Federally contracted halfway houses are called Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs). State-licensed halfway houses can be referred to by a variety of terms, like Transitional Centers, Reentry Centers, Community Recovery Centers, etc. These facilities work with corrections departments to house individuals leaving incarceration, often as a condition of parole or other post-release supervision or housing plan.

Halfway houses are just as much a part of someone’s prison sentence as incarceration itself, but they are subject to much less scrutiny than prisons and jails. This lack of guidelines and oversight has ensured that people in halfway houses are not being aided in safely and effectively rebuilding their lives after serving time in jails and prisons. It’s past time to start implementing oversight measures and extensive reforms that keep residents safe and help the halfway house experience feel more like reentry – and less like an extension of the carceral experience. Halfway houses are residential treatment facilities designed to provide a transitional path for people between prison, addiction, or domestic abuse and their reentry into society as healing, reforming, productive citizens. Beginning with houses to help poor and homeless people in the early 19th century, halfway houses have evolved into safe havens for people to learn basic life skills and personal responsibility. The majority of programs in the United States make a distinction between a halfway house and a sober/recovery house.

Halfway House Rules

Sober-living homes provide a strong support network and community to help you safely navigate the tough spots and triggers you may encounter. A Halfway House is a group living situation where individuals who are in the process of returning to normal society from a more restricted environment; i.e prison or rehab, where the individual receives support and guidance while making that transition. This support can take the form of assistance in finding work, emotional support.

He felt that inmates needed an opportunity to give back to their communities and help defray the costs of the time spent in the halfway house, including the utilities and upkeep of the halfway house. Inmates are placed in halfway houses for a period of time up to 12-months and they must follow the rules of the halfway home. Generally, 5 Tips to Consider When Choosing a Sober Living House halfway house data is not often public information because most are privately owned facilities and are not required to report statistics to the government. Therefore, statistical information is difficult to find for individual countries. More than 150 of those halfway houses have government contracts to maintain their operations.

Programming integrity

A team of staff at the RRC determines whether an individual is “appropriate“4 to move to the second, less restrictive component of RRC residency. Even in this second “pre-release” stage, individuals must make a detailed itinerary every day, subject to RRC staff approval. Not only are residents’ schedules surveilled, their travel routes are subject to review as well. In May, an investigation by The Intercept revealed that the federal government is underreporting cases of COVID-19 in halfway houses.

Improper management and inadequate oversight of halfway houses also enables inequities in the reentry process. Journalists have revealed how, when individuals are required to have a halfway house lined up in order to be released on parole, they can encounter lengthy waitlists due to inadequate bed space, forcing them to remain in prison. For the most part, people go to halfway houses because it is a mandatory condition of their release from prison. Some people may also go to halfway houses without it being required, simply because the facility provides housing.

Are You Looking at Sober-Living Houses? Here Are a Few Things You Should Know

As such they may require residents to pass drug screenings and participate in regular drug testing. This allows for halfway homes to be significantly low-cost or sometimes completely free. The one downside is that because of this, a halfway house’s limited spots can fill up very quickly. The best way to find a halfway house or sober living community in Florida is to contact your addiction treatment facility and ask for housing arrangement assistance after your treatment program is complete. Finding a supportive drug-free living situation can be a great help in relapse prevention and give you the motivation you need to achieve long-term sobriety.

• The primary difference between the two is that a halfway house typically requires you are currently enrolled in an addiction treatment program or have been recently.
• They usually have a limited length of stay however, they offer several formal treatment services that can be vital to someone regaining long-term independence.
• Overall, a halfway house is a valuable resource for people who need help transitioning back into normal life after a difficult experience.

Some are on the campus where drug and alcohol addiction treatment is provided, and others are independent homes, apartments or condos. The number of residents depends on the size of the home or licensed beds in a facility. In most sober-living environments, bedrooms are shared, but some do provide individual rooms. Typically, there are rules about shared living spaces and individual room maintenance and chores, visitor hours, meal times, curfews and Twelve Step meeting requirements. Transitional living is an umbrella term for a home that people can go to after completing treatment to help them reintegrate back into society.

Seek the advice of a lawyer experienced in this type of law, so they can provide you with the correct information on zoning, insurance, accounting, and other guidelines that must be enforced. All of our recent reports about prison/jail growth, racial disparities, and more, re-organized by state. Included in that plan will be the current need, the number of potential residents, the goals of the home, the staff, property information, and financial information. This article contains general legal information but does not constitute professional legal advice for your particular situation.

Some facilities, like community-based correctional facilities, can serve dual functions that blur the lines of what facilities are and are not halfway houses. For instance, a community-based corrections facility might primarily house people who have been ordered to serve their full sentences at the facility, but also house some individuals who are preparing for release. In our appendix table, we attempt to break down which of those 527 facilities fall under our “halfway houses in the criminal justice system” definition, and which facilities primarily serve other purposes.