Employment is crucial for people who have a history of justice involvement, according to Annelies Goger, fellow, Brookings Metro.

WorkingNation sat down with Goger at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022 in New Orleans.

Goger says in addition to employment, returning citizens might need access to cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as access to health care, housing, and transportation.

She says educational experiences should be more readily available to people while they are still incarcerated. “I’d really love to see the development of using technologies to make very targeted educational opportunities available. By targeted, I mean it’s taught by someone who has been incarcerated, who has that personal experience – and when they teach, they can be a mentor and speak from experience.”

“They could teach classes for occupations that are accessible for people for when they have a record. You could basically develop that curricula, put it into a learning platform. It could be shared across different facilities much easier. Then you could free up staff time to work more one-on-one with people because people need one-on-one support in that transition.

”Learn more about Brookings Metro.