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More than 6,000 individuals return to their communities every year after serving time behind bars in Maryland prisons, and thousands more will be in and out of jail. With the recidivism rate at 30%, more than 2,000 of those returning citizens will return to prison within 3 years – often due to an inability to become financially stable.
No matter how hard people work to overcome their past, public opinion, laws, and policy-driven barriers often make it difficult to achieve the financial security necessary for successful reentry and reintegration as valued and productive members of their community.
Women with children are often the most affected. The Navigating Barriers to Reentry project team spent several years assisting, interviewing, surveying, and documenting women in various stages of transition – from pre-release to 25 years post release – and found that the collateral consequences associated with incarceration never really go away.
The site is designed to be a self-help resource to empower those in reentry, those continuing to struggle with reintegration, their families, and those who work with them to navigate the many legal and policy-driven barriers that are the collateral consequences of incarceration. It is meant to be a resource where information can be found easily, in one place and written in layperson’s terms. At the Navigating Barriers to Reentry website you will find step by step instructions on how to address the many barriers to reentry, as well as the forms often necessary to take action to correct or remove the barrier.