I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4202 
To encourage successful re-entry of incarcerated persons into the community 
after release, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 2, 2005 
Mr. CONYERS (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. RANGEL, and Ms. 
JACKSON-LEE of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees 
on Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, Ways and 
Means, Financial Services, and Agriculture, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To encourage successful re-entry of incarcerated persons into 
the community after release, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Re-Entry Enhancement Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings.
TITLE I—GRANTS TO ENCOURAGE SUCCESSFUL PRISONER RE- 
ENTRY 
Sec. 101. Reauthorization of adult and juvenile offender State and local re- 
entry demonstration projects. 
Sec. 102. Improved re-entry procedures for Federal prisoners. 
Sec. 103. Task force on Federal programs and activities relating to reentry of 
offenders. 
Sec. 104. Offender re-entry research. 
Sec. 105. Use of violent offender truth-in-sentencing Grant funding for dem-
onstration project activities. 
Sec. 106. State and local reentry courts. 
Sec. 107. Federal Enhanced In-Prison Vocational Assessment and Training 
Demonstration Project. 
TITLE II—REMOVING BARRIERS TO RE-ENTRY 
Sec. 201. Right to vote in Federal elections for nonincarcerated ex-offenders. 
Sec. 202. Prohibition on unwarranted employment discrimination. 
Sec. 203. Increase in Federal work opportunity tax credit. 
Sec. 204. Reform of student financial assistance. 
Sec. 205. Reform of ‘‘one strike’’ mandatory eviction. 
Sec. 206. Amendment to the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act to re-
move restriction on amount of funds available for corrections 
education programs. 
Sec. 207. Clarification of authority to place prisoner in community corrections. 
Sec. 208. Denial of TANF and food stamps for felony conviction for welfare 
fraud. 
Sec. 209. Reform of provisions that limit family reunification after prison. 
Sec. 210. State medicaid plan requirement to ensure restoration of coverage for 
eligible individuals upon release from confinement. 
Sec. 211. Reform of supervised release. 
Sec. 212. Grants to study parole violations and revocations. 
Sec. 213. Residential substance abuse treatment programs. 
Sec. 214. Family treatment alternatives to incarceration. 
Sec. 215. Prison-based treatment for female offenders. 
Sec. 216. Aftercare treatment for female offenders with minor children. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Over 2,000,000 prisoners are now held in 
Federal and State prisons and local jails. Nearly 
925,000 Americans are convicted of felony offenses 
in the Nation’s courts each year, and some 600,000 
are incarcerated as a result. Over 5,600,000 Amer-
ican adults have spent time in a State or Federal
prison. If incarceration rates remain unchanged, 6.6 
percent of Americans born in 2001 will go to prison 
at some time during their lifetime. A total of 
6,700,000 Americans were under some form of 
criminal justice supervision by the end of 2002. Over 
4,700,000 adult men and women were under Fed-
eral, State, or local probation or parole by the end 
of 2002. Over 650,000 people a year return to their 
communities following a prison or jail sentence. 
(2) The successful reintegration of former pris-
oners is one of the most formidable challenges facing 
society today. The transition from prison life is in-
herently difficult, and especially so for individuals 
who have served a lengthy sentence and received lit-
tle preparation for life in law-abiding society. A 
former prisoner may find it difficult to find employ-
ment, housing, health care, and public assistance. 
He or she may be cut off from his or her family and 
community. 
(3) As a result of these challenges, nearly two- 
thirds of released State prisoners are expected to be 
re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor 
within 3 years after release. Such high recidivism 
rates can be averted through improved prisoner re- 
entry efforts.
(4) In recent years, a number of States and 
local governments have begun to establish improved 
systems for reintegrating former prisoners. Under 
such systems, corrections officials begin to plan for 
a prisoner’s release while he or she is incarcerated 
and provide a transition to needed services in the 
community. 
(5) Successful re-entry protects those who 
might otherwise be crime victims. It also improves 
the likelihood that individuals released from prison 
or juvenile detention facilities can pay fines, fees, 
restitution, and family support. 
(6) According to the Bureau of Justice Statis-
tics, expenditures on corrections alone increased 
from $9,000,000,000 in 1982 to $44,000,000,000 in 
1997. These figures do not include the cost of arrest 
and prosecution, nor do they take into account the 
cost to victims. 
(7) Incarceration results in profound collateral 
consequences including, but not limited to, barriers 
to housing, public assistance, family reunification, 
employment, and voting rights, which results in pub-
lic health risks, homelessness, unemployment, and 
disenfranchisement. All of these negative outcomes 
contribute to increased recidivism.
(8) The high prevalence of infectious disease, 
substance abuse, and mental health disorders that 
has been found in incarcerated populations demands 
that a recovery model of treatment should be used 
for handling the more than two-thirds of all offend-
ers with such needs. 
(9) One of the most significant costs of prisoner 
re-entry is the impact on children, the weakened ties 
among family members, and destabilized commu-
nities. The long-term generational effects of a social 
structure in which imprisonment is the norm and 
law-abiding role models are absent are difficult to 
measure but undoubtedly exist. 
(10) According to the 2001 national data from 
the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 3,500,000 parents 
were supervised by the correctional system. Prior to 
incarceration, 64 percent of female prisoners and 44 
percent of male prisoners in State facilities lived 
with their children. 
(11) Between 1991 and 1999, the number of 
children with a parent in a Federal or State correc-
tional facility increased by more than 100 percent, 
from 
approximately 
900,000 
to 
approximately 
2,000,000. According to the Bureau of Prisons, 
there is evidence to suggest that inmates who are