Support Our Work to Rebuild Lives After Wrongful Incarceration

Since our inception in 1992, the Innocence Project has used DNA and other scientific advancements to prove innocence. To date, we have freed or exonerated 250 people, including eight people in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma in the last year. Collectively, they spent nearly 4,000 years wrongly incarcerated.

Following our clients’ freedom,
our dedicated social work team provides holistic re-entry support, working closely with them to ensure they have safe and comfortable housing, access to healthcare, and meaningful employment opportunities as they adjust to life post-release. Currently, we assist more than 20 freed clients and their families.

Our social work team focuses on several critical areas to support and guide our clients in their first year of freedom and beyond.

Basic necessities: Upon their release from prison, many of our clients lack the financial resources to afford basic necessities, including clothes, personal hygiene products, cell phones, and more. With the support of our generous donors, we step in to cover those needs.

Housing: Upon their release, our clients face a range of living situations. They either return to their family homes, are barred from returning home because of rules related to their case, have no home to return to due to the loss of remaining family members during their incarceration, or prefer to live on their own. As a result, we work closely with them to find and/or pay for their housing during their first year of release.

Mental health services: For newly released clients, the trauma of wrongful incarceration can have a lasting, damaging impact. We run in-person and virtual support groups and work to ensure that our clients have dependable access to outside mental health services. Our social work team helps clients find local mental health professionals and covers the co-pays to ensure cost is never a barrier to care.

Medical and dental needs: Many of our clients received poor medical or dental care during their incarceration, leading to lingering health issues. Upon release, they need immediate screenings and necessary prescriptions. While most clients often enroll in Medicaid, the process can take some time. During this period, we step in to support medical and dental costs.
Support from the Benevity community will be a significant lifeline for our freed clients, who are often released without the basic resources or necessary compensation they need to rebuild their lives. Please note that all funds raised on Benevity will go directly to the Innocence Project’s general operating support to ensure our work in all our areas continues.