Access to Justice
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 10% of those in prisons and jails are homeless in the months before their incarceration.
Individuals experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness and/or substance use issues often find themselves in jail or prison because they were unable to get appropriate care. Incarceration is an ineffective and costly intervention for this population. Targeted outreach, case management, and specialized courts are effective tools to keep people out of jail and emergency rooms and in programs that help them regain stability.
In addition, those who have been involved in the criminal justice system are at a higher risk of homelessness upon release. Upon release, many ex-offenders struggle with basic life necessities, facing barriers to housing and employment due to their criminal background. Such barriers only prolong the cycle of homelessness, arrest, and incarceration.
Opening Doors emphasizes the need for collaboration among housing, services, health, and criminal justice agencies to help prevent and end homelessness for the unsheltered and reentering population. Below users will find information and resources related to the following topics:
- Discharge planning/prison reentry
- Jail diversion courts
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Strategies to reduce the criminalization of homelessness
Blog
Homelessness and Human Rights
What We're Talking About: The Week at USICH - October 15-19
Collaborating for Reentry Success: Returning Home Ohio
Ending the Cycle between Corrections and Homelessness
Helpful Websites
National Reentry Resource Center
http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/ A project of the Reentry Policy Council led by Attorney General Eric Holder, the ...
Programs
Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program
The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program funds the development and implementation of drug treatment courts in state and local ...
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration
The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program funds grants and assistance to states and local government agencies to tackle the ...
Second Chance Act
The Second Chance Act includes funding for programs to provide assistance to the reentering population of adults and adolescents from ...
Veterans Justice Outreach Initiative
The Veterans Justice Outreach initiative limits the criminalization and unnecessary arrest of Veterans suffering from acute and ...
Related Research
Supportive Housing for Returning Prisoners: Outcomes and Impacts of the Returning Home-Ohio Pilot Project
Jocelyn Fontaine, Douglas Gilchrist-Scott, John Roman, Samuel Taxy, Caterina Gouvis Roman August 2012 This evaluation of a ...
Still Serving Time: Struggling with Homelessness , Incarceration, and Re-entry in Baltimore
Health Care for the Homeless October 2011 This study evaluates the costs of incarceration and recidivism, the connection between ...
Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless July 2009 This joint report by ...
Assessing Criminal History as a Predictor of Future Housing Success for Homeless Adults With Behavioral Health Disorders
Daniel K. Malone February 2009 Homeless adults with serious mental illnesses and chronic substance abuse problems have few housing ...
Homelessness in the State and Federal Prison Population
Greg A. Greenberg and Robert A. Rosenheck March 27, 2008 This study sought to investigate the rates and correlates of homelessness ...
Closing a Front Door to Homelessness among Veterans
James McGuire June 2007 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been identified as a mainstream institution to help ...
Intensive Case Management as a Jail Diversion Program for People with a Serious Mental Illness
David Loveland and Michael Boyle April 2007 This article reviews the research on intensive case management (ICM) programs as a ...
Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry
Amy L. Solomon, Christy Visher, Nancy G. La Vigne, and Jenny Osborne March 2006 The four-fold increase in incarceration ...
A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless January 2006 The housing and ...
Taking Stock: Housing, Homelessness and Prisoner Reentry
Caterina Gouvis Roman and Jeremy Travis March 2004 This report examines how those who have spent time in prison or jail fare in ...
Criminal history as a prognostic indicator in the treatment of homeless people with severe mental illness
James F. McGuire 2004 This study examined the clinical problems and treatment outcomes of homeless people with severe mental ...
An Empirical Portrait of the Youth Reentry Population
Howard N. Snyder 2004 Nearly 100,000 juvenile offenders are released annually from custody facilities following adjudication or ...
From Prison to Home: The Dimensions and Consequences of Prisoner Reentry
Jeremy Travis, Amy L. Soloman, and Michele Waul June 2001 This study examines the challenges of reintegrating individuals who ...
Homeless and Non-Homeless Arrestees: Distinctions in Prevalence and in Sociodemographic, Drug Use, and Arrest Characteristics Across DUF Sites, Final Report
Richard Spieglman 1999 The study hypothesized that homeless persons would be arrested more often for less serious crimes than ...
A SAMHSA Research Initiative Assessing the Effectiveness of Jail Diversion Programs for Mentally Ill
Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D., Martha Williams Deane, M.A., Joseph P. Morrissey, Ph.D., Mary L. Westcott, Ph.D., Susan Salasin and Steven ...
An Empirical Portrait of the Youth Reentry Population
Howard N. Snyder January 2004 Nearly 100,000 juvenile offenders are released annually from custody facilities following ...
Impact of the San Diego Serial Inebriate Program
James V. Dunford, Edward M. Castillo, Theodore C. Chan, Gary M. Vilke, MD, Peter Jenson and Suzanne P. Lindsay January 2006 The ...
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USICH Webpages
Successful Reentry Program: Oakland Prisoner Reentry Initiative
The Oakland Prisoner Reentry Initiative (OPRI) Program is a two-year-old collaborative (or “the collaborative) among the Oakland ...
Successful Reentry Program: The Fortune Society
The New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) admitted 87, 515 people into the city’s jail system during FY2011. 77.7% of ...
Federal Efforts to Improve Reentry: Federal Interagency Council on Reentry
For those leaving incarceration, overcoming the barriers to successful reentry may mean the difference between living a healthy and ...
Reentry In Focus
October 2012 Annually, approximately 730,000 Federal and state prisoners return to communities and over 9 million pass through local ...
