The Evolution of Reentry

Think about what it means to ‘come home.’ A homecoming, at its best, carries the promise that you belong somewhere and that your return matters to the people around you. For the nearly 600,000 people leaving prison in the United States each year, coming home often falls short of that experience. 

Reentry Begins Day One

When I began my career, reentry was largely an afterthought. Nearly half of all people released from a Michigan prison returned within three years. While dismal, it was not surprising since incarceration rarely addressed the underlying conditions that led to justice involvement (poverty, trauma, lack of opportunity, systemic neglect) and release planning was minimal at best.

The creation of the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI) in 2004 sought to change that, becoming one of the most ambitious state-level reentry frameworks in the country. Built on the premise that reentry begins on Day One of incarceration, it created a three-phase continuum: in-prison programming, pre-release transition planning, and post-release community support. Across the state, community partners mapped available resources and pulled together to receive people coming home. By 2011, the Michigan Benefits Access Initiative added another layer of support, securing vital documents (birth certificates, state IDs,) and processing benefits applications for nearly 20,000 people awaiting release.

This work started to move the needle and recidivism rates dropped from 1 in 2 people to 1 in 3 returning to prison. But shifts in politics and funding meant that MPRI was never codified into law. While some of the community-led infrastructure still exists under Offender Success, many of the resources have been redirected toward in-prison programming, such as Vocational Villages and the newly announced (March 2026) Safer Prisons Initiative.

Overcoming Collateral Consequences

Even with a clear transition plan in hand, the stigma of a legal record can follow someone their entire lives. Every time a person applies for housing, employment, professional licensure, or student loans, they are required to check a box to disclose their prior conviction, which often results in their denial before even having a chance to explain their circumstances or prove their worth. While the state does not include criminal history questions on state employment applications, the law explicitly prohibits local governments from extending "ban the box" protections to private employers, where most employment occurs. 

Michigan's Clean Slate Initiative has been a significant step forward. Since 2023, the automatic expungement process has sealed more than 1.6 million criminal records, completely clearing the records of over 280,000 people. While it does not apply to all types of offenses, it is one of the most expansive expungement programs in the country, and other states are modeling their own laws after it. 

Connection and Homecoming

Perhaps the most important evolution I have witnessed in reentry has been the recognition that people need connection to survive and thrive, especially with peers who have navigated the challenges of returning home after prison themselves.

Over the past six years, I have had the opportunity to work with multiple peer-led reentry initiatives, and have found that it is the meaningful connections that make people feel like they are truly home.

Peer support allows for difficult conversations, about grief and fractured relationships and the fear of returning to a world that has moved on without you. It also gives hope to the many exciting possibilities that now exist beyond incarceration. Of course, taking these big steps is much easier when you have someone next to you saying, “I did it and you can too. We'll get through this together.” 

In recent years, the Michigan Department of Corrections has allocated $2 million to support the Trauma-Informed Peer-Led Reentry (TIPLR) program. It’s not quite the $50 million allocated during MPRI’s heyday but hopefully this movement will continue to grow.

All of these efforts combined have resulted in good news: the return to prison rate has dropped to a record low of 21%. As we continue to drive this number down, we now know that a truly successful homecoming requires community infrastructure ready to receive people, policies that remove barriers to housing and opportunity, and most of all, a friendly face at the door, saying, “Welcome home. You belong here.”

Is your organization leading a peer-led or community-centered reentry initiative? We can help! Next Generation Justice Consulting provides strategic planning, technical assistance, and coalition-building support to help organizations design reentry programs rooted in best practices.