The FLEC is committed to helping justice impacted individuals forge new beginnings with access to useful and trustworthy financial education information.
Department of Education
The FederalStudentAid website contains up to date information on Federal student loans, including information on eligibility for students with criminal convictions. Fresh Start is a one-time, temporary program from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that offers special benefits for borrowers with defaulted federal student loans.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Focus On Reentry: Criminal Justice – A companion guide to the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit, the Focus On Reentry companion guide supports the toolkit by helping users to contextualize the money conversation to the unique needs of criminal justice involved individuals and their families. Focus on Reentry can be used any time: while someone is awaiting trial or sentencing, in jail or prison, or following release and in community settings.
Justice-Involved Individuals and the Consumer Financial Marketplace (January 2022 Report) – From arrest to incarceration and reentry, people who come into contact with the justice system are confronted with numerous financial challenges, including financial products and services that too often contain exploitative terms and features, offer little or no consumer choice, and can have long-term negative consequences for the individuals and families affected. This report outlines some of the challenges faced by justice-involved people and their families in navigating their finances at each stage of the criminal justice system.
Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration has information and resources on Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for justice-involved individuals, including the following:
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The following resources contain useful information for justice-involved individuals reentering the community and looking to access benefits, seek employment, obtain their GED information, and more.
Employment Assistance
- Employment and Training Administration
- CareerOneStop
- Occupational Information Network
- Occupational Outlook Handbook
Other Resources
Veteran Assistance
- Benefits for Incarcerated Veterans
- Reentry Services for Justice-Involved Veterans
- Veterans Justice Outreach Program
- Disability Compensation
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a resource for justice-involved women: After Incarceration: A Guide to Helping Women Reenter the Community.
Department of Labor
Justice-involved programs are generally administered locally by community agencies. Local American Job Center staff will know about these programs. Anyone seeking information and resources should contact their local American Job Center about job search assistance, federal bonding, employer tax incentives, education and training. Staff at American Job Centers may also have information about community, state, and private programs to help justice-involved individuals.
The Justice Center also provides comprehensive resources on hiring people with criminal records:
- National Reentry Resource Center
- REO Tools and Resources
- Bureau of Prisons Employment Information Handbook
- Federal Bonding Program
- Cleanslate Clearinghouse
- Reentry Employment Opportunities Community of Practice
- Find a Reentry Program near you
- Portal for Employers: Provides employers with a one-stop shop for information on the benefits of hiring persons with criminal records.
- Portal for Justice-Involved Individuals: Provides information, career guidance resources and tools to persons with criminal records.
Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, WorkforceGPS
Justice Involved/Reentry Adults
Finding employment with a criminal record is not easy. For justice involved youth and adults, the employment landscape includes background checks, that can be overshadowed by probation or parole, housing concerns, limited or inadequate education and job skills, and mental health issues.
However, there are programs and initiatives out there through the public workforce system and its partners to assist with the process. Workforce GPS’s offers practitioners tools and resources to do the invaluable work of changing lives and renewing futures of justice-involved individuals. WorkforceGPS celebrates Second Chance Month and offers resources to assist adults reentering the workforce.
Relevant WorkforceGPS Communities:
Resources
- Case Management Models for Pre- and Post-Release Employment Services Issue Brief: Lessons from LEAP
- Clean Slate Clearinghouse
- Collaborating for Successful Reentry
- Connecting Criminal Justice-Involved People with Medicaid Coverage and Services
- Engaging Employers to Hire Individuals with a Criminal History
- Federal Bonding Program
- Final Implementation Findings from the Responsible Fatherhood Reentry Projects
- How SNAP Can Better Serve the Formerly Incarcerated
- Justice Involved Veterans
- Incarceration to Reentry: Education & Training Pathways: California
- Incarceration to Reentry: Education & Training Pathways: Indiana
- Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies: Reducing Recidivism and Promoting Job Readiness
- Mentoring as a Component of Reentry: Practical Considerations from the Field
- The First Step Act
Webinars
Organizations
- Federal Bureau of Prisons
- National Institute of Corrections: Transition and Offender Workforce Development
- The National Reentry Resource Center
- Prisoner Reentry Institute
- U.S. Department of Justice
Department Of Justice
Please visit the Office of Justice Programs' website dedicated to Reentry and Juvenile Justice at the Department of Justice. Check out Reentry Starts Here, A Guide for Youth in Long-Term Juvenile Corrections and Treatment Programs.
U.S. Department of Housing
Meeting the Housing Needs of Formerly Incarcerated and Justice-Involved People
Stable housing is the foundation for successful reentry from prisons and jails and to public safety. HUD is working to improve access to HUD’s housing programs for formerly incarcerated and justice-involved people, as well as help communities meet the housing needs of people returning to the community from prison and jail.
The list below includes recent guidance, communication, and resources related to improving access to HUD programs for people with criminal records and creating housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.
Policy Actions
- Secretary Fudge’s internal directive to review regulations and policies regarding the use of criminal records in housing decisions
- Meeting the Housing Needs of Formerly Incarcerated and Justice-Involved People | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - or the letter itself
- Office of General Counsel Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions
- Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Memorandum on Implementation of the Office of General Counsel’s Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions
- 2015 Office of Public and Indian Housing guidance to public housing agencies on excluding arrest records in housing decisions
Programs
Additional Resources
- How to File a Complaint
- It Starts with Housing
- HUD Exchange page on preventing homelessness among people leaving prisons and jails
- From The Edge: “Why Housing Matters for Successful Reentry and Public Safety”
- Opening Doors, Returning Home: How Public Housing Authorities Across the Country Are Expanding Access for People with Conviction Histories | Bureau of Justice Assistance (ojp.gov)
- Tenant Screening With Criminal Background Checks: Predictions And Perceptions Are Not Causality
- Institutional Stays and CoC and ESG Eligibility
Library of Congress
Reentry and Employment Resources for Justice-Involved Individuals
A key component to reentry for a person who was formerly incarcerated is employment. The following online and print resources provide information and services aimed at assisting justice-involved individuals with locating employment. Check your local employment laws External for guidance on how to report a criminal history on employment applications.
