Exploring the Reentry Process for Justice-Involved Women in Vermont
Bergner, Michael Chalasani, Sanjna Carp, Alex Dumas, Jenal Gregorek, Sidney Kay, Isabel MacLean, Charles Moran, Kelly Roeder, Nathaniel
Bergner, Michael
Chalasani, Sanjna
Carp, Alex
Dumas, Jenal
Gregorek, Sidney
Kay, Isabel
MacLean, Charles
Moran, Kelly
Roeder, Nathaniel
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Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Abstract
Introduction
Women returning to Vermont communities after incarceration face significant challenges that hinder successful reintegration, including limited access to healthcare, housing, employment, and social support. This quality improvement project aimed to better understand these barriers, with the goal of identifying service gaps and informing future interventions.
Methods
A mixed-methods approach was used, incorporating semi-structured interviews and a parallel review of relevant policy documents and public reports. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling and included both service providers and women with lived reentry experience. Interview data were thematically analyzed using an inductive, semantic, realist framework, as outlined by Braun and Clarke.
Themes
1) Systemic and structural barriers, including lack of access to reentry support and fragmented services, and complex legal and bureaucratic barriers. In Vermont, detained persons do not have access to the same services as those who are sentenced leaving many women, particularly those held pretrial, without access to essential support. While a reentry facility has been proposed, it has not yet been enacted. Reentry barriers are compounded by late-stage planning, inadequate preparation, and poor continuity of care after release.
2) Barriers to basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, identification documents, transportation, healthcare, dental care, childcare.
3) Insufficient trauma-informed mental health and substance use support, with gaps in continuity of care through the reentry process. Poor access to services was especially a problem in rural locations.
4) Inadequate reentry preparation, including education, job training, digital literacy, and development of life skills.
5) Stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion affect reintegration into a community and lower self-esteem and self-advocacy. Both service providers and individuals with lived experience emphasized the importance of a strong social and community support network and spoke positively of their support network once attained. However, formal and peer support systems were inconsistently available and strained by staffing shortages and case overload.
6) Geographic disparities, with rural areas facing greater challenges accessing services
7) Strengths: The wide array of community organizations, individualized reentry teams, legal teams, peer support, and others were highly valued both by professionals and people with lived experience.
Conclusion
Women’s reentry experiences in Vermont are shaped by intersecting systemic, logistical, and social barriers. Addressing these challenges will require coordinated, trauma-informed approaches, policy and systems-level reforms, and infrastructure such as a dedicated reentry facility. These findings provide a foundation for future quality improvement efforts to enhance reentry outcomes for justice-involved women in Vermont.
Supported by HRSA U77 HP03624 and the VT AHEC Scholars Program, focus on Social Determinants of Health
Description
Date
2025-08