Prisoner Reentry Programs | Life After Prison

Significant attention is paid to preparing for prison and resolving problems in prison. Yet, not much time is spent on reentering society after a period of incarceration until it is too late. This page discusses our reentry programs for inmates. Please consider our prisoner reentry programs if you have a loved one preparing to be released. We can help you navigate life after prison.

Our work is not complete at the Zoukis Consulting Group until our clients come home safe and reenter society as productive citizens. This is why we offer prisoner reentry programs to clients. We do everything we can to help prisoners after release.

Prison Reentry Programs | Prisoner Reentry

How Our Prison Reentry Programs Work

When a client hires us to help with their prison reentry needs, our team of experienced prison consultants starts by speaking with the client and their family to understand their immediate needs. We also strive to understand each client’s background, potential challenges, and personal objectives. Much like prison preparation, each individual needs a customized program for reentry success.

We fulfill our reentry programs for inmates through letters, emails, and phone calls with incarcerated clients and their families. We understand their specific needs through these communications, create an action plan for success, and coach our clients. We can also provide direct logistical support.

By talking through the incarcerated client’s reentry needs, we can help clients develop quality prison reentry programs. Our goal is to raise potential issues and find solutions to support their life after prison. We also spend time explaining what is to come, the likely trouble spots, and calm anxiety and fear.

After we understand the client’s background and needs, our team works to create a prisoner reentry program for success. This often includes working in conjunction with non-incarcerated family members. Usually, this starts by focusing on maximizing halfway house and home confinement placement but quickly turns to the big three: housing, employment, and support network creation. The most significant issues faced by most prisoners preparing for life after prison.

Housing

We start by speaking with the incarcerated client and their family to understand their financial resources and family circumstances. If the prisoner’s family is willing to allow the prisoner to move back home, this often becomes part of the reentry program.

If moving back home is not an option, our team discusses available options. This could include searching for appropriate housing and even acting as an in-between with the incarcerated client in securing specific housing. We can be as hands-on or hands-off as the client desires.

Obtaining reliable housing is one of the most significant life after prison planning areas. Without a place to live, little else is possible.

Employment

With housing in place, our team discusses employment prospects. If they have already secured employment, then this is easy. If not, our team can help as part of our reentry programs for inmates. This help for prisoners after release can include:

  • Researching local employment markets.
  • Helping clients prepare for their preferred line of work.
  • Assisting clients with creating a resume.
  • Contacting local employers.
  • Or even helping the client to structure a new business.

One of the significant benefits of hiring the Zoukis Consulting Group is our strength in strategic educational planning. Christopher Zoukis, the firm’s Managing Director, is also the author of the Prison Education GuideAs such, he’s well aware of correspondence education programs that prisoners can enroll in. These can help to better prepare inmates for employment after release from custody.

Likewise, Lily Hamilton, the firm’s prison preparation and reentry specialist, has significant experience assisting prisoners reentering society. Before working with the Zoukis Consulting Group, Lily was a case manager specializing in reentry programs for inmates. Her background makes her a key component of our help for released prisoners.

Support Network

An often overlooked area of prisoner reentry programs is creating a support network. Reentering society is challenging at best. Many unprepared released prisoners fail.

With appropriate housing, a good job, and a strong support network, it is possible for most, if not all, released prisoners to succeed. This is another critical area of our life after prison planning.

As with all of our other consulting services, our support network creation service starts with fully understanding who our clients are and their needs. By understanding what led clients to prison in the first place and the issues they faced before and during imprisonment, we can help to create a reentry program for inmates that addresses their specific needs.

  • For example, many of our clients have suffered from substance abuse addictions. In such cases, we assist clients with the following:
  • Finding treatment (if they are so inclined)
  • Helping them figure out a way to stay away from bad influences, places, and things

The same process is applied to many other underlying issues (e.g., past sex offenses, mental health issues, underemployment, social issues, etc.). But what sets us apart is our focus on developing a new, healthy support network. We help clients search for positive influences to help them with their journey. For example, this can include ministers, treatment providers, sports or recreation leagues, and prisoner support or advocacy groups.

Contending with Supervised Release

All federal prisoners are sentenced to a term of imprisonment followed by a term of supervised release. Supervised release is effectively a term of post-incarceration probation. Since this period of supervision can be a stumbling block, we view this as an essential area for helping released prisoners.

Those under supervision are required to adhere to specific restrictions on their conduct and the directives of their supervised release officer. The issues that tend to arise while on supervised release concern conflicts with the supervised release officer, specialized treatment groups (e.g., drug treatment, sex offender treatment, etc.), and restrictions on daily life.

Any successful federal prisoner reentry program needs to involve planning for supervised release and troubleshooting when issues arise. Our consulting approach includes:

  • Explaining the basics of supervised release to clients and their families
  • Discussing client’s standard and special conditions of supervised release
  • Helping clients to plan and prepare for these restrictions and obligations
  • Troubleshoot when issues arise

The basics of creating a prisoner reentry program are essential and lay a foundation for release success (e.g., housing, employment, and support network). Equally important is successfully completing the term of supervised release. Above everything else, avoiding violations of supervised release is critical. Violations can result in supervised releasees being sent back to prison.

Before starting a term of supervised release, you need to speak with a prison consultant to understand what is to come, how to deal with it, and what to do if problems occur. At the Zoukis Consulting Group, we can help with all of these. In addition to this, when the time is right, we can also assist you in seeking early termination of supervised release.

Life After Prison | Help for Prisoners After Release

Other Prisoner Reentry Programs Services

We know there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reentry programs for prisoners. Our clients commonly use the following life after prison prisoner reentry services.

When hiring the Zoukis Consulting Group for your release preparation needs, you obtain an expert team focused on your successful reentry. We help clients increase access to transitional housing, return home, and make the process of returning to their community more successful.

Don’t return alone. Our team’s approach reduces recidivism through evidence-based social work practices. Guided by research from the Urban Institute, our team helps clients entering society reduce their recidivism rates, distance themselves from the criminal justice system, and surmount the barriers of criminal records.

Halfway House Maximization

If you or your loved one is leaving prison soon, you may be considering entering a Residential Reentry Center. These are also known as halfway houses. These placements can assist in the reentry process by helping returning prisoners adjust to public society. While helpful, these programs don’t typically go far enough in helping prepare inmates for life after prison.

Reentry can be a challenging time for former inmates. They often don’t know what to do when they’re released. They don’t know where to get help for finding a job or staying sober.

The Zoukis Consulting Group will assist you in securing maximum halfway house placement through a variety of means, including:

  • Advising of the BOP’s current guidelines to unit teams on halfway house placement
  • Pre- and post-sentencing judicial recommendations
  • Assisting with making a rational, policy-based argument for maximum halfway house time
  • Engaging in informal advocacy to secure maximum halfway house placement
  • If unit team staff are not compliant, we can research, drafting, and filing an administrative remedy.

Additionally, some lower security federal inmates can secure a temporary release (i.e., furloughs). We regularly advise our clients about this option and how we can help. These briefer times at home help repair damaged relationships and, therefore, help prisoners after release.

Home Confinement Maximization

Prisoners who are soon to be released, or are already in a halfway house, often seek home confinement placement. This is also known as house arrest. It is an alternative to a lengthy halfway house stay or as a way to seek an early release. However, many prisoners and their loved ones are unaware of the processes involved in seeking home confinement.

The Zoukis Consulting Group regularly advises clients regarding direct-to-home-confinement placement. We also assist clients in halfway houses by transitioning their halfway house placement to home confinement. In effect, this means they can serve the final few months of their sentence at home with their family.

Please contact us today for help with maximizing your home confinement placement. This is one of the many ways we help prisoners after release.

Reentry Programs Assistance

Reentering society can be a challenging and overwhelming time for inmates. They must consider where they’re going to live, how they will make a living, and other day-to-day realities of life outside prison. These questions can become hidden stumbling blocks in prison reentry programs.

While government-funded prison reentry programs can assist prisoners, these programs tend to have limited offerings and a standard approach for all releasing inmates. While helpful for the most basic needs, this common approach is not a recipe for success. Our prison reentry programs go much further than these state- and federal-sponsored programs.

Our team will assist you and your family in locating and securing housing, employment, treatment providers, education, and even one-on-one concierge care once you are released.

This approach enables our clients to get on their feet and become accustomed to the world outside of prison in the least stressful and most successful manner possible. For many clients, this is the best help for prisoners after release.

Release Planning for Reentry Programs

Being released from prison can be an exciting and even scary time — especially if the prisoner has served a long sentence. There are many aspects to consider surrounding a release, including:

  • Housing
  • Employment
  • Support Networks
  • Conditions of Supervised Release
  • And more

Our reentry assistance service centers around helping you and your family develop a plan which outlines your immediate needs and how to fulfill them. Here, we help ensure that all of the i’s are dotted, and the t’s are crossed. This way, all of the crucial questions surrounding release are answered before the time comes.

Not planning is creating a plan to fail. Allow our team to help you develop a quality reentry program for inmates that will place you on the right footing for success. This is the best plan for a successful life after prison.

Supervised Release Reductions

Following a term of federal imprisonment, most federal prisoners must spend several years on supervised release. Supervised release is much like probation but after a period of incarceration. While some released prisoners are on supervised release for a few years, others, such as sex offenders, must be on it for life.

Once you have successfully completed several months of supervised release, we can start the evaluation and preparation process for seeking a supervised release reduction. This usually requires drafting a memorandum outlining your compliance with supervised release and working with competent counsel to petition the sentencing court.

These petitions are filed after one year of compliance with the conditions of supervised release. This is when federal supervised releasees are statutorily eligible for early termination of supervised release.

While early termination of supervised release is rarely considered help for prisoners after release, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The research is clear: the more law enforcement contact, the greater the likelihood of recidivism. Terminating supervised release early reduces law enforcement contacts, thereby providing significant help for released prisoners.

Developing a Support Network

Many federal prisoners lack a healthy support network for release. This is often detrimental to their post-release success as they often need help and support but don’t know where to turn.

The Zoukis Consulting Group can help you create a support network for when you are released from prison. We will discuss your needs (e.g., housing, treatment, counseling, religious services, AA/NA, education, etc.), conduct thorough personal and release jurisdiction research, and draft a plan of attack. This plan is then presented to you for approval.

Once approved, we engage with local providers and community leaders to create a robust and reliable support network for you before you are released from custody.

Before release, we also connect clients with each provider and community leader to start building a healthy and open rapport. This is a critical stage in providing help for released prisoners.

Zoukis Consulting Group Reentry Programs

At the Zoukis Consulting Group, we have significant experience helping clients prepare for release, create intuitive and effective prisoner reentry programs, and solve issues as they present themselves. Our Managing Director, Christopher Zoukis, has helped many prisoners successfully reenter society and not return to prison.

Additionally, Chris is the author of the Federal Prison Handbook, the bestselling guidebook to Federal Bureau of Prisons policies and operations. When it comes to reentering society after a period of incarceration, whether after a short or long period, our team can help you navigate the rough waters and put this period of your life behind you.

Hire Us for Your Prison Reentry Programs Needs

Book a one-hour initial consultation today for assistance with creating a prisoner reentry program for yourself or an incarcerated loved one. Our team of highly experienced staff will take the time to understand your needs, help you create a plan for success, and help you resolve any issues that come up in the process.

Preparing for release is just as important as preparing for prison. Hire us today to give yourself and your incarcerated loved one the best possible chance at success. We help clients across the United States.