Join us tonight for Coffee and Connections! Recovery - especially around the New Year - can be a challenging journey, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. Coffee and Connections is a peer-led space for returning citizens to share experiences, support one another, and build community. Join us from 5:30 to 6:30 tonight—let’s grow together! #reentry #reentrymatters
1 day ago
SAVE THE DATE! We are excited to host our third annual Art from the Inside Out event. This free art show is open to the public and will showcase the incredible artistry of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. On Friday February 7 at 6 pm, IO will hold a reception, where some of the artists will be present to share their work.
Art from the Inside Out is meant to celebrate the talent and hard work of these artists as well as promote public awareness of the humanity and resilience of incarcerated people.
The art will be available for public viewing from Feb 7-15 at Public Space One (538 S Gilbert, Iowa City, IA) #reentrymatters #reentry #incarceratedart
3 days ago
With the end of year just days away, we reflect on how important it is to build community- a goal of Inside Out from the very beginning. We provide safe space for members to share their experiences and grow together. Our Resource Center, our peer support groups, the Reentry House, and other social events allow us to do just that. It's not too late to help us continue to be a beacon of hope for so many in Johnson County. Help us support returning citizens by donating today! #reentry #reentrymatters #donate
4 days ago
Last week, we hosted our quarterly Game Night at One Ancient Hope Presbyterian Church. It was filled with delicious food donated by volunteers, fast-paced bingo, challenging trivia questions, and exciting prizes. Thank you to everyone who joined and made it a night to remember! 🎉 #reentry #reentrymatters
5 days ago
Wishing everyone happy holidays - sharing highlights from 2024. We couldn’t have done it without you! #reentrymatters #reentry #happyholidays #gratitude
6 days ago
Every year Inside Out's staff, volunteers and members sign and mail holiday letters and cards to our incarcerated members. This year we sent out over 70 messages to individuals in jail and prison! Happy holidays to everyone, and especially those separated from their loved ones this holiday season. #reentry #reentrymatters #incarceration #justicereform
1 week ago
Last Updated: August 17, 2020 by InsideOut Editor
Facility helps former inmates get back on their feet
[Source: “Facility helps former inmates get back on their feet,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, 4 April 2016, by Dick Hakes]
One year after opening its resource center at First Baptist Church in Iowa City, the Inside Out Reentry Community serving formerly incarcerated people living in Johnson County is gaining ground.
Inside Out hired its first paid director, Mike Cervantes, in January and secured legal 501(c)3 nonprofit status last month. It is serving 15 participants at present, has a core volunteer support group of 30 and its drop-in resource center bustles with positive activity. Read More
Last Updated: October 27, 2015 by InsideOut Editor
Criminal Justice Reform Discussion Group
Inside Out will continue our community discussions on Criminal Justice Reform with a DVD series — beginning this Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7:00 at First Baptist (500 N. Clinton; in the basement community room). We’ll watch the 2009 PBS documentary “The Released” that shows how several returning citizens with mental illness handle their return to the community after incarceration. About 1/3 of people in U.S. prisons have a serious, chronic mental illness.
Last Updated: October 27, 2015 by InsideOut Editor
Just Mercy Reading Group
We’ve had 2 great discussions on the first half of Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy so far and will have 2 more meetings to discuss the last half — on Thursdays, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, at 7:00 p.m. We meet in the basement of First Baptist Church, 500 N. Clinton, where the IO center is located upstairs. We hear from folks who have been on the “inside”, discuss local and national issues of racial disparity in the justice system, and more. Join us for this important conversation! We’ll also host a discussion — with pizza! — one half-hour following the end of Stevenson’s talk at IMU on Oct. 4.
Last Updated: August 17, 2020 by InsideOut Editor
Just Mercy Book Group
Inside Out Reentry will participate in Iowa City’s One Community, One Book program as part of its work for criminal justice education and reform. Inside Out invites the public to join in a discussion group on Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy on four Thursdays at 7:00 p.m., Sept. 10 – Oct. 1, prior to Stevenson’s talk at the Iowa Memorial Union on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 2:00 p.m. Read More
Last Updated: October 27, 2015 by InsideOut Editor
Bryan Stevenson Talk on Just Mercy
The UI Center for Human Rights, UNESCO City of Literature/Iowa City Book Festival and Geneva Lecture Series, along with Prairie Lights Books are bringing Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, to the IMU on October 4 to give a lecture.
Bryan Stevenson is an attorney in Montgomery, Alabama who started a nonprofit group, the Equal Justice Initiative, http://www.eji.org, soon after finishing law school. This organization works with death penalty cases, race and poverty issues, children in prison, and mass incarceration. Just Mercy is primarily the story of Walter McMillian who was put on death row for a crime he did not commit and the six year effort by Bryan and others to eventually prove that he was unjustly accused and imprisoned.
Inside Out will be collaborating to hold book discussions open to the public – it’s in the works!
http://events.uiowa.edu/event/bryan-stevenson#.VbpkdrXd1kE
Last Updated: August 17, 2020 by InsideOut Editor
AmeriCorps staffs effort help offenders rebuild key community ties
[Source: “AmeriCorps staffs effort help offenders rebuild key community ties,” The Gazette, 31 March 2014, by Steve Gravelle]
Each One Reach One connects offenders with volunteers who can help them find work
Steve Gravelle
MARCH 31, 2014 | 11:13 PM
Next to family, corrections officials say a relationship with community is key to preventing an offender’s return to jail or prison. But building or rebuilding that connection can be difficult when one hasn’t been part of the community for months or years.
“We’re trying to fill that hole,” said Nellie O’Mara-Morrissey, restorative justice community coordinator for the Each One Reach One program. Read More