Through her connection with the Goucher Prison Education Partnership, Dawna Cobb met with individuals who upon their release needed help navigating life after prison. Her efforts included helping these returning citizens figure out how to continue their education, find housing, or expunge a criminal record.
Through that experience, Cobb learned that the resources available to people upon release are not always easily available. Or, if available, are not always easy to understand.
“Through this experience, I became much more sensitive to the hurdles that people coming out of prison face when it comes to getting a job, getting an ID card, securing housing, or completing their education,” said Cobb, a lawyer and co-founder of Return Home.
Fearless is working with Return Home to design a one-stop-shop website resource for returning citizens coming home from incarceration to the Baltimore area.
Through an interview with the US Justice Department, Gilbert learned that in Maryland, when citizens are preparing to re-enter general society after incarceration, they receive a thick packet of resources. Parole officers work to help the formerly incarcerated, but successful reentry is mainly dependent on the individual.
“As of today, there is no central website within the system where people can search for resources. Whether it’s for housing, shelter, food, legal aid, or child support, people need all kinds of help,” said Fearless Scrum Master Felix Gilbert.
Fearless is working to change that. Return Home is being developed to relieve some of the stress and anxiety around reentry by making it easier to find support and vetted resources.
“The information for people coming out is very siloed, and after asking people who work with returning citizens about their needs, we came up with the idea of a website that would be a one-stop resource for people returning home,” Cobb said. “While we can’t address the lack of housing and other resources, we can at least provide information about what is available in one easy-to-use website.”
“With the Return Home Baltimore website, we want to make sure we’re vetting everybody rightly. That way you’re getting the right resource and we’re not just sending you to somebody’s house for a plate of food,” Gilbert said. “We’re sending people to vetted qualified resource providers that are there to help make your reentry process a success.”
While doing research for the website, Gilbert met with individuals who faced many obstacles as part of their reentry.
“An individual told me his personal story. He found out when he got out that he had all of these fees he had to pay. The second he gets out of jail he’s got this bill racked up from the time he spent in jail. And if he doesn’t pay it in time there are additional fees and fines. And obviously, if he’s delayed longer, he goes back to jail. So while he’s looking for a job he has to worry about paying off these fees.”
Fearless and Cobb are working with the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office to collect reentry resources and place them in one central place, the Return Home Baltimore website.
“We want this resource to be available to someone before they leave prison,” Cobb said. “We will work to make sure that people who are helping people prepare for their reentry or are working with them after they leave prison have access to this tool.”
Within the next few months, the website will be publicly available for people who are preparing for the next phase of their life.
“There are so many blockers and challenges for the formerly incarcerated. It feels like the system is set up to where it’s easier to go back into jail than it is to live a sustained successful life,” Gilbert said. “We hope the website will help change that.”