Camden County Opens Reentry Center To Help Released Inmates Avoid Return to Jail
The center gives housing, job help, and treatment resources for people leaving jail, tackling obstacles that often send them back behind bars.
Camden County officials opened a reentry release center recently. It sits right beside the jail. The center gives housing, job help, and treatment resources for people leaving jail, tackling obstacles that often send them back behind bars.
Lack of ID papers, nowhere to live, and no access to medical care create problems. These gaps push many right back through the jail doors.
"When people return home without identification, without access to treatment, without a place to stay, or someone to help them navigate their way through life's challenges, they're most likely to return back to this facility," said Jonathan Young, a county commissioner.
The center provides housing assistance, job support, ID services, and links to substance use treatment programs. A kitchen sits inside, along with private bathrooms and showers, laundry machines, and common areas where people can gather. Books and artwork decorate the walls.
Sharon Bean manages the jail population. She watches the same faces come back again and again. "You hear from staff all the time, 'Oh, we'll see this person back in two weeks,'" Bean said, according to CBS Philadelphia. "After hearing that as the jail population manager, it's disheartening."
Louis Capelli Jr. directs the county commissioners. He believes many incarcerated people need doctors and counselors, not cells. "Most of the folks who are incarcerated here really are folks who should be patients," Capelli said. "They should be receiving care for substance abuse disorder, care for mental health issues."
Peer specialists work at the center alongside pretrial officers and experts from local groups. They help plan what comes next. Prince Alvarado runs programs at Project Connect and sees how isolation compounds the struggle.
Bean pointed out that many people don't learn they're getting released until that morning. Their family doesn't know either. Release day brings danger for those battling addiction — the risk of relapse and overdose climbs.
About 800 people stay in the jail on any given day. That number has dropped 60% over ten years.
Officials built the center using $450,000 in federal money, converting space where the county ID Program used to operate. Antonne Henshaw founded Transformative Justice Initiative after serving time in jail himself. He said the program can reshape lives for those heading home.
The reentry release center will be running at full capacity March 16.
