The state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) needs to strengthen its program for housing recently released individuals to increase the likelihood that they reenter society successfully, according to an audit released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
“This program has an admirable mission to provide access to housing and services to formerly incarcerated individuals. We want people coming out of prison to be able to successfully transition back into society and avoid the instability of homelessness,” DiNapoli said. “I’m encouraged that DOCCS officials agreed with our recommendations to more effectively identity candidates for the program, promote it and improve the living situations for those who participate.”
According to DOCCS, of the 9,883 men and women released from prison in 2024, 4,443 (45%) were undomiciled – lacking a fixed, permanent residence. About half of these (1,954) were temporarily placed in half-way houses, hotels, motels or transitional housing. The remaining 2,489 (56%) were housed in homeless shelters.
DOCCS’ Community Based Residential Programs (CBRPs) help people released from prison access food, shelter and employment counseling, as well as substance abuse treatment, mental health services and other support through community providers. If a person does not have a permanent residence, housing options are provided, including CBRP residential programs. The services are generally limited to 120 days, but can be extended.
As of November 2025, DOCCS had contracts with eight providers operating 12 locations with a total of 149 beds in just nine counties outside of NYC, leaving parolees in the other 53 counties with limited options for CBRP referrals.
DiNapoli’s audit found DOCCS does not provide sufficient oversight of the CBRPs to ensure that incarcerated individuals are aware of the program’s availability and benefits, parolee referrals are made promptly, contract services are delivered, safety concerns are addressed and program outcomes are monitored and reported. A lack of measurable goals, examination of program operations, and evaluation of program results has limited DOCCS’s ability to gauge whether CBRPs are generating the results they were intended to produce.
DOCCS has no formal, consistent process to decide who would most benefit from the program and does not adequately communicate its availability to individuals being released from prison. DOCCS has also done little to dispel misperceptions that the program’s rules, such as curfews, are a continuation of prison.
The audit also found that DOCCS has not taken steps to ensure that CBRPs contract requirements are met. Auditors visited program residences and found health and safety issues including daily meals not being provided, disabled smoke detectors and cleaning chemicals stored in living areas.
DOCCS has not reported on the program’s outcomes since 2022, so there is little understanding of whether it is working outside of the separate parolee discharge reports. In addition, DOCCS’ case management system does not have a way to specifically identify whether someone is enrolled in the program, making it harder to track individual and program outcomes.
In 2024, the nine counties with CBRP sites had the following numbers of unhoused individuals released from prison: Albany (127), Broome (116), Dutchess (58), Erie (199), Nassau (171), Niagara (62), Oneida (85), Schenectady (88), and Suffolk (224). The audit highlighted that other counties have more, like Monroe (238), Onondaga (171), and Westchester (120), but no CBRP locations, leaving parolees with limited options.
In New York City, there were 1,538 released prisoners with no housing. There are no CBRPs in the city, but there is the Edgecombe Residential Transitional Housing pilot that has 76 beds for men and 32 for women to combat the prison-to-shelter pipeline.
The audit made six recommendations to DOCCS, including that it analyze where CBRPs are needed based on, among other factors, the numbers of individuals released from prison without a permanent home and work with potential providers in these areas toward providing more of them with the option of enrolling. It also suggested DOCCS track enrollment, progress and discharges from the program to measure success.
DOCCS agreed with the audit findings and recommendations and said it was taking steps to implement them. Its full response is available in the audit.