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Newsletter · Fall 2026

How coming home works.

Six months of planning, the first 72 hours, and what the data says about coming home.

1The cover storyReentry

How reentry really works

Reentry doesn’t start at the gate. It starts 180 days out.

A coordinator builds the plan six months early. Then walks it with you.

Documents
Housing
Work
Rides
Family
Four-Seven participants working together at a table. A participant visits a resource table staffed by volunteers during a Four-Seven reentry simulation. A father and daughter embrace at a Four-Seven family event. People gathered in community with The Four-Seven.
Building the plan togetherThe Four-Seven
Days until release180
Six months before releaseReleaseAs long as it takes
2Try it yourselfInteractive

The first 72 hours.
Can you make it?

Tap tasks in order. Then try it with a coordinator.

3By the numbersSourced

What the data says about coming home.

Why we start early and stay long.

Ohio · People released in 2016

Out of every 100 people who left Ohio prisons

  • 12back in prison within year one
  • 21back in years two and three
  • 67did not return to prison

22,076 people released in 2016. 12.07% returned within one year, 32.69% within three. Rounded to whole people.1

United States · Finding work

A job is the hardest door to open

Unemployment, formerly incarcerated people27.3%
Unemployment, general public5.8%
Unemployed, within two years of release>30%

Data from 2008, the most recent national estimate of its kind. The Great Depression peaked at 24.9%.2

37%

More than a third of the people who went back to prison within three years went back in the first year.Our calculation from Ohio’s 2016 figures: 12.07 ÷ 32.69. That’s why the first 90 days get the most attention.1

Myth or fact?

Tap a card to flip it.

It’s where every plan is headed.