The Indiana Department of Correction released 504 women from state prisons in early 2025. Finding a job and a place to stay presents its own set of challenges as these justice-involved women transition out of the state's correctional system.

Constructing Our Future assists formerly incarcerated women in their path toward family integration, economic independence and stability. These goals are achieved through wraparound services that include mentorships and job training.

Executive director Michelle Daniel Jones said their hardest hurdle is finding a place to live to create a sense of safety and connection.

"For women, they needed a home, a safe place to be, and a sense of belonging and support," she said. "When they return to familiar surroundings, it was a lot of times out of a need for community."

Attaining employment with health care benefits and a 401(k) plan is crucial in their journey to stability. Most prisons offer a cosmetology curriculum and some facilities, Daniel Jones said, also offer licensing exams for job readiness upon their release.

In 2018, former Gov. Eric Holcomb approved The Last Mile, a technology coding program at the Indiana Women’s Prison to reduce recidivism.

The children of incarcerated women often stay with grandparents or their fathers until the mother’s prison sentence is completed. As a release date nears, all parties may feel apprehensive about the best way to reconnect and build positive bonds amid the adjustments. Daniel Jones said this is not always easy for the women.

"Their biggest concerns," she said, "are circulated around their children re-establishing that relationship, becoming full mommy, not part-time mommy, being welcomed again as the head of the home and being respected in that way from the children."

She said that based on their conviction history, particularly if the offense was a sex or violent crime, the women often encounter discrimination. This further hampers the mother’s ability to gain custody of their children. Daniel Jones calls this a “precarious, unsettled, and unstable place.” If the children are in the system, custody cannot be obtained until they've stabilized.

Source: Public News Service