By Sam Cohen ’26, Lawrence University
“When I got home, it felt like I was able to live again,” Nishawn, a 21-year-old from a predominantly Black neighborhood in Chicago, said when describing his release from Cook County Jail.
“I could take a shower when I wanted to. I could eat when I wanted to. I didn’t have to ration food or look over my back.”
His words show the relief that can come with leaving jail, but they also point to a more complicated reality. Reentry is often described as a fresh start, yet for many people it is the beginning of another difficult struggle.
Returning home after incarceration does not simply mean regaining freedom. It often means trying to rebuild stability while facing housing problems, transportation barriers, limited job opportunities, and strained family relationships. These challenges can create serious stress and take a major toll on health.
This story is written for a general public audience interested in understanding how incarceration, community conditions, and structural inequality shape health outcomes for people returning home to Chicago’s South Side.
In this story, the main health issue I highlight is mental health, including chronic stress,
anxiety, depression, and trauma-related symptoms during reentry. However, these effects are not limited to the mind. Chronic stress can also impact the body, showing that reentry is both a psychological and physical health issue.
Chronic stress has been linked to higher rates of conditions such as hypertension, which disproportionately affects Black Americans. Even though this story focuses on mental health, the connection between mental and physical health is central to understanding the full impact of reentry.
This burden does not fall equally across communities. Black Americans are
disproportionately impacted by incarceration in the United States. Nationally, Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of white Americans, and about 1 in 81 Black adults is currently serving time in state prison (The Sentencing Project, 2023).
In Chicago, the disparity is also visible locally: although Black residents make up about 30% of the city’s population, they account for roughly 70–75% of the population in Cook County Jail (Cook County Sheriff’s Office, 2023).
Local reporting in Chicago has also documented the barriers people face after incarceration once they return home. Journalists have described how returning residents on the South Side often struggle to secure stable housing and employment, two factors that strongly influence long-term health and stability after release (Block Club Chicago, 2024).
Because of that, the health effects of reentry should not be understood only as an individual struggle or a criminal justice issue. They should also be understood as a racial health disparity. If Black individuals are more likely to be pushed through systems of incarceration, then they are also more likely to experience the mental and physical consequences of reentry.
The connection between structural conditions and health is central to the South Side Chicago study by Mendenhall and colleagues (2023). In their research on low-income Black mothers living on Chicago’s South Side, the authors found that women who felt trapped in racially segregated neighborhoods with high levels of violence reported higher levels of PTSD and depressive symptoms.
That is one important finding because it shows that mental health is shaped not only by individual experiences, but also by the environments people are forced to navigate. The study makes clear that chronic exposure to unsafe and under-resourced conditions can contribute to serious psychological distress over time.
The study also found that this stress was not just emotional. Mendenhall and colleagues
reported altered glucocorticoid receptor gene regulation among participants, suggesting that chronic stress was affecting biological stress-response systems as well as mental health.
Although the study did not focus specifically on formerly incarcerated individuals, it helps explain why reentry can be so harmful. Many people return to communities shaped by similar conditions, including violence, segregation, and financial insecurity, which can intensify stress rather than relieve it.
One important strength is peer-based support from individuals who have experienced
incarceration themselves. One example of this is Circles of Support, a community-based reentry program that connects people leaving incarceration with trained volunteers who provide guidance, accountability, and emotional support during the transition back into society.
These programs are designed to create structured, relationship-based support systems that help individuals navigate challenges such as housing, employment, and reintegration. Many of the volunteers are formerly incarcerated themselves, which allows them to offer support grounded in shared lived experience rather than judgment.
Lisa Hanneman, a volunteer with Circles of Support, emphasized the importance of this approach, explaining that “the people that are there have lived experience that are their peers”.
This kind of support helps reduce isolation, builds confidence, and provides practical guidance during a highly unstable period. Even after losing formal funding, Circles of Support continues to operate through volunteers and donations, showing how community members step in to sustain support when larger systems fall short.
In my interview with Hanneman, these pressures became much more concrete.
Hanneman described reentry as a period when people are expected to immediately rebuild their lives without having the resources to do so.
As Hanneman explained, “I think, is just trying to adjust from being in prison and now when you’re out, or jail, and then you’re out and you’re expected to do all these things and not maybe have the resources to do it money wise. It’s a lot ofstress. Maybe you cannot get a job because of your type of felony you have. So that just causes a lot of stress on people just coming out of prison”.
This quote captures one of the main points of this story: reentry is not stressful only because people are adjusting to life outside incarceration. It is stressful because they are expected to succeed under conditions that make success far more difficult.
Two of the biggest barriers described in the interview were housing and transportation.
According to Hanneman, “The two biggest barriers is finding a home and having reliable
transportation”.
These challenges are directly tied to health. Without stable housing, it becomes difficult to maintain routines, feel safe, or stay employed. Without reliable transportation, it becomes harder to access work, healthcare, or required appointments. Over time, these barriers contribute to ongoing stress and worsen both mental and physical health outcomes.
Hanneman also described how family relationships can become another source of
emotional strain during reentry. She described the experience of a woman who was not immediately allowed to move back in with her child after prison because her mother wanted
proof that she would not return to her old life.
As Hanneman explained, “Her mom wouldn’t allow her to live with them until she proved being out of prison she wasn’t going to go back to what she was doing. So that’s a lot of stress on her”.
This example shows that reentry is not only about housing, transportation, or employment. It is also about trust, identity, and belonging. Trying to reconnect with family while feeling doubted or held at a distance can make an already unstable time even more emotionally painful.
At the same time, this story should not present Black communities only through hardship. Black communities on Chicago’s South Side have long developed strong networks of care in response to structural barriers, and these strengths play an important role during reentry.
Family support, peer guidance, mutual aid, and relationship-based care can help reduce stress and improve stability. Even when formal systems fall short, these community-based supports provide flexible and trusted forms of assistance that make reentry more manageable.
Circles of Support provides a space where people impacted by incarceration can connect with both emotional and practical support. In one example from my interview, a participant needed transportation to the hospital for an early morning surgery, and Hanneman drove her because public transportation was not available.
This type of direct, relationship-based support reflects a key strength of the program.
Support during reentry is often practical and immediate, whether it is transportation, guidance, or consistent personal connection. These forms of support can significantly reduce stress and help individuals feel less isolated.
Reentry after incarceration should be understood as a health issue, not just a legal or personal challenge. For many Black individuals, the period after release brings chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma-related symptoms, along with physical health effects linked to prolonged stress.
The South Side Chicago study by Mendenhall and colleagues shows how structural conditions shape these outcomes, while my interview with Hanneman illustrates how they unfold in everyday life. Because Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by incarceration, these effects reflect a broader racial health disparity.
At the same time, community strengths such as peer support, mutual aid, and relationship-based care play a critical role in supporting individuals during reentry. Expanding these supports, along with improving access to housing and transportation, is essential to reducing the health risks associated with reentry and improving long-term outcomes.
References
- Block Club Chicago. (2024). Barriers facing formerly incarcerated residents returning to Chicago neighborhoods. Block Club Chicago.
- Hanneman, L. (2026). Personal interview.
- Mendenhall, R., Lee, M. J., Cole, S. W., Morrow, R., Rodriguez-Zas, S. L., Henderson, L., Turi, K. N., & Greenlee, A. (2023). Black mothers in racially segregated neighborhoods embodying structural violence: PTSD and depressive symptoms on the South Side of Chicago. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
- The Sentencing Project. (2023). Report to the United Nations on racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system. The Sentencing Project.
About the Author
Sam Cohen is a student at Lawrence University interested in public health, emergency medicine, surgery, and community-based approaches to improving health outcomes.
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