People coming home are asked, almost immediately, to perform gratitude. The performance is exhausting and it is usually a lie. Gratitude may come later. Day one is logistics, shame, and a nervous system that still thinks a door slamming is information.
Do not ask what they did unless they offer. Do not ask if they have learned their lesson. Do not announce that you always knew they would make it. You did not. Neither did they.
Ask if they have eaten. Ask what would make the room easier. Offer a ride to a meeting, a clinic, a parole office, a job that might not call back. Offer without making the offer a test.
If you are angry, you are allowed to be angry. Reentry is not a demand that families erase harm. It is a demand that the living stay in contact with the living. You can say: I am glad you are here. I am not ready to talk about the rest. Both sentences can be true.
Lost Generation is, among other things, a book about the people on the other side of the glass. Read it with that in mind. Then put the book down and send the text you have been delaying.