Last month, community leaders, landlords, lawyers and curious citizens found themselves scrambling before police officers and representatives from the Florida Department of Corrections, frantically digging through paperwork for identification, waiting in long lines to give blood, racing between churches and grocery stores and even stealing money from one another (monopoly money, that is).
The chaos intentional—and part of Project 180’s Reentry Simulation, an immersive exercise designed to compress the overwhelming first weeks after an individual’s release from prison into a single disorienting hour. Hosted by the Sarasota-based nonprofit, which focuses on helping formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into community life, the exercise assigned participants new identities and limited resources before sending them through a maze of responsibilities, institutions and unexpected setbacks individuals must confront immediately upon reentering society.
The simulation’s effectiveness was written across participants’ faces…