The Art of Reentry

​Reentry is the art of coaxing your client to mimic a middle-class lifestyle, without the financial or social resources to do so.

Working with men and women in reentry over the past 20 years, a common attitude we encountered was "I can do this my own way."  I likened that to playing a high-stakes poker game and deciding to invent your own rules, and then being angry and frustrated when you lose.  Like it or not, we live within the context of a social contract, based mostly on middle class values. Adhering to these values makes us feel that we “fit in,” that we have rights, that we are respected, and that we have too much to lose to consider crime as an option.  Things like:

• holding a job and/or being able to support oneself;
• living in decent, safe housing;
• caring for children both financially and emotionally;
• refraining from significant criminal activity;
• obtaining a post-high school education or a trade;
• have developed social maturity; 
• taking care of your business (keeping appointments, paying parking tickets, dealing with paperwork, filing taxes, etc.);
• speaking standard English in public 

 Your challenge is to help your clients find a realistic path to their own success because they have too much to lose.  
                                                                                                 --Ann Graham
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