“The worst part of the prison experience wasn’t the prison experience at all. It was the feeling of worthlessness when I came home,” she said in that talk. 

The prison met her basic needs, she said in an interview with The News-Journal. 

“Before prison, I was a business analyst making really good money," Jenkins said. "But when I came home, I felt worthless, and society treated me as such.” 

For returning citizens, there’s a sentence after the sentence. On being released from prison, they are expected to go home and — regardless of the odds stacked against them — be more than they were when they went in. When patients are released from the hospital, there’s a treatment plan in place and a prescription for their success. Why do we continue to release individuals into society from prison with no plan? Tanaine Jenkins believes creating viable reentry strategies for our returning citizens is an investment in safer neighborhoods, fewer broken homes, and the power of second chances.

From Imprisoned To Empowered: Four Women’s Journey To Rebuild, Re-identify And Recreate Themselves

Meet Tanaine Jenkins of Everything I Am in Neptune Beach

Tanaine Jenkins is from Jacksonville, and she describes herself as a recidivism strategist & re-entry expert.