Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit Root & Rebound has published Roadmap to Reentry: A California Legal Guide. This extremely comprehensive 1,192-page guide, available in both print and electronic editions, covers all the important legal issues that those leaving prison or jail may need to know about and outlines steps they can take to deal with them.
Although Root & Rebound is a legal service provider and advocacy organization, its Roadmap was not just created for lawyers. It is also for those nearing release from prisons and jails, people already in reentry, case managers, community supervision officers, family and friends. And anyone else who would like to be better informed about the various issues and challenges faced by those attempting to get their lives back together post-incarceration.
Root & Rebound describes its Roadmap to Reentry as a legal toolkit. It does not take the place of an attorney, but rather “is a legal resource designed to provide the 50,000 people released from prison and jail across California every year with access to understandable, empowering legal information that can help them make informed choices, prepare them for the barriers they may encounter, and ultimately help them thrive and succeed in reentry.”
Guide includes examples of documents and forms
In addition to an encyclopedic amount of information, the Roadmap to Reentry guide includes examples of the types of documents and forms that many people in reentry may need to fill out. Although it is California specific, the publication also covers federal laws, so even people in other states can benefit from the guide.
Roadmap to Reentry: A California Legal Guide includes a chapter for each of the major areas of law that those in reentry may have to deal with.
Areas of law covered
- Obtaining I.D.s and voting – covers types of IDs and how to get them, as well as voting rights and how to register to vote.
- Parole and probation – helps readers understand various forms of supervision and how they affect the lives of those in reentry.
- Housing – explores housing options that may be available, and offers tips on how to find and apply for a place to live.
- Public benefits – outlines public benefits programs and their eligibility and enrollment rules, as well as the application process.
- Employment – covers the job application and interview process, discrimination, dealing with background checks and one’s record, the hiring incentives offered to employers and alternatives to traditional work, including self-employment.
- Court-ordered debt – explains the different types of court ordered debt, including court fines and penalties, and restitution, and how to deal with them.
- Family and children – summarizes the steps that people in reentry must take to reconnect with their children after incarceration, as well as child support, custody and other issues that those in reentry may have to deal with.
- Education – explores available educational options and how to choose, apply to and pay for the best one.
- Understanding and cleaning up criminal records – describes the various types of criminal records, how to obtain copies of them and how to find and fix any errors they may contain.
Already accessed by more than 20,000 people
Thus far, more than 20,000 people have had a chance to be educated through the Roadmap to Reentry guide, 13,400 by reading the book and 7,400 by accessing the guide online. You can be one of those too.
A hard copy of Roadmap to Reentry: A California Legal Guide is available – a donation is requested to cover the cost of shipping for personal use, and a charge for organizations using it as part of their programs – by ordering online. It’s also possible to download an electronic version of the publication.
In addition to its publication, Root & Rebound has created the Roadmap to Reentry Online Training Hub that includes videos, fact sheets and other resources to help people become better informed about how to deal with legal and other barriers to reentry in California.
