The Health Foundation provided over $2.3 million to Advocates, Inc. for WISR, Wiser Men and Wiser Women to reduce recidivism among men and women who were formerly incarcerated, thereby improving public safety and public health. Key elements in achieving this goal included access to social and health services, housing placement, and employment readiness and job placement.

The Institute for Behavioral Health at Brandeis University evaluated the program and found that immediately after release, 96% of participants secured housing and the remaining 4% were housed within one day of release; 60% remained housed for more than two years. The report also estimated that WISR saved the community more than $375,000, a 59% return on investment based on the cost of incarceration.

Advocacy efforts on behalf of WISR convinced state officials to include reentry programming in the state’s 2018 criminal justice reform legislation. The state allocated $7 million from fiscal years 2019-2021 to pilot reentry services in Worcester and Middlesex counties. What began as a small pilot involving several dozen men scaled up and became a MassHealth benefit.