Reentry Resource Guide Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Reentry Resource Guide Act directs the Attorney General to create a pilot grant program for States to develop, expand, and maintain digital statewide community resource guides for people returning home after incarceration. The guides must list names and contact information, be sortable by State regions, be downloadable, and cover employment, housing, shelters, food, identification assistance, transportation, relocation, legal services, education, addiction treatment, harm reduction, mental health, medical and dental care, domestic violence shelters, HIV/AIDS services, disability services, senior services, family services, veteran services, youth services, government services, and referral services. State applications must identify resources, guide managers, access points, and prison or returning-population promotion plans. Grants last three years and may fund planning, engagement, operations, translation, staff salaries, and website maintenance.
Who Benefits and How
People returning from incarceration benefit from a single downloadable guide to housing, jobs, food, health care, legal help, transportation, identification assistance, veterans services, disability services, and treatment resources. State reentry agencies benefit from federal grants to build and maintain statewide directories. Community reentry nonprofits, legal services providers, treatment providers, shelters, food pantries, and workforce programs benefit because their services become easier to find. Congress benefits from annual grantee reports and a post-pilot Justice Department evaluation.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Attorney General must design and administer the pilot, review State applications, oversee three-year grants, collect annual reports, and submit a final evaluation to Congress. State grantees must identify resources, collect locations and contact information, assign staff, promote the guide in prisons and among returning populations, maintain digital access, and document outcomes. Service providers may need to keep listings current. Federal taxpayers fund the $8 million annual authorization.
Key Provisions
- Creates a Justice Department pilot grant program for statewide digital reentry resource guides.
- Requires guides to be downloadable, region-sortable, and comprehensive across housing, jobs, health, food, legal, veteran, disability, youth, and referral services.
- Requires State applications to identify resources, guide managers, access points, and promotion plans.
- Allows funds for planning, outreach, translation, salaries, operations, implementation, and digital maintenance.
- Authorizes $8 million annually for fiscal years 2027 through 2030 and requires reporting.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Authorizes a Justice Department pilot grant program for States to build downloadable statewide digital reentry resource guides for people returning from incarceration and authorizes $8 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2030.
Key Policy Areas
Criminal Justice, Social Services, Technology
Primary Purpose
Authorizes a Justice Department pilot grant program for States to build downloadable statewide digital reentry resource guides for people returning from incarceration and authorizes $8 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2030.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- People returning from incarceration
- State reentry agencies
- Community reentry nonprofits
- Legal services providers
- Treatment providers
- Congress
Identified Costs
- Attorney General
- State grantees
- Service providers
- Federal taxpayers
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Mr. Cleaver introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Attorney General, Congress, Prison education staff
Positive-direction: Congress
Negative-direction: Attorney General, Prison education staff
State grantees, State reentry agencies
State grantees, State reentry agencies face effects in multiple directions
Legal services providers, Translation service providers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology