Community networks changing reentry outcomes

RCAN traces its origins to 2015 and a presentation Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative gave at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (NYAPC) in downtown Washington, DC. During his talk, Bryan urged the 750 people in attendance to "get proximate" to those who are or were incarcerated and become involved in their lives. Shortly after, Theo Brown, who had organized the program with Bryan, began meeting with other NYAPC members to discuss how they might respond to that challenge.

As the group looked into ways they could help, Rob Hornstein of the DC Public Defender Service — who had also attended the talk — reached out to Theo with a proposal: PDS regularly worked with clients returning from incarceration who had almost no resources and needed help building a stable life in the community. NYAPC and PDS agreed to work together, and a partnership was born.

At first, NYAPC fielded only one or two requests a month — furniture for an apartment, help with transportation, emergency food, or simply a friend. As referrals grew beyond what NYAPC could handle alone, Theo invited Don Craig and other leaders at nearby Metropolitan AME Church to help. After months of the two congregations working together, they decided to invite others to join. In 2018, NYAPC and Metropolitan AME wrote to about 20 congregations, inviting them to form the Returning Citizens Assistance Network. About a dozen signed on as founding members, and RCAN has grown steadily since — today, 21 churches and synagogues across Washington, DC work together to assist PDS clients who are returning from incarceration or still in prison.

The congregations that are part of RCAN are motivated by their shared spiritual conviction that each person is a child of God and deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. They are further motivated by commands from their faith traditions that urge followers to show particular concern for the needs of those who are marginalized in our society — the poor, the downtrodden, the despised, and those who are in prison.

Scripture is filled with the admonition to treat others as we would like to be treated, and to take specific action to alleviate the suffering of those in physical and mental pain. Some of the passages that inspire RCAN members: