Halfway Houses

AbstractThe United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country, with a prison population that has seen staggering growth in recent decades. Given the social and economic costs of incarceration, residential transitional centers, or “halfway houses” are regarded as an alternative model to prison incarceration. These centers serve as intermediary facilities that attempt to ease the transition from prison back into the community, and aim to circumvent the problems that ex‐offenders often face upon their release. Halfway houses were first popularized in the United States in the early 1920s, with the establishment of facilities known as “Hope Halls” in several southern states. The emphasis in the 1960s on community based corrections brought the halfway house model to widespread popularity. Halfway house programs provide varying degrees of treatment services, skill building, work and educational opportunities, and family and community services to equip individuals with resources for successful community reintegration. Halfway houses fall into two categories: “halfway‐in,” and “halfway‐out.” They tend to be institutional, state‐run establishments targeting juvenile offenders, while halfway‐out programs treat incarcerated individuals who are transferred to the halfway house before entering the community.