OpenDoors 9 Yards Program

Over the past two years, Rhode Island’s Joint Legislative Commission to Reduce Recidivism in the Female Criminal Justice Population has sought to increase the support to women coming out of the Rhode Island prison and implement a justice reinvestment framework to save correctional funds to pay for these services. Open Doors will use the funding from this proposal to serve 100 women a year with intensive, wraparound, reentry support services. At this scale, Open Doors will be able to make a significant impact on the Rhode Island women’s prison system, which averages only 122 women at a time. Open Doors has been dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated individuals for the last 20 years and has expanded fourfold over the past four years to a staff of 100 individuals. Over the last four years, Open Doors has piloted new programs for women, opening two shelters and two transitional houses that serve justice-involved women. The independent evaluation through Rhode Island College, with a Randomized Controlled Design, will provide an opportunity to prove that the program reduces time spent in prison and could ultimately, if expanded, achieve the goals of the commission and reduce the incarceration of women in Rhode Island. Open Doors will leverage this grant to expand this work to a scale that can achieve a significant reduction in the Rhode Island women’s prison population.