Category Archives: Reentry & Community

Writing on returning from prison or jail, family and community reintegration, reentry services, transition, support networks, and the conditions that shape successful return.

Leadership Mini-Series: Joseph, Ethics, and Leading with Conviction – Transforming Lives

Posted on December 7, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

From Prison to Purpose: Leading with Conviction Joseph in Prison in Egypt and his remarkable story of return mirror that of modern “leaders with conviction”—formerly incarcerated leaders who transform their lived experience into advocacy and change. In the last 20 … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Research & Lived Expertise, Justice Chronicles, Leadership, Reentry, Reentry & Community | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On the Brink

Posted on March 24, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Justice in America seems to almost always be on the brink of being realized.  More accurately, what we think of as justice. . . . Justice, sometimes, intersects with poetry. At the crossroads of justice and poetry, I met Kathy … Continue reading →

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Redlining, Reentry, and the Nonprofit Game

Posted on April 28, 2017 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The past twenty years I have worked in the nonprofit sector which, if it wasn’t a business entity, would provide a classic illustration of a misnomer, because many entities and people profit in this sector, some much more than others. … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Reentry, Reentry & Community | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Being Bernard Kerik…after Prison

Posted on April 19, 2015 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

This morning, on 77 WABC Talk Radio, Rita Cosby — @RitaCosby — interviewed Bernard Kerik, former, corrupt Correction and Police Commissioner of Gotham who, after a bit in the darkness of prison, has come to see the light about our … Continue reading →

Posted in Commissioner Broken Windows, NYPD, Parole, Reentry, Reentry & Community, remorse | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Justice Imperative” — The Key to Criminal Justice Reform

Posted on January 24, 2015 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream, is a book about the criminal justice and corrections system in Connecticut, but it is also a book about the criminal justice and corrections systems in the country, by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Research & Lived Expertise, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Life Sentences, parole board, Reentry, Reentry & Community | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prison Stargate

Posted on October 5, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

A number of years ago I was on a panel. Jan Agostaro, a fellow poet, was also on this panel. We were doing a poetry reading of poems from prison when the subject of Reentry came up. Jan described the … Continue reading →

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Reentry is an Odyssey

Posted on June 10, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Odyssey, the epic poem by Homer and the second oldest extant work of Western literature, is a reentry story. It is a story about returning, of trying to get home, of how hard it is to return, of how … Continue reading →

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Reentry is about relationships

Posted on January 21, 2012 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In the last 15 years, “reentry” has become a buzzword in the criminal justice world. Reentry, however, has existed as long as we have had prisons and jails. Reentry is simply the point where people are released from prisons and … Continue reading →

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