Elevating Opportunities of Re-entry

Incar­cer­a­tion sep­a­rates young peo­ple from the guid­ance, sup­port and ties they need to grow into respon­si­ble adults. However, in the Unit­ed States, the odds remain high that youth charged with a crime will be sentenced. In the U.S., over 60,000 young peo­ple are in cus­tody today. Gen­er­a­tions of struc­tur­al racism and dis­par­i­ties in how cas­es are han­dled. Young black, Lati­no and other people of color rep­re­sent a dis­pro­por­tion­ate major­i­ty of youth population in pris­ons and federally controlled facilities.

• More than 50% percent of individuals release from federal prison return to federal prison within their first three years of release. (The Sentencing Project, 2019)
• As of January 2023, there were 158,949 offenders incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Of these offenders, 139,803 are serving a sentence for a federal conviction. (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2023).
• More than half of federal prisoners are incarcerated for a drug offense, compared to just 16 percent of state prisoners. (Brookings Education, 2020).