This article is excerpted from Marta Nelson, Perry Deess, and Charlotte Allen's longer article of the same name published by the Vera Institute of Justice in 1999. The report is an account, issue by issue, of what the authors learned from participants about life in the first thirty days after getting out of prison or jail. Those first days and weeks appear to be critical, with arrest rates for released prisoners highest soon after release and declining over time. The study showed that the first month is not only a period of difficulties but also a period of opportunities to get people started on the path to employment, abstinence from drugs, good family relations, and crime-free living.

One of the people involved in the 1999 Vera Institute of Justice research project The First Month Out—which explored and documented the reality of prisoners' experiences in the days and weeks following release from prison or jail—discusses the ramifications of the report. The author describes everything from the project's personal impact on her, to its positive effects on reentry practices, to the flaws in its design. The First Month Out details where opportunities to connect with family, find work, or enter treatment made a difference to individuals' success. Furthermore, reentry providers and researchers have made the case that providing opportunities, particularly for work, during the reentry period can reduce recidivism. The author concludes that meeting the needs of returning community members is an important piece of a bigger agenda: investing in and growing human capital in the United States.