According to www.prisons.org, "There are 12,000 women on parole with 1,000 bed(openings) available for drug treatment as an alternative to re-incarceration for petty drug use or possession parole violations. Drug treatment could cut recidivism by 80%.Only 20% of parolees are in any kind of program assisting them in any way"
(2010).How can we as the public truthfully say that parolees can make a change if they try,but the communities we live in lack the services to help them succesfully reintegrate into the communities we live in?
According to the article, "Supervision Strategies and Approaches for Female Parolees" there are important needs that female parolees are just not receiving. One might remark: Well why should these people who have violated the law get special treatment? Female parolees face special issues upon release. Heilbrum,DeMatteo,Fretz,Erickson,Gerardi,&Halper(2006) note that,"Research on the female parolee population is important to gain insight into the needs of this population and the availability of genderresponsive approaches for addressing these needs"(p.451).A study was conducted of 452 female parolees. Some important topics covered included:housing transition, family reunification,education & job programs,substance abuse & treatment. What I found most interesting about the article was that how ,"Becoming financially self-sufficient is a critical need for female offenders. Without needed education and job skills programming, female parolees are at an increased risk of recidivating while under community supervision".It is hard enough being a single parent or not having enough income to support your family, however it would be much more stressful with the criminal record attached to the woman trying to support her family which would make it so much more harderd to find meaningful employment to support a family in these hard economic times.So ultimately for female parolees to be succesful in their reentry into the community they need some kind of support factor, such as family and friends to help them, mostly for that emotional component.
Women reentering the community after being incarcerated face a number of issues which can include: Heilbrum,DeMatteo,Fretz,Erickson,Gerardi & Halper(2006)suggest that,"reestablishing a home and family life, including regaining legal and physical custody of children; finding affordable housing and meeting other basic needs; securing employment that pays a sufficient income; creating a new social network that may or may not include intimate relationships; fulfilling the multiple conditions of a parole plan, (including continued sobriety, if not recovery, from alcohol or drug addiction); and finally, negotiating the stigmatized perception of women ex-prisoners by the general public-potential employers, landlords, and community members".
First of all just having a criminal record in general makes finding employment so much harder for a women who has been previously incarcerated. But finding employment that would actually allow her to support her family, without the need of social services is extremely hard without the proper education, or skills to obtain promising employment And to make matters even more difficult, the maximum amount of years an individual can receive social services such as welfare in California for example is 5 years. So the temptation to make money illegally to provide for a family is realistic, if there is no other way to support a family.Before being incarcerated there are a large percentage of women who were the sole providers of their families.So as a result of their absense from their families, both the emotional and the financial factors dissapear as well. The readjustment for the women, from prison to their families can be difficult at first, however with the proper mentoring, and resources it can be a much more easier transition, providing the mother and her family has support.
In the article, "Criminal Recidivism of Female Offenders: The Importance of Structured, Community Based Aftercare" Two groups of female parolees were interviewed (one consisted of 176 females, the other, 241 all paroled in New Jersey.The first group received a,"structured, gender specific assessment and treatment program" and the second group only had the ususal conditions of parole. After being reviewed for six months the first group had a re arrest rate of 6% while the group that did not receive the strustured aftercare had a rearrest precent of 12%These results indicate the importance of gender specific treatment for women parolees. Women face issues on parole that are specifically different than those of male parolees, and if they are not receiving the proper treatment their chance of making it in society after incarceration are very difficult.
"Most women on parole meet with their parole officer for only 15 minutes per month. Over 70% of those on parole will return to prison, and two-thirds of those returning will return for a technical violation of parole, and 1/3 for committing a new crime"(anewwayoflife.org).I believe it should be very important for people waiting to be paroled to have a set plan. A plan for how they will live their life, and not just "a maybe" or "I think", but a plan on how they will straighten out their lives, and properly reintegrate into society. Since it's so expensive to house inmates in our nations prisons, prisoners should either have the choice of taking part in a program, educational, technical & treatment for their issue or crime, or hard labor. It is as simple as that. It is way too expensive for tax payers to fund prison sentences, however if people are doing their time and at the same time trying to straighten out their lives, in the long run alot of money will be saved on future prison sentences.It is rare when a news story reports a ex offender who has succesfully adjusted their lives after incarceration, however there are many news stories on ex offenders who have re offended committing terrible crimes.
SOURCES:
Heilbrum M.,DeMatteo D.,Fretz R.,Erickson J.,Gerardi D.,& Halper (2008) "Criminal Recidivism of Female Offfenders: The Importance of Structured, Community Based Aftercare" Vol.33:2
D. McShane,Pamela J. Schram, Barbara A. Koons-Witt, Frank P. Williams, III and Marilyn (2006)"Examining the Link Between Unmet Needs and Parolee Outcome
Supervision Strategies and Approaches for Female Parolees:Examining the Link Between Unmet Needs and Parolee Outcome" Crime Delinquency 52; 450
www.prisons.org
www.anewwayoflife.org
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