Re-entry: What Does This Mean?

In our view, "re-entry" - a term which generally describes the return of men and women from jail to the community - begins on day one of incarceration. In large part, its foundation is based on the inmate's ability to maintain ties to the community so there is something to come back to. It begins with that first phone call to a family member to ask them to visit, a call to an employer to see if a job might be still available once the legal difficulties have passed, a contact with that long-avoided drug treatment program. Re-entry into the community of men and women from Jail - to live, to work and to raise their children - suggests a combination of responsibilities and reactions.

To the Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Prisons, re-entry means providing that state of readiness so that the offender is prepared for the basic challenges ahead. To the family, it is a happy event, but it can also involve a period of adjustment. To a neighborhood, it can mean a struggle over a new halfway house, combining hard work, tough questions and a spirit of cooperation. To an employer, it can be a test of willingness to reinegrate a person who has paid his debt to society. To Visitors' Services Center, it's that first call home, a referral to job training or drug treatment, a change of clothes, a chance to talk. To the man or woman returning to our community from jail/prison, it is a new start.

VCS collaborates with organizations in this City as re-entry strategies are developed. Our Executive Director is a member of the Community Options Committee of the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. She attends monthly meetings of the United Planning Organization and weekly meetings at the DC Jail as these agencies develop re-entry programs. She testifies regularly before the City Council at the Department of Corrections oversight hearings (most recently in September 2005). She is on the Board of Directors of the Council for Court Excellence.