Each time Jack W. has been released from prison, he’s been sent back. In an interview with me in 2025, where Jack asked that I only use his first name for privacy, he talked about how the reasons that sent him to prison in the first place — not-good people, places and things — were always still there when he got out. No alternatives were available.
The first time he left prison, he came back in less than a year. The second time, he returned in six months. The third time, he managed to stay away for 18 months. Each time, Jack relapsed and struggled to find long-term housing.
“I didn’t really have anywhere to go,” Jack said.
In the U.S., where the prison population has grown 500% since 1970, harsh laws and lengthy prison sentences have garnered much attention. Meanwhile, 62% of people are re-arrested within three years, and 71% of people are re-arrested within five years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
In South Carolina, when you make parole, there are requirements that are theoretically geared toward helping people find stability. You must first have a verified place to live and a job lined up before you can make parole. But when you serve your full sentence and leave, like Jack and others I talked to for this story, you don’t have the same requirements.
“Nothing in prison has prepared me to step back into society,” Jack said. “There is no effort to connect you with resources for mental health, insurance or accommodations. … You’re on your own.”
Grover B., who is 62 and serving his second bid in prison, agreed that prisons don’t seem focused on rehabilitation.
“You’re like job security for these people,” he said. “It’s like they want you to come back. They don’t care if you succeed or not. Ain’t they supposed to?”
Research has shown that close to 95% of those incarcerated today will someday be released.
Fixing this problem means finding a balance between holding people accountable while providing transition to the outside. The goal must be to create a system focused not on retribution but on healing a fractured community. Research has also shown that a majority of incarcerated people have been victims of some form of childhood trauma.
Recidivism rates clearly suggest that prison is not setting people up for success afterward. Think of it another way: Would you fly on an airline that crashed 70% of the time? Or buy a car that breaks down 70% of the time?
So why do U.S. taxpayers continue to subsidize an $80 billion prison system in which 82 out of 100 are re-arrested within 10 years, with 68 out of 100 returning within three years and 44 out of 100 within just one year.
Some people I spoke to described leaving prison as like going from a comfortable, warm shower to an ice-cold bath. Paul T.’s experience was that jarring. He was picked up from prison by his probation officer after he served his sentence. They drove him into the city, dropped him off at a random location and left. They told him he had 24 hours to find a place to live or be held in probation violation.
“What was I supposed to do?” he said. “I had no guide to life outside of prison. For years I had my meals cooked, my laundry done, no bills to pay and suddenly I’m put out on the side of the road and told to get with the program? It was a roadmap back to prison!”
Paul temporarily stayed at a church when he first left prison, but could not find stable housing after that. He returned to prison on a probation violation 11 months later.
At the time of our interview, he had a few months left to serve, but was nervous about leaving prison again because of how hard it is to find permanent housing.
“Nothing’s changed,” he said. “Nobody with the system has addressed the fact that I have no place to go.”
