How to Support Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

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More than 70 million Americans live with a criminal record, and it is estimated that 95% of people who go to prison will one day return home. Yet two-thirds of state prisoners are rearrested within three years of release. Those numbers are not an inevitability — they are a call to action. By offering real opportunities, communities can cut recidivism, close talent gaps, and uphold basic human dignity.

Here are five practical and high-impact ways to help returning citizens rebuild their lives.

Empower People to Move Beyond Their Conviction History

Don’t trap people in their pasts. A record should not be a life sentence to poverty.

  • Don’t label individuals. Instead, use person-first language such as “formerly incarcerated” or  ”justice-involved individual” – not “felon” or “ex-convict.”
  • Highlight strengths, such as resilience, loyalty, and problem-solving skills, that were developed while navigating incarceration.
  • Share success stories. Pioneer Human Services (Pioneer) publishes success stories that show how employment, housing, and substance use recovery change trajectories.

When employers, landlords, and neighbors focus on skills and character rather than a rap sheet, they help dismantle the stigma that fuels reoffending.

Provide a Chance for Change

Access to wraparound services — housing, counseling/treatment and skill building — dramatically lowers the odds of a return to prison. You can help by:

  • Supporting organizations offering integrated reentry support: Pioneer’s behavioral-health treatment, affordable housing and employment services help individuals build a path to a healthy and productive life. Find out ways to give to make a difference for returning citizens!
  • Funding career pathways: Pioneer’s career and entrepreneurship training programs give justice-involved adults’ industry-recognized credentials, financial literacy, and one-on-one coaching — tools that lead to living-wage jobs or building viable small businesses.

If you currently donate, volunteer, or serve on a board, prioritize groups that align with these evidence-based practices to help provide a chance for change.

Help End Mass Incarceration

Policy change is essential. The United States locks up a larger share of its population than any other advanced economy, draining $80 billion a year in corrections costs and countless dollars in lost wages.

Ways to act:

  • Join coalitions and movements that invest in people – not prisons. Lobby for policies that support access to fair housing, job training and employment that unlocks talent and helps to reduce crime.
  • Vote and advocate for record-sealing legislation, sentencing reform and addressing systemic barriers such as racial disparities in the criminal justice system or ensuring equity in the reentry process. Promote expanding access to education behind bars.
  • Amplify data. Share Bureau of Justice Statistics recidivism reports in op-eds, webinars, and social media to shift public opinion.

Pioneer adds its voice in Olympia and Washington, D.C., pushing for laws that remove blanket bans on housing and employment for people with records, and advocate for systemic change through public policy.

Employ or Rent to a Returning Citizen

Business leaders agree that hiring formerly incarcerated individuals delivers loyal, motivated employees and lower turnover.

Follow these steps to launch or expand a second-chance hiring initiative:

  • Audit job ads and applications for blanket “felony-free” language.
  • Delay background checks until after a conditional offer.
  • Partner with workforce nonprofits such as Pioneer for prescreened talent and ongoing coaching.
  • Offer fair, individualized assessments that weigh time since the offense, relevance to the role, and evidence of rehabilitation.
  • Train supervisors on trauma-informed management.

Housing providers can adopt similar guidelines — review applicants holistically, consider rental references, and work with reentry agencies that provide on-call support.

Pioneer, as a social enterprise, delivers a model that shows the benefits of fair hiring. Their award-winning, aerospace-certified manufacturing division employs justice-involved individuals and program graduates at competitive wages – proving skill, not stigma, predicts performance.

Use Inclusive Language, Not Labels

Language shapes policy and practice. “Ex-con” and “offender” reduce a person to a past act. In AP style and everyday speech, choose terms that foreground humanity, such as:

  • Returning citizen
  • Person with a criminal record
  • Justice-involved individual

Correct colleagues politely, update website copy, and urge reporters to adopt person-first phrasing. The shift may feel small, but research shows stereotypes loosen when words are humanized.

Why Second Chances Benefit Everyone

Supporting returning citizens leads to major benefits for all involved, including:

  • Stronger economy: The US Chamber of Commerce estimates that bringing more justice-involved adults into the labor market could add billions to the GDP and ease persistent skill shortages.
  • Safer neighborhoods: Stable housing and work reduce reoffending.
  • More impactful spending: It costs Washington state upwards of $60,000 per year to incarcerate one person — money better spent on treatment, education, and job creation.

Those outcomes mirror our own data at PHS: Graduates who secure employment and housing within 90 days rarely return to prison, cutting public costs while reuniting families.

How You Can Partner with Pioneer

In 2024, Pioneer served nearly 9,500 individuals across Washington, offering:

  • Supportive housing in Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Seattle and Spokane
  • Residential treatment for substance use and co-occurring disorders
  • Career and entrepreneurship training that assists individuals in gaining and retaining employment and/or building a company
  • Social-enterprise businesses to include aerospace manufacturing and commercial food services that demonstrates the value of second-chance talent

Ways to help:

Individuals leaving prison and reentering their communities are determined to rebuild their lives. Our collective response — employing, housing, and respecting them — has a big impact on whether or not that determination leads to a successful reintegration. Support a returning citizen today, and you invest in a stronger society for tomorrow.

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Pioneer Human Services empowers justice-involved individuals to overcome adversity and reach their full potential. With over 35 programs across the state of Washington, we’re working to eradicate mass incarceration through innovative programs and social entrepreneurship. Support our work today, and help us provide treatment and counseling, career services, housing, and — most importantly — hope.