The initial reentry acclimation programs that FOCUS will implement are being developed by the FOCUS House Managers in Evansville & Indianapolis in collaboration with interns from the IUPUI Master of Social Work Program. The initial reentry acclimation programs will fall into two categories: Re-entry Basics and Community Support. Participants in the Reentry Acclimation Programs do not have to live in FOCUS houses, they can contact us prior to release to sign up for our programs upon release and begin to build a relationship with us before release.
Reentry Basics
Re-entry Basics consists of the Wraparound Services Coordinator aiding people participating in the FOCUS program with the essentials of living in society after returning from incarceration, through a team of Re-entry Coaches. Such essentials include getting healthcare, housing, a job, transportation and a drivers’ license, digital literacy, financial literacy and budgeting, substance abuse counseling if that is an issue, mental health support, ensuring the participant has access to quality food, and any other immediate needs that may arise. As the program expands to include more participants, we will raise money to make the Wraparound Services Coordinator into a full-time position and eventually hire multiple people for this role.
Community Support:
Reentry Circles
Reintegration into outside society can be extremely difficult after being incarcerated, especially on lengthy sentences, or if one has been held in solitary or otherwise tortured while incarcerated, beyond the basic torture of being caged and chained. It is very difficult for people who have not had such experiences to understand what people experience post-release. Some people call this experience Post-Traumatic Prison Disorder.
FOCUS is developing supportive peer mutual aid groups with abolitionist ethic aimed both at supporting peoples’ successful reentry and post release acclimation, and building a social base for abolition among people directly oppressed by the prison-industrial complex.
Legal Support Fund
In recognition of the fact that one of the main reasons that people are re-incarcerated after release is bogus fines and fees associated with community corrections, probation, and electronic monitoring, as well as petty legal issues of various kinds, one of our goals is for the Reentry Circles to have a fund available to help participants cover such costs when they can’t do so themselves.