09/17/2026
While in Little Rock, Arkansas for the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators - NASHIA 2026 SOS Conference, Melinda and Jodi had the opportunity to spend time inside the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility exploring their intentional reentry efforts and the significant impact they are having after being told that their reentry programming has helped reduce recidivism from 45% to 8%.
Think about that for a minute.
That kind of change doesn’t happen by simply opening the doors and sending someone back into the community. It happens when we recognize that successful reentry requires preparation, connection, support, accountability and a plan for what comes next.
For many of the survivors we serve who are connected to the criminal legal system, reentry can be even more complicated when an acquired brain injury is part of the picture.
The injury may affect memory, impulse control, communication, emotional regulation, decision-making, executive functioning and the ability to navigate complicated systems. Yet those challenges don’t necessarily disappear from the conversation simply because someone is preparing to return home.
Our Beyond the Injury initiative being with Roanoke Sheriff's Office is focused on building a bridge between brain injury services and the systems our survivors are already navigating. It means identifying the injury, but then going beyond that identification to understand what support is needed for someone to successfully move forward. Our hope is to expand this across our service area.
Our time inside Pulaski County reinforced something: reentry is not a single moment. It is a process.
And if we want different outcomes, we have to be willing to invest in that process.
Pulaski County and Roanoke City are showing what can happen when reentry is treated as an intentional part of the work. At Brain Injury Solutions, we are taking that lesson and asking an important question:
What could happen if brain injury was intentionally included in that reentry conversation?
For anyone who wants to see more of what this facility and its approach look like, Pulaski County was featured in the Netflix series Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. Watching it after being there in person gives an entirely different perspective.
