Senator Eldridge Secures $500,000 for Transitional Housing for Parolees Returning to Communities in Senate FY23 budget
Grand Opening of New Beginnings Re-Entry Services Home for formerly incarcerated women, April 19, 2022
Eldridge underscores importance of providing housing solutions to improve public safety and transition people back into society
Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) secured $500,000 in the Senate’s FY23 budget for the administration of transitional housing for parolees returning to their communities. The funding, which is a $500,000 increase on top of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means’ funding for re-entry services. This funding aims to develop community-based residential re-entry programs to reduce recidivism by providing transitional housing, workforce development, and case management to individuals returning to the community from county correctional facilities and state prisons. The funding Senator Eldridge secured is specifically dedicated to the particularized needs of parolees.
Last month, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a $49.78 billion budget for the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). With unanimous support, the budget makes significant, critical, and targeted investments in the areas of education, healthcare, housing, and community support to meet the on-the-ground challenges brought on by the global pandemic and ongoing financial uncertainty.
If the increase makes it through the conference committee process, a total of $13,612,371 will go to re-entry programs.. Senator Jamie Eldridge has fought hard for supportive treatment of formerly incarcerated individuals and robust, well-developed prison education and training and post-release re-entry programs, which have been shown to significantly reduce recidivism, and provide the support to allow people to become productive citizens.
The funds, which cover housing for people suffering from substance abuse disorders, will foster a human approach to treating returning citizens. “Releasing a person directly to the street after a long period of incarceration is cruel, especially if that person does not have family who can take them in, or a strong network of members of the community,” said State Senator Jamie Eldridge.
“As co-chair of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, I advocate for beneficial programs both inside and outside of correctional facilities. In April, I attended the grand opening of New Beginnings Re-Entry Services Home for formerly incarcerated women. This particular amendment empowers organizations like New Beginnings and provides a critical platform for those nonprofit organizations,” said State Senator Jamie Eldridge
"We need more of Senator Eldridges for our people reintegrating back to the community!” said Stacey Borden, founder of New Beginnings Reentry Services. “We need compassionate representation that understands that our black and brown communities have had a lack of resources for decades and having the proper representation is key.”
The Senate’s FY23 Budget is available on the Massachusetts legislature’s website by clicking here. Now that the Senate and Massachusetts House of Representatives have passed their respective budget proposals, both branches have formed a conference committee and will reconcile the differences between the House and the Senate versions.
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