The Ride Home Program began as a partnership between the Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law School and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition to provide immediate, intensive, and personalized reentry support to inmates released under reforms to California’s sentencing laws. In 2015, the Program partnered with the White House to expand its services to federal prisoners who received executive clemency from President Obama. In 2016, the Ride Home program was honored as a “Champion of Change” by the Obama White House.

We focus on in-person, intensive, immediate, and practical reentry services—beginning at the prison gates—because the first hours of a released prisoner’s life are the most critical. Newly released prisoners have the highest rate of recidivism. In the first week of release, the mortality rate of released prisoners is more than twelve times that of others of the same age, sex, and race. Drug overdose is the most common cause of death, followed closely by suicide and homicide, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Our experienced reentry counselors and drivers are formerly incarcerated themselves, so they offer newly released prisoners an opportunity to spend time with a peer who’s been through a similar experience and a practical and realistic plan for reentry. Our service includes free, safe, and friendly transportation to an approved residential assistance center that will address the individual’s specific needs (including healthcare and psychiatric services, if necessary). We keep in touch with released prisoners for follow-up counseling and support. Our mission is to counsel returning citizens on how to approach and overcome obstacles ahead, share a first meal, buy fresh clothing and toiletries together, bring them to a safe home, and introduce them to a changed world.

Please note: we cannot accept or return unsolicited mail.

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