It’s Thrive DC’s second facility to open this year.

Researchers hope to draw connections between their findings and local data on policing and returning citizens.

The change, supported by criminal justice advocates, will allow more returning citizens to participate in D.C. Superior Court trials.

“For people returning to D.C. from incarceration, it often means coming home to homelessness.”

“It didn’t just give me hope, it didn’t just point me to a job where I could eventually survive, it gave me a goal I know I could maintain and thrive.”

D.C. Council unanimously passed two bills from the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

TightShift Laboring Cooperative became one D.C.’s few worker-owned businesses last year, and the only one comprised of formerly incarcerated individuals and those at risk of entering the criminal justice system.

Only 181 D.C. residents were hired by WMATA in fiscal year 2013.

The D.C. Council is expected to debate a pair of competing bills that would lay out protections for ex-convicts looking for jobs and housing.