Trone Visits Maryland Residential Reentry Center to Discuss Second Chance Task Force Initiatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2023
Contact: Sloane Gallagher, Sloane.Gallagher@mail.house.gov
Trone Visits Maryland Residential Reentry Center to Discuss Second Chance Task Force Initiatives
Congressmen David Trone (D-MD) and John Rutherford (R-FL) pose with VOA Chesapeake staff
BALTIMORE, MD – Yesterday, Congressman David Trone (D-MD), co-founder and co-chair of the Second Chance Task Force, visited the Volunteers of America (VOA) Chesapeake Baltimore Residential Reentry Center with fellow co-chair and co-founder, Congressman John Rutherford (R-FL). During the tour, Trone discussed his efforts in Congress to improve reentry outcomes for returning citizens by working to provide them with better job opportunities, housing, and health care.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) contracts with residential reentry centers (RRCs), also known as halfway houses, to provide assistance to inmates who are nearing release. RRCs provide a safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement, financial management assistance, and other programs and services.
With over 600,000 people released from prisons across the country every year, and just over 7,000 housed in RRCs before release, it can prove incredibly difficult for justice-impacted individuals to access the resources needed to successfully reenter society, especially when it comes to health care. In fact, studies have shown that individuals released from incarceration are 129 times more likely to die of a drug overdose during the first two weeks after release. In response, Trone helped introduce the Reentry Act to restore access to health care, including addiction and mental health treatment, through Medicaid for incarcerated individuals up to 30 days before their release.
“I’d like to thank the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Volunteers of America for inviting us to tour Baltimore’s Residential Reentry Center and learn more about how we can help them provide top-notch rehabilitation services,” said Congressman David Trone. “With high rates of mental illness and substance use disorder among this community, it’s important that we provide them with all the resources needed to successfully transition out of prison. Ensuring that these basic needs are met and helping them find jobs is the key to lowering our nation’s recidivism rate and setting these folks up for success.”
To learn more about Trone’s visit, click here.
Congressman David Trone was elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018 to serve the 6th District of Maryland, which includes all or part of Montgomery, Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties. Trone serves on the Appropriations, Budget, and Joint Economic Committees in the 118th Congress. In Congress, Trone is fighting to make progress on issues that matter to Marylanders.
Follow Congressman Trone at @RepDavidTrone for updates on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
