Empowering Individuals and Strengthening Families for Change
One of our clients who is living his "second chance" said it best, "Family ReEntry turned my life around", says Luis of Bridgeport. "This October is my first birthday in five years that I am not in prison. I will be celebrating it with my new family."
Family ReEntry knows about second chances. We work with thousands of men, women and youth who want a second chance to stay away from crime and prison. A helping hand, supportive environment, and knowing someone believes in them is what motivates our clients to take a step towards a future without crime.
Here are Some Startling Facts:
- We incarcerate people at a rate that is 7 ½ times higher per capita than we did 25 years ago, crippling both state budgets and human beings.
- Racial disparity in incarceration rates is staggering and CT is among the worst in the country. (People of color are 19% of CT pop and 71% of prison pop).
- 65% of people in prison come from a small number of inner city neighborhoods. In Connecticut this means: Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, New Britain, and Waterbury.
- With recidivism rates at about 70%, public safety is undermined as 12,000 per year are released from prison in CT and people remain stuck in hopelessness.
- At $40,000 per year to incarcerate one person, and billions spent on building prisons, state budgets are crippled by our present practices.
- Parents involved in the criminal justice system face tremendous barriers to effective parenting, leaving millions of children vulnerable to poor futures.
We believe the cycle of crime and incarceration underlies the roots of poverty and underachievement in struggling neighborhoods. The number of people impacted is too big…the concentration in neighborhoods is too intense…the human costs are too large for this problem to continue to be underaddressed.
Empowering Individuals and Strengthening Families for Change
Family ReEntry knows that breaking the intergenerational cycle will help thousands to have a successful second chance at life. We focus on individual change...behavioral and lifestyle. Our family-focused approach concentrates on each individual's personal experiences, living environments, belief systems and underlying behavioral health issues to help them overcome the many challenges they face.
The men, women and youth of Family ReEntry are becoming more resilient to negative influences, eliminating violence in their lives, stepping away from substance abuse, finding their way to sustainable employment, and learning how to move towards a healthier, crime-free life.