September 2025
On August 26, state leaders in workforce development, education, and corrections from each of the Reentry 2030 states gathered for the third session of the Reentry 2030 Workforce Development Peer Learning Cohort to explore how to provide reentering workers with the practical resources, credentials, and supports necessary to pave the way to workforce success on day one of release from jail or prison. The cohort is supported by funding from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Common Barriers for Formerly Incarcerated People
While states are hard at work expanding job training opportunities, cultivating fair-chance employers, and developing new pathways to sustainable jobs outside prison walls, many reentering workers are unable to take advantage of this support in the crucial first days after release from incarceration. This often happens due to lack of the following:
- Vital records and state identification needed to apply for jobs and enroll in supportive services
- Driver’s licenses and reliable transportation to work
- Access to, and an understanding of, the technology that is essential to finding and applying for work
- Job equipment, supplies, and clothing
- Information about where to find support
As a result, qualified workers in ripe job markets can end up either jobless or stuck in jobs that meet basic needs without providing the type of upward mobility that would normally be associated with their training and skill set.
State-Led Innovations and Reentry Solutions
During the workforce cohort session, state leaders from Alabama, Arizona, California, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, and Washington discussed the significance of these gaps, the systemic failures that contribute to them, and the strategies states and their partners are using to fill them.
Participants were joined by three expert guests who shared insights into the targeted innovations their agencies and organizations have developed to address many of the practical barriers to getting a job after jail or prison.
- Alicia McGuoirk, assistant director of transitional services at the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), described how cross-government collaboration between DOCCS and agencies like the Department of Health and Department of Motor Vehicles led to developing protocols that put birth certificates, social security cards, state identification cards, and, in some instances, renewed driver’s licenses in the hands of people returning to the community before they leave incarceration.
- Brittany Peterson, reentry projects supervisor at the Second Chance Risk Reduction Center of the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission in Missouri, discussed the need for strong partnerships among government agencies and community service providers that offer direct post-release transition support for transportation, vital record provision, job preparation, and benefit enrollment.
- Finally, Brian Scott, executive director of Our Journey, a North Carolina-based reentry organization he founded shortly after returning home from 20 years of incarceration, discussed the informational and technological resources Our Journey is providing to reentering people in collaboration with many North Carolina prisons. This includes “reentry kits” with service provider directories, a driver’s handbook, and other essential information and, through a pilot program, fully functional smart phones with pre-paid service and technical support that can be used to apply for jobs and connect to resources. Our Journey developed MyJourney, a free smartphone app that contains a county-by-county catalog of reentry supports in North Carolina to support members of the reentry population they are unable to serve directly.
What’s Next for the Reentry 2030 Workforce Cohort
The Reentry 2030 Workforce Development Peer Learning Cohort is a year-long opportunity for states that have joined, or are preparing to join, the national Reentry 2030 initiative to learn from one another, collaborate across systems, and strategize and build a shared vision for expanding economic opportunity for people impacted by the justice system. In the remaining sessions, participating states will turn their attention to the following:
- Expanding and aligning pre- and post-release employment training with opportunity and labor demand
- Expanding the field of fair chance employers and establishing training-to-employment pathways in partnership with program providers and employers
- Using data to track and improve employment and wage outcomes for formerly incarcerated people