Formerly incarcerated women need support when they return to their families and community. The organizations listed here offer a variety of services, from advocacy and policy research to family reunification, housing, job assistance and therapy. Please visit their websites for specific details.
Amity uses the internationally recognized therapeutic community model of treatment, which emphasizes a total change in lifestyle, not just dealing with drug usage. Five decades of research consistently finds that longer stays in treatment lead to better outcomes — and long-term recovery/success.
A New Way of Life (ANWOL) addresses the challenges of community re-entry by providing critical resources and support for formerly incarcerated individuals — especially women — along with their children. ANWOL provides housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community re-entry, family reunification and individual healing; works to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people (FIPs); and empowers, organizes and mobilizes FIPs as advocates for social change and personal transformation.
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is a Los Angeles-based support network for formerly incarcerated individuals and advocates for criminal justice reform. ARC’s mission is to reduce incarceration, improve the outcomes of formerly incarcerated individuals and build healthier communities.
Building Healthy Communities works to reduce health disparities and improve community health overall through systemic changes fueled by adult and youth resident engagement, collaboration and resource sharing, and strategic communication about community needs and solutions. The organization also conducts Prop 47 reclassification clinics to help people clear or reclassify their felony records.
The California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) is a grassroots social justice organization, with members inside and outside prison, that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). CCWP sees the struggle for racial and gender justice as central to dismantling the PIC and prioritizes the leadership of the people, families and communities most impacted in building this movement.
Californians for Safety and Justice works with Californians from all walks of life to replace prison and justice-system waste with common-sense solutions that create safe neighborhoods and save public dollars. Through policy advocacy, public education, partnerships and support for local best practices, the organization promotes effective criminal justice strategies to stop the cycle of crime and build healthy communities.
Centro C.H.A. works to enrich the lives of low-income, underserved Latino/a youth, families and neighborhoods in the City of Long Beach through community advocacy, health and educational programs, social and economic enrichment, cultural arts, community service, and afterschool youth development programs. Through various programs and services, Centro C.H.A. strives to develop future leaders, create and maintain healthy communities, and instill a sense of pride within the Latino/a community of Long Beach.
The Community Coalition works to help transform the social and economic conditions in South L.A. that foster addiction, crime, violence and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy.
First to Serve Outreach Ministries helps men, women and families affected by and struggling with substance abuse, domestic violence and homelessness. First to Serve uses its programs and resources to improve the lives of families and individuals throughout South Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
Helpline Youth Counseling (HYC) offers drug and alcohol abuse and therapeutic services, family and child abuse/neglect services, and gang intervention and prevention services. HYC also provides the Hotline, a toll-free, peer-to-peer listening and referral telephone service, operated by volunteers, for individuals in need or in crisis. Contact the Hotline: 1 (877) 541-2525
The House of Uhuru, a division of Watts Healthcare Corporation, strives to enhance the well-being of communities impacted by chemical dependency by providing comprehensive, culturally sensitive prevention and education with a continuum of quality care for positive social change. The organization’s is accomplished by employing competent and compassionate certified drug and alcohol counselors.
Impact Justice is a California-based national innovation and research center committed to reducing the number of people involved in our juvenile and adult criminal justice system, improving conditions for those who remain incarcerated, providing meaningful opportunities for success for those rejoining our communities, and improving justice outcomes for crime victims.
Kingdom Causes is a faith-based organization that launched the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force (LBHTTF). The Task Force is a multidisciplinary, survivor-centered, collaborative community effort by law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations to combat human trafficking by identifying, rescuing and empowering survivors and assisting in the prosecution of traffickers. Contact the task force: lbhttf@gmail.com
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) works for the rights of incarcerated parents and people at risk of incarceration. LSPC provides information, trainings and technical assistance, and responds to requests for help with litigation, community activism and the development of more advocates. In particular, the organization focuses on women prisoners and their families.
Project ALOFA was founded on the belief that people deserve second chances. The group works to create opportunities for those recently released from incarceration who are in need of support. Through the Ambassadorship Training Program, the organization grooms Project ALOFA ambassadors to become leaders for tomorrow.
Project Rebound at California State University, Fullerton, supports formerly incarcerated students in their pursuit of higher education. The project constructs an alternative to the revolving door policy of mass incarceration and provides individualized support that students need to succeed.
The San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP) is a faith-based community organization that has united people throughout the county since 1979. SDOP believes that San Diego’s greatest resource is its people and works to build powerful volunteer-driven organizations.
Starting Over offers transitional housing, community services, community health services, post-conviction relief and community living services. The organization helps homeless men, women and children transition from homelessness and its often associated cycles of poverty, drug abuse, mental illness and recidivism.
Tarzana Treatment Centers, Inc., is dedicated to providing professional health care that treats each person with compassion and according to their assessed individual needs for improved physical and mental well-being. Programs include inpatient medical detoxification and psychiatric stabilization, residential and outpatient substance-use disorder treatment, outpatient mental health, and residential rehab for teens/youth and adults, primary care clinics and HIV/AIDS services.
Time for Change Foundation (TFCF) is dedicated to helping homeless women and children achieve self-sufficiency. TFCF programs and supportive services help families and individuals recover from the effects of homelessness, addiction, incarceration, and mental and physical abuse. An early childhood development center located within the shelter provides easy access to computers, books, interactive learning modules, and hands-on Mommy & Me activities.
Women in Transition provides Leadership and Prison Re-entry workshops designed to help men and women transition from the cycles of entrapment by overcoming social barriers. Our program dynamics bring a new approach to formerly incarcerated individuals by guiding them through a process of transforming their lives. Our resources include case management, mental health and wellness, substance abuse support, housing referrals and workshops dealing with inner conflict.
The Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities (AVID) Prison Project of Disability Rights Washington focuses on the needs of inmates with disabilities who are incarcerated in Washington state prisons and those who are re-entering the community, ensuring that their voices are heard and their rights protected.
Between the Bars is a weblog platform for people in prison, who are routinely denied access to the internet. Between the Bars enables them to blog by scanning letters. The group provides a positive outlet for creativity, a tool to maintain social safety nets, an opportunity to forge connections between people inside and outside of prison, and a means to promote non-criminal identities and personal expression.
The Children of Incarcerated Parents blog is the first national blog dedicated to exploring the impact of parental incarceration on children and families. There are an estimated 2 million minor children in the United States who have an incarcerated parent. The incarceration of parents not only has a devastating and damaging impact on children, but it also affects their caregivers and the well-being and integrity of their families.
Defy Ventures harnesses the natural talents of currently and formerly incarcerated men, women, and youth and redirects them toward the creation of legal business ventures and careers. Defy offers a suite of services that includes intensive personal and leadership development, competition-based entrepreneurship training, executive mentoring, financial investment, and business incubation.
Just Detention International is a health and human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention. Survivor Stories are personal narratives from survivors of prison rape.
Works nationally and locally to ensure that women do not lose their constitutional rights as a result of being pregnant. The organization is currently litigating and advocating on behalf of Regina McKnight, who was convicted of homicide for using crack cocaine while pregnant.
The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls supports the efforts of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls who are working individually or within organizations to change the criminal justice system. The organization knows the realities of incarceration, the many hurdles women face after returning home, and the changes necessary to shift the system to one based on human dignity and social justice. Their mantra is, “Nothing about us, without us!”
The National Directory of Programs for Women with Criminal Justice Involvement is a free, online resource providing information on programs and services for women in the criminal justice system.
Prison Fellowship brings lasting transformation to men, women and children impacted by incarceration around the world. Its mission is engaging the Christian community to pursue justice and healing in response to crime, to the end that offenders are transformed, relationships are reconciled and communities are restored.
There has been a missing voice in the emerging debate about what’s wrong with our prison system — the voice of the men and women living it. Prison Writers was created to give (mostly maximum-security) prisoners a place to publish their nonfiction stories about life behind bars.
Prison Writers has been a leading voice within the prison reform movement. Since no one is allowed inside the prison walls to explore the harsh realities that plague our prison system, the organization has provided prisoners with an outlet to share their experiences. Prison Writers wants to uncover the truth, so that the prison system can become more effective for all members of society.
For more than fifteen years, the Real Cost of Prisons Project has educated and organized against racist policing and prosecutions, hyper-surveillance of Black and Brown communities, an end to cruel and dehumanizing prisons and jails, and a criminal “justice” system that produces little or no justice.
WPA is a nonprofit organization working to create opportunities for change in the lives of women prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. WPA provides programs whose ultimate goal is to end women’s involvement in the criminal justice system and improve choices and opportunities for women and their families.
Beauty After the Bars is a Charlotte, NC-based organization that advocates, educates, and provides support for currently and formerly incarcerated women and girls. It aims to provide the tools, knowledge and resources women and girls need to stay out of the judicial system, and assists those who are currently in or have just come out of the system. BATB’s objective is to end the incarceration of women and girls and eliminate the stigma placed on the children of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated parents.
Mission: Launch is a not-for-profit social enterprise committed to improving re-entry outcomes by supporting and structuring innovation among government and nongovernment agencies. Their role in the re-entry ecosystem is foundational to systems-level change. Through its two programs — The Rebuilding Reentry Coalition and Mission: LaunchPad — the organization strives to achieve its mission of accelerated self-sufficiency and improved socioeconomic outcomes for Americans with an arrest and/or conviction record.
Mothers In Charge (MIC) advocates for families affected by violence and provides counseling and grief support services for families when a loved one has been murdered. As a grassroots organization whose mission is violence prevention through education, MIC engages in proactive intervention with children, young adults, families and community organizations.
Let’s Get Free: The Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee is a group in Western Pennsylvania working to shine a light on gender-based violence that contributes to the incarceration of women and transgender people. Let’s Get Free also seeks to educate and organize around larger issues of mass incarceration, particularly life without parole (LWOP) sentencing, while envisioning new systems of transformative justice and healing.
The Women in Prison Project (WIPP) is an initiative of the Correctional Association. WIPP works to reduce the use of incarceration for women, ensure that prison conditions for women are as humane and just as possible, and create a criminal justice system that treats women and all people with fairness, dignity and justice. WIPP’s work is guided by the principle that individuals directly affected by prison policies should be active participants and leaders in reform efforts.