Corrections Fact Sheet
Volunteers of America’s history serving the incarcerated goes back more than a century.
- Since 1898, Volunteers of America has understood the importance of providing services to former offenders leaving prisons that allow them to successfully re-enter society.
- The organization established its first housing facility – Hope Hall – to provide a temporary home for prisoners returning to the community at large. Located in the Washington Heights area of New York City’s Bronx borough, Hope Hall is regarded as the first halfway house in the United States. The Hope Hall model quickly spread throughout the country, offering prisoners without homes the shelter and support they needed until they could find work.
- Today, Volunteers of America works at the forefront to help serve the more than 650,000 prisoners returning from prison each year. On the state and local level, the organization develops innovative community-based programs that help reduce recidivism, create safer neighborhoods, reduce crime and ensure the successful re-integration of ex-offenders into their home communities.
Volunteers of America continues to be one of the nation’s leading providers of services to incarcerated people.
- Volunteers of America serves more than 16,000 offenders and ex-offenders per day at various program sites.
- Volunteers of America offers programs operated in more than 50 residential re-entry facilities nationwide. These programs are operated through agreements with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System of the U.S. Courts, as well as local states and counties.
- 24 Volunteers of America local offices currently administer correctional services.
- Volunteers of America corrections programs are currently located in Alabama, Alaska, California, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
Volunteers of America correctional programs focus on three primary service areas: Diversion and Pre-Trial Services; Residential Treatment; and Day Reporting Centers.
- Diversion and Pre-Trial Services: Pre-trial defendants in the community, who may otherwise be incarcerated while awaiting trial, receive specialized intensive case management services. Participants are connected with substance abuse and other services.
- Residential Treatment: Women parenting children who are referred by the criminal justice system receive specialized in-patient intensive treatment programs using cognitive behavior approaches, coupled with more traditional 12-step and relapse prevention services. Residential treatment also is provided for sex offenders.
- Day Reporting: Low-risk offenders make amends to the community by serving their sentences or parole in a community center without incurring the high cost of a prison stay. These day reporting centers assess an individuals needs, develop specialized treatment and/or case management plans and emphasize employment and skills training. All offenders are monitored to ensure that they are meeting expectations.