FEMALE INMATE FIRE CREWS
In the article, “Inmates doing time on Calif. fire lines” women inmate fire crews are observed in Goleta, California. Female inmates from the Conservation Camp Program, near Santa Barbara have the opportunity to help fight fires. The Conservation Camp Program has both male, and female inmates, with about 350 female inmates participating in this particular program. The inmates “are trained to fight fires and do forestry work on public lands”. “The women do the same work as their male counterparts, and while they're not as strong or fast, they're more precise", said Lt. Angela R. Alexander, supervisor of the Goleta fire crew. He also noted how much cleaner the female fire crew lines were, compared to the men. And in addition, Alexander noted the close knit “buddy systems” the women prisoners have. The only real difference between the inmates, and the non inmate fire crews is that the inmates cannot use the torches used for setting backfires. For the hard work these females inmates do, "they earn a $1 an hour and two days off their sentence for every day worked”. I think that is great that inmates both male, and female can participate in helping put out brush and forest fires. They are being productive with their sentence while helping out society. Even though it is understandable how not every inmate can qualify to participate, the fact that they are effectively using their time controlling and maintaining brush and forest fires is terrific.
PAWS IN PRISON/PATRIOT PAWS
There are two programs involving dogs interacting with inmates, specifically females in a prison environment.Lori Stevens, runs a non profit called Patriot Paws which was founded in 2006. This program takes service dogs, and lets female inmates train them for veterans who are disabled. Patriot Paws runs on donations, however Stevens says, "there is never enough funding”. She also notes, “the hardest part is asking for money”. The training of the dogs start when the puppies are 6-18 months, and according to Stevens, “They are usually Labs because they are smart, eager to learn and friendly” . Stevens has over 20 years of dog training experience, and is a certified dog trainer. The second dog program I will note on is Paws In Prison, which I also posted a video from youtube about the program. Paws in Prison runs out of a Womens Correctional Facility in Lockhart, Texas.This specific program takes homeless dogs, and assigns them to qualified female inmates. For eight weeks, the dogs are then assigned to a primary, and secondary offender trainer. The dogs are basically trained to be socialized, and to receive basic training. This training makes the dogs useful in for a family environment.The female inmates attend classes twice a week with professional dog trainer to help in them with the training process. Once the dogs complete their training during the program,they “graduate” and are” ready for adoption by families found through the local collaborating agencies” Both of these dog prison programs show how beneficial these programs really. These animals provide these women with self esteem,better moods, and even provide social support.
PRISON NURSERIES
According to wpaoline.org(2010), there are only nine states (Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota, Washington, California, and West Virginia)in the U.S. that offer prison nurseries for female inmates with young infants, and children. Four of those prison nursery programs were created within the last five years. As noted in my earlier blog on Female Inmates, the incarcerations rates of females in the past thirty years have risen significantly. So it’s understandable to see the increase in the number of women in entering prison pregnant, and then having the baby while in custody. According to wpaonline.org (2009) prison nurseries programs were being fully operated up until the 1950’s, and by the 1970’s every state prison system except New York had closed their nurseries entirely. So as a result when women would give birth in prison, their babies would instantly taken away from them. Consequently, their babies would be adopted, sent to foster care, or be turned over to a family member to raise.
People opposed to prison nurseries tend to say how a correctional prison setting is not an appropriate place, to raise small children. The environment would hinder the children from properly developing. In addition, the fact that these women have “broken the law” and deserve the consequences, even if that means being separated from her children. Simply these women should not “have the privilege of parenting”.I feel that those arguments could be arguable however, the children of inmates should not suffer at the cost of their mother’s wrongdoing. Instead the children should be able to have a chance at having their mother raise them even if it is in prison.“When adequate resources are available for prison nursery programs, women who participate show lower rates of recidivism, and their children show no adverse affects as a result of their participation”(wpaonline.org)
To be qualified to enroll in a prison nursery program the inmates must not have been convicted of a violent crime, or have a history of any type of child abuse(neglect, physical, or sexual). And the maximum amount of the stay of the children varies among the different nursery programs across the United States. However most of the prison nurseries maximum time allowed is 12-18 months.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT
According to waponline.org(2010), "Women continue to be hard hit by the war on drugs. Between 1997 and 2006, women’s arrests for drug abuse violations rose by 29.9%, while men’s arrests for the same type of crimes rose by 15.7%. Over 200,000 adult women were arrested for drug abuse violations in 2006, an increase of nearly 23% from 2002".I have attempted to show the progress of prison programs for female inmates. However, in reality the availability, and funding for these programs isn’t always possible. Substance abuse is a very serious problem that is affecting both male, and female inmate populations and society as a whole.
In the article, “As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returning”, the issue of California’s state budget affecting prison programs are focused on. “Officials plan to chop $250 million a year from rehabilitation services, more than 40% of what the state now devotes to them and a quarter of the $1 billion it is slicing from its prison system”. It is quite sad what is happening with the budget, 20% of state workers wages were cut, higher education is hiked up, social services/programs are being cut. This is affecting everyone in California in one way or another. However the state needs to think of ways to make the state budget work for everyone. If we cut these prison programs, inmates who will be released at some point in time will not have the resources/training/treatment to help them survive out in the real world. As a result, many parolees will most likely resort to criminal activity to survive. Thois will in turn affect the safety of the public. Specifically, focusing on substance abuse programs, “At eight prisons, substance-abuse programs will close; scaled-down versions will remain at only 12 of the state's 33 lockups and one of its privately run prisons”. With the war on drugs which is also a SES issue, the situtation will in my opinion just get worse as more and more families undergoing loss of employment, and financial hardships with the state of the US economy.
EDUCATION IN PRISON
In the article, “Inmate education is found to lower risk a new arrest” two studies done on inmate...the Dept. of Education conducted a study on female inmates who received education in prison.The study revealed that inmates who receive highschool, and/or college education are less likely to return to prison within three years of their release. In this study more than 3,000 inmates were Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio. According to public official..., “We found that for every dollar you spend on education, you save two dollars by avoiding the cost of re-incarceration”. A second study was conducted only on women, at the New York state maximum-security women's prison, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.According to the study which was conducted by the Open Society Institute, "a philanthropy backed by George Soros, fewer than 8 percent of the former inmates who attended college classes in prison returned to prison after three years, compared with almost 30 percent of the women who had not participated in the college program”. However the funding for these education programs in prisons isn’t always available. “In 1994, when politicians nationwide were trying to show they were tough on crime, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, making people convicted of felonies ineligible for Pell grants, the federal tuition assistance for the poor. Prison education accounted for less than 1 percent of the Pell grant budget”. However now things are changing for the better, “ under the Higher Education Act's Grants for Youthful Offenders program, the federal government has begun providing about $17 million for postsecondary education, mostly vocational, for inmates under 25 with less than five years to serve”.
Prison programs provide inmates with a more productive way of serving their time as well as self esteem, vocational/educational skills, compassion, and social skills.In addition to the inmates benefit, I believe entire prison can benefit with the type of environemnt prison programs promotes within in the prison. Even though funding for prison programs isn't always available, I hope that the public can see just how much these programs benefit everyone. Inmates and the public both benefit....Even though I just talked about five programs, there are many more options out there such as religion based programs,contemplative programs
SOURCES:
Lewen, Tamar,NY Times 2001 Nov. 16,“Inmate Education Is Found To Lower Risk of New Arrest”
Rothfield, Michael Los Angeles Times ,October 17, 2009 “As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returnin” http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/17/local/me-rehab17
Paws In Prison
www.wpaonline.org- A Look at Prison Nurseries May 2009
“Females doing time on Calif. fire lines” 2008 USA Today
Berger , Joseph “Prison Puppies” NY Times, June 1, 2008 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E1D91F39F932A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
http://www.thechowchillanews.com/2010/02/03/20205/prisons-substance-abuse-program.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/mothers-rocking-the-priso_b_108625.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/16/us/inmate-education-is-found-to-lower-risk-of-new-arrest.html?pagewanted=1
Abshire, Richard , June 1, 2009 The Dallas News, “Female felons train Rockwall nonprofit's canine”
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM
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