RISE Reentry: Please Don't Give Up on Me
By Erica Raetz, Director of Reentry Services
During my weekly “letter time” where I close my office door to dive into mail received from our incarcerated people, a neatly written envelope with a pink letter folded inside caught my attention.
Scrolled at the top in cursive letters I read,“Please don’t give up on me.”
Tears immediately welled up in my eyes as I realized this was a fear so many of our people experienced throughout 2021, and the responsibility RISE holds to never give up on anyone.
Throughout 2021, our reentry team experienced the victories of recruiting over 200 employers to hire people with criminal records, welcoming home 45 individuals from prison, adding three more Reentry Specialists to our team, and providing over $23,000 in rental and utility assistance and quality of life items (shoes, winter coats, and other necessities).
We also saw the depth of heartbreak - children being reunited with their parents, only for their parents to be sucked into the dark cycle of addiction; incarcerated people who had prepared diligently for their release, only to be denied parole and required to wait another year to come home; happy, thriving people in the community experiencing loss of a loved one and their mental health becoming too much for them to manage. Our team walks with RISE Graduates through it all. We typically like to tell the success stories, but those successes are only one chapter.
*35 of those are reincarcerated in county or state facilities at this time.
