Project TLAP (Transition to Life After Prison)

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TLAP (Transition to Life After Prison) is the project dedicated to providing support to prisoners coming back after finishing their sentence. There are obstacles that people with criminal records face when they attempt to re-enter society and become productive, law-abiding citizens. Our research found that people with criminal records seeking reentry face a daunting array of counterproductive, debilitating and unreasonable roadblocks in almost every important aspect of life. Starting from the moment they are released, many prisoner lack sense of direction to further steps to ways to get accepted by society. Many times being none of the family or friend around and with minimal financial aid, they lack the visibility to find basic living requirements such as a place to stay overnight, to get a job and get back on feet. The report from Legal Action Center lists down a set of issue that is faced by these individuals. Facing the above issues many of the prisoners end up being homeless and spend way longer time on streets. Need: There is a need for a system that could give information and possible options to these individuals on further steps. These include but not limited to: • Immediate transitional temporary accommodation to stay overnight after the prison release in case no alternative accommodation is available. • Availability of counselors helping on further legal help in keeping up with payroll and job readiness and employment etc. • Proving a list of organizations/non-profits and respective contact points that could provide the further help needed in extended accommodation, training for job readiness and employment. Initial proposal: • An online wiki page providing information of transitional accommodations, list of organizations involved providing job readiness and employment services. • A process in place to be implemented at the prison to give initial briefing and reference to the above wiki page. Conclusion: A person after serving in the prison to complete the punishment for a crime should be entitled to come back to the society to live an independent and normal life. Many times imprisonment leads to impact a person’s life much more than the years served. It’s just not just the social taboo, but people face a lot of legal restrictions to live a normal life again and end up in situations of misery like homelessness. A lot of effort from the city of Houston, local non-profits, and religious organizations goes into supporting the homeless population. Why there is almost no effort or focus been given to stop one of the major sources of the homelessness? There needs to be a process in place to fill this gap, the Project TLAP is aimed towards it.

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A related case that could help in giving more information. LAC_PrintReport.pdf