What does it mean to “come home” when you’ve been in prison? For some, it has been just over a year, and for others, it can be anywhere from five to twenty-five years.
For those returning from an extended stay, it can be completely disorienting, a bit like stepping out of a time machine. Being in prison is a suspension of time for the inmate. Memories of friends, family, and neighborhoods are frozen in time. However, for family and friends, time moves on. Every day adjustments must be made to accommodate changing circumstances, one of which is life without the incarcerated family member.
For the incarcerated, personal connections pass away, homes are sold or raised, relationships develop or break down, and children forget what it is like to have a parent involved in their lives. Extended personal networks learn to function without their participation. When you left, your child was two years old, and the child’s mother was 22. When you returned, they were 27 and 47! Even a shorter stay creates difficulties.
Although the connection to life on the outside is suspended in the reentrant’s mind, life on the inside also has its own way of changing an individual. The reentrant has been isolated from key relationships. They also experience the impact of the challenge to change by an institution committed to shifting an anti-social way of seeing life.
Upon release, many reentrants know they’ve changed and are determined to live better, but are blind to how things have changed on the outside. Heather Bennett, Program Director for Racine Kenosha Vocational Ministry, looked back and said, “When I went into prison, my son was seven, and when I returned, he was nine and used to living without a mom. I was not sure what to expect when I came out. It took years to build the trust that mom wouldn’t leave again. Flash forward 15 years later, my son no longer questions if I will be around.”
After the shock of how different things are, the real work of rebuilding relationships begins. Hope Wesley-Early, Program Coordinator of KVM, said, “I went in and out of prison while my children were growing up. Coming back into my son’s life at 14 wasn’t easy. He had decided that my choices had forfeited my rights as his mom. It took six years of sobriety and both of us entering college for him to talk to me. Finally, after 10 years in recovery, I got my first hug from my adult son.”
At Kenosha Vocational Ministry, Welcome Home meetings are offered to help reentrants feel welcome back into the community. Resources for housing, health care, jobs, school, and transportation are also available for the reentrant to access. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reconnecting with the community.
Reentry from incarceration is a journey. It takes time and patience from all.
About the Kenosha Vocational Ministry
Kenosha Vocational Ministry is a faith-based nonprofit organization whose services go beyond simple job placement to a holistic approach that cares for and addresses the whole person. RKVM helps participants:
- address negatives in their lives that impede their careers—including drugs and alcohol, homelessness and emotional health problems.
- become productive, self-sufficient workers trained for appropriate careers,
- retain jobs through monitoring and follow-up,
