How do I get there?
Public transportation is a necessity for people re-entering the community from jail or prison, but what if you had never navigated it before? Challenges are often described as the 5 A’s: affordability, accessibility, applicability, availability, and awareness. Changed Choices uses volunteers to provide needed transportation the first few weeks after a client comes home. Clients […]
If you were starting over…
“It wasn’t how many people were there. It was the fact that I had to decide between 45 kinds of cereal.” Imagine for a second that you spent the past few years incarcerated. You day looked same everyday..when you woke up, when you brushed your teeth, when you ate meals, when you went outside. While […]
Obstacles to Re-Entry-Valid Identification
Step one to successful re-entry: obtaining valid identification
What’s a Release Card?
Rounding out our January series from Prison Policy Initiative, what’s a Release Card? When a person leaves a correctional facility, they often receive their funds, which include wages earned while incarcerated, support from family members, or money they possessed when arrested, on a pre-paid debit card. While pre-paid debit cards are common, it might be […]
Seeing the change in all of us
Alisha is one of our newest Ruth Snyder Home residents. The week she arrived, we went to Camino’s thrift store to get some clothes and then on to the food bank for pickup. At the food bank, the distribution workers were efficient and well organized, but the small parking lot was a hot mess. Getting […]
The power of film in sharing the incarceration journey
Last week, Changed Choices partnered with Matthews United Methodist Church in hosting a showing of The Sentence. This documentary gives a behind the scenes view of the impact of mandatory minimum sentencing on women and families. Our audience engaged with powerful questions, and eager to hear more. Being Free, by Roadtrip Nation, follows three system-impacted […]
The benefits of Peer Re-Entry Support
“All you need is one person walking beside you–it makes all the difference” Changed Choices Client In 2019, the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology published a qualitative study on Peer Re-Entry Specialists. The study looked at how peers’ lived experiences were useful in building quick connection and trust. Changed Choices continually sees […]
Microtransit-can it work in Charlotte?
Have you heard of microtransit? Cities like Durham, Wilmington, and Wilson are partnering their existing public transportation with ride share companies to fill the gaps in current services. Over the summer, the Federal Transit Administration awarded Charlotte $750,000 to develop its microtransit implementation strategy. Axios Charlotte shares more of the story here. Do you think […]
What does it take to reduce recidivism?
Recidivism is often used to measure the success of intervention programs. The RAND Corporation recently published, Providing Another Chance: Resetting Recidivism Risk in Criminal Background Checks, which proposes the novel reset principle can guide more accurate recidivism risk prediction for criminal background checks. Employers, landlords, and volunteer organizations routinely conduct criminal background checks to identify […]
Voting Rights
“Starting July 27, 2022, an individual serving a felony sentence who is not in jail or prison may register to vote and vote. An individual must also have resided in North Carolina for at least 30 days prior to the election, be a U.S. citizen, and be at least 18 years old by the next […]