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Coming home from jail or prison
For anyone in the United States who is about to be released or just was, and for the people waiting for them. What to do in the first days, how to get your papers and restart benefits, health insurance and treatment, work with a record, a place to stay, probation and parole, voting, clearing a record, and the words to say when you call for help. One thing at a time.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Nowhere to sleep tonight? Call 211 and say you were just released. Free and confidential.
- Used opioids before you went in? Your tolerance is lower now, and the old amount can kill. If someone won’t wake up, call 911. What to do in an overdose.
- On probation or parole? Find out when and where your first check-in is, and be there.
- Too much to bear? Call or text 988, any hour.
More help
- Looking for work with a record? The Fair Chance Job Kit.
- No ID, birth certificate or Social Security card? When your ID is gone.
- Nowhere to stay? When you need a place to stay.
- Hungry today? When you need food.
- A doctor without insurance? When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- Bills, benefits and collectors? When the money runs out.
- A legal problem? When you need a lawyer and can’t pay.
- Wanting to drink or use? Ride the urge.
- An open door for people with records: Join Now at Scarlet Beast.
- Might not have signal? Save our tools on your phone.
- Hit on the head, recently or years ago? After a hit to the head (concussion and brain injury).
- All our free tools and Get help now.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When someone you love is in jail or prison: for the family and friends outside: finding where they are, calls, letters, sending money, visiting, and what to tell the children.
- Taxes: free help, and what to do if you can’t pay: whether you need to file, the credits many people miss, where a return is done for free, and what to do when you owe.
- When drinking or drugs have become a problem: who answers at any hour, the signs, where to start, and kinds of treatment.
- When it’s about child support: a child support order, from either side: where to start, how to ask for a review when your income changes, past-due support, and staying safe.
- When you’re leaving foster care: aging out of foster care: your transition plan, your papers, Medicaid until 26, staying or coming back, housing and money for school.
- Registering and voting: voting: registering with no home address, with a conviction or with a disability, and what to ask your election office.
- Clearing your record: sealing, expungement, pardons, and fixing mistakes: clearing your record: sealing, expungement, pardons, seeing your own record, and fixing a wrong background check.
- Tenant screening: when a background check stands between you and a home: tenant screening: what is in the report, what to ask before you pay, your free copy after a no, and fixing mistakes.
- A bank account: opening one, being turned down, and second chances: a bank account: what to bring to open one, being turned down, your checking account report, second chance accounts, and credit unions.
- Finishing high school as an adult: the GED, the HiSET, free classes, and diploma scams: finishing high school as an adult: which test your state uses, free classes, the GED test and the HiSET exam, accommodations, and the signs of a diploma scam.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from the government’s own pages (the Social Security Administration, HealthCare.gov, the Labor Department’s CareerOneStop, the Federal Trade Commission, Vote.gov, the federal courts, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Bureau of Prisons, the IRS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and USAGov), from the Federal Bonding Program’s site and from the National Reentry Resource Center, and the phone numbers were checked on those pages on October 1, 2026. Social Security’s and Vote.gov’s pages refuse automated checkers, so we read them in a browser. Vote.gov’s state lists carry its own date, March 22, 2024, and may have changed since. Where we could not confirm something, such as what a state charges for an ID after release or what a housing program decides about a record, the page says to ask and does not guess. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a government agency, a court or a reentry program. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].