Support for women reentering society after incarceration

I am writing because of the recent commentary piece discussing the need for more support for women in reentry in Maryland and Baltimore (“Incarcerated women need mores services to transition back into Maryland society,” Feb. 12).

We couldn’t agree more with your statement “Thanks to a short-sighted decision to close a center for women a decade ago to save money, the only services currently offered to women are found within a unit of the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. Meanwhile, there are five facilities for men. Can’t we have just one solely for women as well?”

PIVOT was founded in 2017 with the goal of filling the gap for the lack of services for women transitioning.

To date, we have supported 32 women and are currently working with a cohort of 10 amazing women who will graduate in March. That being said, there are so many more women we could be helping with additional support, resources and awareness around the issues surrounding women in reentry.

Thank you for bringing to light the needs of the resilient women in reentry to your readers. We would also request that you connect with organizations like ours or the others (Marian House, Maryland Justice Project etc.) when writing articles about this topic so people are aware of the work that actually is being done in the community in hopes that they will join us in our mission. When support is there, change can happen on an individual and community level.

Bridget Nistico

The writer is a Co-Founder of PIVOT.