Last year, The Alabama Commission on Reentry was established to take a close look at the progress the state was making in its efforts to help support people who had returned to their communities after leaving prison. The goal was to cut recidivism in half by 2030.

In early June, the Commission, which included legislators, agency heads, advocacy groups, community leaders and Cam Ward, director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, came out with its final report, and the findings were mixed.

For one thing, the state’s existing reentry programs look promising. For example, the Parole and Probation Reentry Education and Employment Program Center in Perry County (the PREP Center) opened in 2022 and has reported no recidivism among its 300 graduates so far.

But the report also uncovered a number of challenges to its efforts including:

• Inconsistencies in data quality, efficiency and integration

• Structural barriers that “hinder individuals’ ability to achieve successful reentry outcomes and limit the effectiveness of reentry programs.

• “Affordable and safe housing is a major challenge for people returning to their communities from incarceration.” 

• “Transportation options are also limited across the state and returning individuals face barriers to getting a drivers license.”

• “Alabama law imposes multiple barriers to work for people with criminal convictions.”

• The absence of more “robust and coordinated employer engagement and post-release workforce strategies.”

The work of the commission in 2024 and early 2025 sets the stage for continued reentry efforts, according to the Alabama Political Reporter: “One of the most important structural recommendations made by the commission was the creation of permanent statewide infrastructure to oversee the implementation of reentry initiatives. On May 6, Governor Kay Ivey signed SJR80 into law, which established the Alabama Statewide Reentry Task Force to continue where the Reentry Alabama Commission left off.”

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