By Deedee Taylor, AAS, BSW, President & Founder of Taylor Made Re-Entry
Taylor Made Re-Entry is a nonprofit organization that supports justice-impacted individuals and their families as they navigate the challenges of reentry after incarceration. Through advocacy, education, and community engagement, Taylor Made Re-Entry works to reduce barriers, strengthen communities, and create opportunities for successful reintegration.
Taylor Made Re-Entry’s Reentry Simulation is designed to address the often unseen and misunderstood barriers that justice-impacted individuals face when returning home from incarceration. While many people believe release from incarceration marks the end of the struggle, the reality is that reentry can be one of the most difficult transitions a person will ever experience. Individuals are expected to secure housing, employment, transportation, identification, healthcare, mental health support, and reconnect with family—all while navigating supervision requirements, stigma, trauma, and limited resources. Our simulation brings those realities to life in a powerful and unforgettable way.
This work is deeply personal to us at Taylor Made Re-Entry. Our organization was founded through lived experience, loss, advocacy, and years of direct work alongside justice-impacted individuals and families. We have witnessed firsthand how systems can unintentionally create additional barriers for people trying to rebuild their lives. Through this simulation, we aim to bridge the gap between policy, perception, and lived experience by creating an opportunity for participants to walk in the shoes of someone returning home.
Experiential learning is critical because reading statistics or hearing presentations alone often cannot fully capture the emotional, mental, and logistical weight of reentry. The simulation allows participants to actively experience the stress, confusion, pressure, and difficult decision-making that justice-impacted individuals encounter daily. Participants leave not only better informed, but also emotionally connected to the realities of reentry in a way traditional training rarely achieves.
During the simulation, participants are assigned identities and real-life scenarios based on common reentry experiences. They may take on the role of a parent attempting to regain custody of a child, an individual trying to secure employment with a criminal background, or someone navigating probation requirements while struggling to find stable housing. Participants move through different stations representing systems such as probation, housing agencies, employers, transportation, social services, healthcare, and community support. Many simulations also include immersive elements such as a solitary confinement exhibit to help participants better understand the long-term psychological impacts of incarceration and isolation.
What makes the experience so impactful is how quickly participants begin to feel overwhelmed by the barriers placed in front of them. Common reactions include frustration, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and disbelief at how difficult even basic tasks become when resources are limited or systems are disconnected. Participants often experience “aha” moments when they realize how one missed bus ride, delayed identification card, denied housing application, or probation appointment can create a domino effect that destabilizes someone’s entire reentry process.
One of the most powerful outcomes of the simulation is the shift in understanding around systemic barriers. Participants begin to recognize that many individuals returning home are not failing because they lack motivation, but because they are navigating systems that are often difficult to access, fragmented, or not designed with trauma-informed support in mind. The simulation challenges stereotypes and creates meaningful conversations around accountability, compassion, policy reform, and community responsibility.
We have facilitated reentry simulations across multiple counties and communities throughout Michigan, bringing together law enforcement, judges, service providers, educators, corrections professionals, students, community members, and local leaders. Feedback consistently highlights how transformative the experience is. Counties have shared that the simulations improved cross-system collaboration, strengthened empathy among professionals, and encouraged agencies to reevaluate how services are delivered to justice-impacted individuals. Participants frequently express that the simulation changed how they view incarceration, public safety, and second chances.
This work matters now more than ever. Communities across the country continue to face challenges related to recidivism, housing instability, workforce shortages, mental health, and strained relationships between systems and the people they serve. Reentry impacts not only individuals returning home, but families, neighborhoods, employers, and public safety as a whole. Meaningful engagement and education are necessary to create sustainable solutions. Reentry simulations provide a unique opportunity for communities to move beyond conversation and into understanding, collaboration, and action.
At Taylor Made Re-Entry, we believe that education creates empathy, empathy creates action, and action creates change. Through our Reentry Simulation Training, we are helping communities better understand the realities of reentry while building stronger pathways toward healing, stability, and successful reintegration.
