Reentry

This year the PbS Education and Employment Foundation awarded 12 Reentry Awards to young people from Idaho, Nevada, Montana and West Virginia who are returning to their families, group homes or living independently before the holidays. Their application essays show their big hearts, high hopes and challenges to paying for basic necessities. Most needed clothes that fit and are appropriate for job interviews, shoes and a phone card as well as supplies as they return to high school or started college.

Performance-based Standards Learning Institute, Inc. (PbS) is pleased to announce applications are open for selected jurisdictions to receive training and technical assistance to strengthen their capacity to collect and analyze reentry data, measure performance, make data-informed decisions and continuously improve their reentry programs, policies and practices. The assistance is supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice through the FY 2022 Second Chance Act Youth Reentry Program.

We are starting Second Chance Month off right with 10 teams from all over the country already signed up to take the Performance-based Standards (PbS) 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge!

Contributing to the national vision of reentry success, PbS analyzes the survey responses of young people in secure facilities, community residential programs, and community supervision. This snapshot shares the voices of 4,620 system-involved young people responding to surveys about their current experiences, quality of life, preparations for reentry, and outlook for their futures. 

On November 15, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of the coordinators currently receiving training and technical assistance through the Improving Juvenile Reentry Programs Capacity for Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting project. Panelists discussed how they improved their agency's reentry data capacity and how the work they have done can be applied in other juvenile justice settings. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

The 2022 PbS Reentry Award recipients are inherently unique in their respective journeys toward independence, yet fundamentally similar in what they need—the essentials most people take for granted. Food and shelter. Basic hygiene products. Clothes and shoes. For those seeking employment, interview attire. For future students, day planners and transportation to and from school. ...

On May 26, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of agency directors discussing their experiences, what data lets them know reentry is successful, what information is critical, and more. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

On April 26, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of young people with lived experience discussing their experiences and how juvenile justice agencies could have better helped them with reentry. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

PbS looked at more than 6,000 surveys between April 2020 and October 2021 to understand the impact of COVID-19 on young people leaving residential care and rejoining communities. In this PbS Data Snapshot, we share Youth Reentry Survey responses to some of the questions and issues posed by the pandemic.

The pandemic and racial violence have created more challenges for the staff and young people in the juvenile justice system than I’ve seen in my 27 years in this field. Not to mention the enormous burden of stress that came along with these impossible times.