reentry Roundtable (NJRR) set out to create a strategy to reduce recidivism, increase public safety, save money and strengthen families and communities. Improving how individuals transition from living in prison to living in New Jersey’s towns and cities is critical to achieving those important goals.

Engaging Offenders Families in Reentry (pdf)

Fortune Society Publications

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence – NJ
Treatment Instead of Incarceration (pdf)

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence – NJ
Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap (pdf)

New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ) | Reports and Resources

NJISJ: Legal Advocacy

NJISJ: An Overview of Prisoner Reentry in New Jersey

NJISJ Legal Barriers to Prisoner Reentry in NJ | Housing (pdf)
NJISJ Legal Barriers to Prisoner Reentry in NJ | Employment (pdf)

NJISJ: Eagleton Institute of Politics Center for Public Interest Polling
PRISONER REENTRY THE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION (pdf)
Opinions on the criminal justice system have been evolving in recent years. There are some key items tonote in public opinion trends. Foremost among these is that overall attitudes on criminal justice issues in the U.S. have been moving away from support for mandatory sentencing and punishment towards alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders.

URBAN INSTITUTE REENTRY PUBLICATIONS

Prisoner Reentry in Perspective (pdf)
Contrary to the popular image that reentry is a wave of released prisoners about to enter society, the growth of the prisoner release population has leveled off, after the dramatic rise during the 1980s, and the wave has already hit. Inmates returning to society now may be more difficult to reintegrate than their predecessors, as they are more likely (1) to have failed at parole previously; (2) not to have participated in educational and vocational programs in prison; and (3) to have served longer sentences, which attenuate ties to families. Reentry should be considered in concert with sentencing policies and corrections practice that determine who goes to prison, how long they stay, and how prepared they are for reintegration.

From Prison to Home: The Dimensions and Consequences of Prisoner Reentry (pdf)
This monograph is the first to document in a single source the various aspects of prisoner reentry—from preparation for release to post-prison supervision. This focus sheds light on issues of sentencing, punishment, public safety, and prisoner reintegration. The report explores the challenges posed by substance abuse, health problems, employment, and housing, as well as the complex implications of reentry for families and communities. The monograph covers the state of knowledge in each of these areas, identifying key research findings and highlighting opportunities for policy innovation.

Evaluation of Breaking the Cycle (pdf)
The BTC demonstrations tested the feasibility and impact of systemwide intervention to reduce drug use among offenders by requiring felony defendants to undergo screening and participate in drug testing as a condition of pretrial release. The core elements of the BTC model were early intervention, judicial oversight, graduated sanctions and incentives, and collaboration among justice and treatment agencies. The quasi-experimental evaluation of the three BTC sites found significant reductions in drug use, criminal offending, and family problems. The report includes lessons from the process evaluation on how to implement BTC strategies.

From Prison to Home Conference Papers (pdf)
For the HHS-sponsored “From Prison to Home” national policy conference, the Urban Institute commissioned a series of papers by leading academics to survey the state of knowledge on the dynamics of incarceration and reentry as seen through the prism of individual, family, and community perspectives. In particular, the papers address how the criminal justice and health and human services systems could work more collaboratively and, in turn, be more responsive to the needs of children, families, and communities coping with the removal and return of prisoners.

Incarceration, Reentry and Social Capital Social Networks in the Balance (pdf)
The From Prisons to Home Conference, held on January 30-31, 2002 at the National Institutes of Health, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the conference was to bring together the research, policy, and practice communities to share promising strategies, identify research needs, and inform federal program and policy development for children and families affected by the incarceration of a parent. Eleven papers were commissioned by leading experts to survey the state of knowledge on the dynamics of incarceration and reentry as seen from the perspectives of child, parent and community. This paper considers the impact of incarceration and reentry on communities, with a particular focus on the issue of social capital. It explores the impact of the removal and return of large numbers of offenders on stability in these “high rate” neighborhoods, focusing on the impact on social networks.

The Revolving Door: Exploring Public Attitudes Toward Prisoner Reentry (pdf)

HOUSING RESOURCES

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)

CSH Resources

CSH Toolkit for Developing and Operating Supportive Housing

CSH Supportive Housing Training Series
The Supportive Housing Training Series currently includes eleven curricula providing best practices and guidance on supportive housing development, operation and services. Each curriculum provides a one-day training for enriching the skills of supportive housing developers and providers.

CSH Employment and Housing

Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey
The Network’s mission is to enhance the ability of our members to create and preserve long-term affordable housing and build strong communities in New Jersey. Members listed by county.

Supportive Housing Association of NJ
The Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey (SHA) is a statewide, nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and maintain a strong supportive housing industry in New Jersey serving persons with special needs.

The Fortune Society
The Fortune Society believes in a world where all who are at-risk, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated can become positive, contributing members of society. Our work supports successful reentry of formerly incarcerated men and women and promotes alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities.

Volunteers of America Delaware Valley (VOA)
Volunteers of America Delaware Valley is a professional human services organization that annually serves more than 11,000 men, women and children in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. They shelter homeless people and help them find permanent housing. They also help people struggling with behavioral health issues or development disabilities. And help ex-offenders re-enter their communities, reconcile with their families, and resume their working lives.

NATIONAL RESOURCES

Center on Employment Opportunities
The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) is dedicated to providing immediate, effective and comprehensive employment services to men and women with recent criminal convictions in New York. Our highly structured and tightly supervised programs help participants regain the skills and confidence needed for a successful transition to a stable, productive life.

Mapping Reentry Guidebook
The purpose of this guidebook is to explore ways in which mapping can aid police responses to prisoner reentry. It is intended for a variety of sworn and civilian police personnel as well as corrections and community entities interested in partnering with the police on prisoner reentry efforts.

The National Reentry Resource Center
The National Reentry Resource Center, established by the Second Chance Act (Public Law 110-199) and administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, provides education, training, and technical assistance to states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, non-profit organizations, and corrections institutions working on prisoner reentry.

The Reentry Policy Council (RPC)
The Reentry Policy Council was established in 2001 to assist state government officials grappling with the increasing number of people leaving prisons and jails to return to the communities they left behind.

The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project is a national organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration. The Sentencing Project is dedicated to changing the way Americans think about crime and punishment.

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs-Reentry
This national web site makes online research on any aspect of reentry easy. Publications are organized by the following subject areas such as: corrections, courts, employment services, female offenders, health, housing/Homelessness, inmate rehabilitation, juvenile justice/delinquency prevention, post-release services, program descriptions/evaluations, reentry—general, substance abuse, veterans’ issues, and victims.

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs-Reentry
Clearinghouse of National Reports on Reentry

Re-Entry Resources

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