Women in Transition

Taneka Brown

April 20, 2009

Female Deviance

Women in Transition

Introduction

Women and their involvement in crime is a rising topic in the society today. Women are increasingly committing the more violent crimes that men do, and are therefore getting convicted and receive sentencing like their male counterpart. Recidivism is the tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior, especially relapsing into criminal behavior. Research on prisoner's lives after release focus solely on recidivism ignoring the forces of what directly causes recidivism. Recidivism can be avoided if the prisoners are given the adequate means to be reintegrated and re-socialized into society, and community. There are many organizations that assist released prisoners in reintegration into society, there are programs that provide education, and employment opportunity all while teaching morals and values to re-socialize and reintegrate the inmate back into society. These programs equip the released prisoner with the ability to deal with living in the society. While the topic of women in crime is rising, there are few answers as to why this is happening. Furthermore, there is little evidence of the programs available to the prisoners upon release being expressed in the popular media. Although there is some coverage of these programs, they are not highly talked about. Some newspaper clippings and talk about alternative justice programs in class contribute to my interest in this topic.

Women in Transition

Conducting my research I found a program for women that focused on the reintegration of women into the community. Women in Transition is a program in Massachusetts ran by the government to provide pre-released prisoners with education, employment, health-care, housing, faith; all combining to re-socialize and reintegrate the prisoner into society. The goals of the program is to help women identify the reasons why they went to prison and identify solutions. The Women in Transition program is a pre-release facility open to women offenders, the facility houses twenty-four women and provides services for twelve women on ankle bracelets. There are requirements for women who are chosen to come to the facility, the program targets women who are in prison for two or more years, and there is also an elaborate background check upon admission to the program. The Women in Transition program provides therapeutic counseling services, GED preparation, parenting skills, and domestic violence support groups. Within the program, its services guide the inmate in the direction of finding solutions to why they were incarcerated, and recommend halfway houses, and encourage aftercare treatment. Representatives from the Women in Transition program visited our class and gave us information about what their position was in the program, and how they helped the women who came to the facility. Statistics on the recidivism of women that go through this program is 19.7% recidivate, and 80.3% do not. Clearly this program is helping the majority of pre-released women prisoners successfully re-socialize and reintegrate back into society.

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a criminal justice approach that is based on reconciliation, restoration, healing and rehabilitation. The scholarly article, "Restorative Justice as Social Justice for Victims of Gendered Violence" focused on restorative justice as social justice in terms of marginalized women in prisons that went through physical and sexual abuse and the restorative justice that follows upon their release. Restorative justice can be seen as a positive alternative to the criminal justice process because the strategies of the restorative justice approach are solution-based rather than problem-based. Steps that can be taken by women in transition in this type of reintegration are; realizing what you've done and expressing regret and empathy, learning to be a better caregiver to your children, gain support and guidance, learn to communicate, and attempt to repair the damage that was done. The purpose of the restorative program is to help the offender develop empathy, and regret what they did. Connecting with one's feelings can prepare them for the re-socialization and rehabilitation process. This approach is also appropriate for the needs of women in the fact that it focuses on parenting and helping women learn how to take better care of their