“I grew up cooking heroine with my dad and shooting my mom up.”
These are the words from a woman who spent over eight years of her life in prison. She was incarcerated at 19 years old. She said that when she was a kid she wanted to be successful but she didn’t’ know how or what it looked like.
Last Saturday, WWISH facilitated another workshop at the Mission Creek Correctional Center for Women, MCCCW. Many of the women we worked with that day are going to be out in months, weeks, and even days. They are going to re-enter the lives they left behind before prison.
According to a recent report from the Justice Department on incarceration in the United States, the average recidivism rate is 67.5 percent.
In December of 2010, the Department of Corrections released a newsletter explaining that $270 million worth of cuts will be implemented over the next three years in Washington State. These cuts include staff, offender rehabilitation programs, and community corrections programs.
Women in prison are a growing population. Since the year 2000 the percentage of women in prison has grown at almost twice the rate of men. Currently there are well over a million women prisoners in the United States and more than 100,000 prisoners are being released each year without any form of community support, despite the fact that post-release services have been shown to reduce recidivism (Women in Prison Project).
The average national cost of incarceration is $43,250, for one inmate (Vera Institute).
Interestingly, in a study by the Pew Center, Michigan’s recidivism rate dropped 18.2 percent between 2004 and 2007. Pew states that this is most likely due to the Michigan Re-entry Program launched in 2005. The program offers housing assistance, job placement and counseling.
Additionally, in a recent article by Karen Bouffard, Detroit News, she highlights Michigan’s success rate, and quotes Russ Marlan, head of the Executive Bureau with the State Department of Corrections.
“We’ve tried to focus on what actually reduces crime and sometimes that’s contrary to what people might think. You might think imposing greater penalties and tougher conditions is what is going to lower crime, (instead) what we have tried to do is be smart on crime and do what we’ve seen work in other states,” said Marlan.
Being smart on crime is reducing the need for crime by making sure that ex-offenders have resources and support when they get out including medications, housing, job assistance, re-training, mentorship programs, counseling and a support system.
What I believe is that children, who grow up without anyone to show him or her what “success” is, continue to do what they know. Behavior is not who they are or who they have the potential to become.
With role models who demonstrate their own sense of empowerment and show pro-active lifestyle choices, former child victims, who are now adults, can learn tools, gain confidence, and change the lifestyle choices they make for the better.
I also believe that it is up to us to ensure that the resources are available to the people who need it. This is not about hand-outs, this is about opportunities so individuals can become successful contributing members of society rather than a threat to society and a $43,250, for one inmate, detriment.
My hope is that WWISH can position itself with the current social service organizations that interact with re-entry women and begin to change statistics one woman at a time.
If you are interested in learning more about WWISH programs, please contact me.
