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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.
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.
- All our free tools and Get help now.
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].