 |
Association on Programs for Female Offenders
|
|
APFO BUSINESS MEETING - January 31, 2006 Minutes Pennsylvania Discusses Experiences in Louisiana Troop 1500 Girl Scouts Beyond Bars
|
President’s Message APFO has had a busy year The National Workshop on Adult and Juvenile Female Offenders sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Corrections was an outstanding success. Minnesota stepped in when Virginia was unable to host it with only 6 months to plan and implement it. We had rave reviews that it as the “best one ever.” All the success was due to the outstanding leadership and dedication of APFO members Mary Scully Whitaker and Paula Schaefer. Many thanks to both of them. We sponsored several workshops at the ACA mid-winter meeting. One that generated a lot of interest was one on providing gender responsive medical treatment for adult and juvenile female offenders. It is difficult to help people under stand that men and women are different and need care designed to meet their needs. Judy Anderson and I gave a similar presentation at the health care administrators’ national conference in North Carolina in May. Our discussion of providing gender responsive health care services was well received and I was invited to present this topic again at ACA in Charlotte. If we say it often enough perhaps, everyone will get the message. APFO is involved in several activates at ACA in Charlotte. We will have our business meeting Tuesday from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm in the Providence Ballroom III at the Westin. We will also be sponsoring several workshops at the conference as well as the Saturday leadership training session for women from North Carolina and the Tuesday evening reception. Please check your programs for times and places. Our Secretary Carolyn Adkins is recuperating successfully from back surgery she had this spring but will miss ACA for one of the first times that any of us can remember. We will look forward to seeing her at the next one. Please start making your plans now to attend the next National Workshop on Adult and Juvenile Female Offenders in Phoenix AZ in September 20 Look forward to seeing you at the ACA conference in Charlotte. Please do not forget to renew your membership.
Thanks APFO BUSINESS MEETING - January 31, 2006 Minutes
The meeting was called to order by Joann Morton, President at 7:00 A.M. Welcome to members and introductions followed. The minutes of the previous meeting was accepted as written. The treasure’s report was read. Five hundred dollars was contributed from the conference account to the Katrina Hurricane Fund. The contribution was approved by those present. President Joann Morton described the 11th National Workshop which had been held in Minnesota the previous Fall. The workshop netted $20,000. Five thousand dollars was earmarked for the State Conference for training and staff development. The 12th National Conference will be held in Arizona in 2007. The Women Working in Corrections conference will be in Phoenix, Arizona, September 10-13, 2006. A membership report was given by co-chairs, Marilyn Moses and Charlotte Nesbit. Brochures were distributed. Each member was urged to seek a new member. Policy Review: A revised policy regarding female juvenile offenders and women offenders will be sent the Board of Governors of the American Correctional Association. The Delegate Assembly will consider appropriate nomenclatures regarding female offenders. The last change of this policy was in 1984. APFO members (and others) are invited to send proposed changes to Mary Leftridge Byrd. Workshops to be presented at the August 2006 conference were discussed. APFO is sponsoring several workshops, including: • APFO Gender Responsive Approaches to Transition and Reentry for Women • Home Sweet Home: Reentry for Women Offenders • Family Ties Additional comments: A National Organization of Hispanics in Criminal Justice is sponsoring a training academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mary
Lethridge Byrd, former president of APFO, is now residing in Washington
State.
Respectfully submitted, The 136th Congress of Correction will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina between August 12-17, 2006. The following is a list of meetings, programs and activities at the conference of interest to APFO members. The conference program book will offer a more complete list. APFO Meeting WWIC Meeting AWO - WWIC - AWEC Reception
APFO Gender Responsive Approaches to Transition and Reentry for Women The focus on prisoner reentry provides opportunity to rethink traditional policy and practice and bring together criminal justice, treatment and community stakeholders to improve outcomes for those leaving prison. The National Institute of Corrections has been addressing inmate transition to the community and policy and practice impacting women offenders for many years. More recently NIC integrated and is applying the knowledge gained in each arena in supporting gender responsive approaches to transition and reentry for women offenders. This workshop will present two
examples of systems specifically focused on transition planning beginning
in prison with support continuing into the community. 1:00 - 4:00 P.M. Sunday,
August 13, 2006 Moderator: Judy Anderson,
Warden, Camille Griffin Speakers: - Julie Boehm, Reentry Manager,
Division of Offender Rehabilitative Services, Department of Corrections,
Missouri Sponsor: Association on Programs
for Female Offenders Home Sweet Home: Reentry for Women Offenders Reentry is not only difficult for offenders but requires staff to move beyond traditional criminal justice expectations of maintaining safety, security and monitoring behavior. It also requires a rethinking of traditional policies and practices with a need to promote the offender’s success as a vehicle to achieve public safety. The workshop will incorporate the learning and experiences of two jurisdictions that are applying good transition practices and gender responsive strategies in working with women offenders returning to the community. 11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. Moderator: Maureen Buell, MS, Correctional Program Specialist Speaker: Julie Boehm, Reentry Manager Sponsors: Association on
Programs for Female Offenders Family Ties Evidence shows that the existence of a support system is a critical factor in the successful transitioning of offenders into the community and offers a powerful incentive to change. This workshop discusses ways to begin within a facility, includes statistics that demonstrate the security impacts of a family friendly environment and the collaborations that offer interventions to impact intergenerational incarceration.
8:30 - 10:00 A.M. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Room 207 Convention Center Moderator: Belinda D. Stewart, B .S., Superintendent, Washington Corrections Center for Women, Department of Corrections, Gig Harbor, Washington Speakers: - Douglas 0. Cole, B. A.
Associate Superintendent Community Involvement Program Coordinator - Joenne 0. Harrhy, B. A. Coordinator - Kathleen Z Russell Ph D.,
Assistant Professor Pacific Lutheran University Sponsor: Association on Programs for Female Offenders
Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA): Implications for Girls and Women Involved in the Criminal Justice System 3:30 - 4:30 P.M. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Room 203 A Convention Center Pennsylvania Discusses Experiences in Louisiana Excerpted from Correctional Newsfront Volume XXXI, No 5, 2005 Susan McNaughton Pennsylvania DOC Press Secretary kindly forwarded Correctional Newsfront to Editor Ritter so that APFO members could be aware of the excellent assistance given by DOC workers in Pennsylvania to the Louisiana DOC The following is an excerpt from Newsfront: Hurricane Katrina caused millions of dollars worth of damage to the states of Alabama Mississippi and Louisiana Many citizens in the region lost everything they owned and are now evacuees living in other areas of their states and even in other parts of the country. We all watched this tragedy unfold on television. But what a lot of viewers didn’t get to see on television was how certain public servants continued to work their jobs without modern day technology such as electricity, e-mail, telephones or cell phones. Prison employees, for example who were on duty during the hurricane were the ones left to work long, unending shifts without relief, as their co-workers were stranded or simply couldn’t report to work due to severe personal matters or losses. These employees, particularly those at Louisiana’s Washington State Correctional Institute (SCI), lost most of their homes and personal belongings, complicated by the fact that their families were evacuated. The frustration of working long hours without relief and the constant worry about their own families and possessions took its toll on many dedicated corrections professionals but they continued to serve the public working jobs. After the hurricane Pennsylvania’s Corrections Secretary Dr. Jeffrey A. Beard contacted his counter part in Louisiana Richard Stalder to learn how the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections could assist the Louisiana DOC “We had the resources to help and wanted to do so and we wanted to do so,” said Secretary Beard. What followed was a first-of-its-kind assistance on the part of Pennsylvania. The DOC has been known to respond during times of disaster, but this was the first time such a large scale effort had been undertaken. Under the direction of Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, Secretary Beard worked with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to offer assistance under the Emergency Management Assistance compact (EMAC). Secretary Beard directed state prisons in Pennsylvania to identify employees who would be willing to work in Louisiana prisons. Officers and psychological staff were needed most early or in the process. Each state prison read a call for assistance prior to every shift’s roll call. As a result many employees of all classifications volunteered their assistance, knowing that they would be working in unknown territory and in unforeseen conditions. Once the EMAC paperwork was processed and necessary FEMA approvals were granted Pennsylvania swept into action identifying those employee volunteers who would be sent to assist in Louisiana. On Saturday, September 10th, two weeks after the hurricane, the first group of 27 volunteers was gathered at the department’s Central Office to be briefed on their mission. For two weeks this group of twenty corrections officers and seven psychological staff would work at Washington SCI and other Louisiana DOC facilities. There, the officers would relieve their counterparts to allow them time to take care of their personal losses. The psychological staff would work counseling employees and inmates as they dealt with the traumatic after effects of such a catastrophe. The 27 employees worked 12-hour shifts for two weeks performing a variety of corrections duties. For the first few days there was no electricity, and the heat reached 102 degrees. It was a tough job for anyone, complicated by the difference in prison philosophy and policy. Even so, there was no question what the main mission was — to protect public safety through the secure and safe operation of the prison; and to provide much-needed assistance and emotional support to those who suffered through the hurricane. Inmates Connect With Their Kids At the Women’s Prison in Vandalia, Missouri, offenders have the opportunity to communicate with their children through books on tape. Due to a special program, based on good behavior, and, of course, interest, offenders receive children’s books donated by Story Link volunteers. Offenders then record the story on tape. Story Link volunteers bring the tapes to the prison and mail the completed tapes to the offender’s children. Before mailing the tapes, they volunteers screen them, to prevent possible misuse. Many offenders live considerable distances from their children. The children’s caretakers may not have money or opportunity to visit with the mothers often. Some mothers never have a visit from their children. Needless to say, estrangement takes place over time. Books read by an offender to her child, can bridge the distance gap.
Women Offenders — Going Global
What Works with Women Offenders: Challenging
Stereotypes and Achieving Change It is widely recognized that the number of women serving prison sentences has increased significantly, and is a worldwide phenomena. Justice systems are under increasing pressure to protect the community and punish offenders, while concurrently providing care and rehabilitation. The inherent tension between these goals makes this complex area for practitioners, policy makers, educators and women offenders themselves and their families. This conference will build on the 2005 program which attracted over 150 delegates from 17 countries. The venue will again be the magnificent Monash University Centre in Prato, in the 18th century palace, Palazzo Vaj (just 20 minutes from Florence, in Tuscany, Italy). The conference will aim to address how the profession al who work with and have an interest in, helping women offenders, are bringing about change. It will explore the services and opportunities provided to women offenders to reduce their risk of re-offending and assist them in rebuilding their lives with the support of their community. This forum will again offer considerable opportunity for cross-national dialogue, keynote presentations, and an emphasis on panel and round-table presentations, together with an opportunity for individual paper presentations that address conference themes. Registration information and a call for papers will available in September 2006 from the conference web- site: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/socialwork/conference/ Or you can send your name and address now to katy.symmons @med.monash.edu.au. Makes a request to be placed on the conference mailing list. As soon as the materials become available they will be mailed to you.
American Public Health Association 134th Annual Meeting and Exposition November 4-8, 2006 Boston, MA Over 900 sessions will be presented at this annual conference. Here is a sam pling of presentation titles dealing with female or women offenders: Jail and Prison Health: Female Prisoners and Juveniles Pregnant Prisoners’ Oral Healthcare Experiences at Valley State Prison for Women in California: A Human and Constitutional Rights Issue No Compassion or Forgiveness: Health and Human Rights of Older Women Prisoners Men Can No Longer Guard Women Prisoners Reducing Avoidable and Unfair Differences in the Health Status of Women Prisoners: A Global Participatory Action Research Project Being Old and Doing Time: Functional impairment and Adverse Experiences of Geriatric Female Prisoners Pregnant Women, Imprisonment, and Public Health A Comparison of the Outcomes of Two Interventions with Girls in the Juvenile Justice System Cervical Cancer Screening in a Large Urban Jail: Six- Year Report, 2000-2005 Drug Use, HIV Risk and Criminal Justice Involvement: Ecological Considerations for African-American Women Who Use Crack Cocaine Tobacco-related Health Literacy and Critical Thinking Among incarcerated Individuals (this study involves a comparison between female and male inmates) Troop 1500 Girl Scouts Beyond Bars In 1992 APFO member, Marilyn C. Moses, created and implemented the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program in collaboration with the Girls Scouts of Central Maryland and the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. This year, 14 years later, the pro gram has been successfully replicated across the country and a documentary about one of the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars sites aired nationally on PBS during March—Women’s History Month. The documentary was an hour long and was directed by Ellen Spiro and produced by Karen Bernstein. Ellen Spiro is an internationally recognized filmmaker whose documentaries have been broadcast around the world. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, two Rockefeller Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, First Prize in the USA Film Festival. Golden Gate Award, Prized Pieces Award from the National Black Programming Consortium. Paul Clere Humanitarian Award of Excellence and others. Karen Bernstein has spent the last 20 years in documentary production, notably as Series Producer for PBS’ acclaimed arts and culture biography series. AMERICAN MASTERS, where she received a Primetime Emmy and a Grammy award for documentaries on Ella Fitzgerald and Lou Reed, respectively. Synopsis Their mothers may be convicted thieves, murderers and drug dealers, but the girls of Troop 1500 want to be doctors, social workers and marine biologists. With meetings once a month at Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas, this innovative Girl Scout program brings daughters together with their inmates mothers, offering them a chance to rebuild their broken relation ships. Intimately involved with the troop for several years, the directors took their cameras far beyond meetings to explore the painful context of broken families. Powerful insight comes from interviews shot by the girls themselves, which reveal their conflicted feelings of anger and joy, abandonment and intimacy - as well as the deep influence their mothers still have on the girls. Just in at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
Crimes of Poverty: Economic
Marginalization and the Gender Gap in Crime (from Gender and Crime:
Patterns in Victimization and Offending, p. 115-136, 2006, Karen Heimer
and Candace Kruttschnitt, eds. (NCJ-2 145 16)) Cross-National Survey Designs: Equating the National Violence Against Women Survey and Swiss International Violence Against Women Survey, Veronique Jaquier, et al. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 22, Issue 2, May 2006, pgs. 90-112 (NCJ-214222)
Gender Gap Among Teen Survey Respondents: Why are Boys More Likely to Report a Gun in the Home Than Girls? Philip J. Cook and Susan B. Sorenson, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 22, Iss. 1, March 2006, pgs. 61-76, (NCJ 214471). Resilience of Girls with Incarcerated Mothers: The Impact of Girl Scouts, Darlene Grant, Ph.D., Prevention Researcher, Vol. 13, Iss. 2, April 2006, pgs. 11-14, April 2006) (NCJ2 14046). Impact of Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Young Women Involved or at Risk of Involvement with the Juvenile Justice System, Sara Goodkind, et al. Violence Against Women, Vol. 12, Iss. 5, pgs. 456-477, May 2006 (NCJ 214010). Girls in Gangs: On the Rise in America, Mars Eghigian and Katherine Kirby, Corrections Today, Vol. 68, iss. 2, April 2006, pgs. 48-50, (NCJ 213886). Girls and Drugs: A New Analysis: Recent Trends, Risk Factors and Consequences, February 2006 (NCJ 213627). Girls, Gangs, and Crime: Profile of the Young Female Offender, Lianne Archer and Andrew M. Grascia, Journal of Gang Research. Vol. 13, Iss. 2, Winter 2006, pgs. 37-48 (NCJ 213598). Descriptive Study of Precursors to Sex Offending Among 813 boys and Girls: Antecedent Life Experiences, Barbara K. Schwartz, et al., Victims & Offenders. Vol. 1, Iss. 1, 2006, pgs. 6 1-77 (NCJ2 13550). Preadolescent Conduct Problems in Girls and Boys, Julie Messer, Ph.D., et al, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 45, Iss. 2, February 2006, pgs. 184-19 1 (NCJ 212833). Ongoing research we should know about... Below find two projects funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research which is an Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The first is an evaluation of the Taconic and Bedford Hills prison nurseries and the second examines the parenting experience of mothers post-release. Project Title: Maternal and Child Outcomes of a Prison Nursery Program Grantee: Columbia University Abstract: The broad objectives of this project are to identify and explore the changes in maternal-infant attachment and infant/toddler development as they occur during incarceration on a prison nursery and during the year following release of the infant with and without the mother. The overall goal is to enrich the knowledge base from which prison and community based parenting programs can be developed and tested and to improve the lives of incarcerated women and their children during co detention and following release. The specific aims are: (1) to compare the impact of an invention designed to enhance mother-infant synchrony versus a basic child care intervention on: parent-child interaction, parenting competency, and child development; (2) to measure type of attachment achieved by infants in the prison nursery and maintained during the transition to the community in relation to: the inmate mother’s own attachment and to participation in either intervention; and (3) to identify the impact of raising an infant on the prison nursery on subsequent short-term criminal recidivism of the mother. Inmate participants and their infants are randomly assigned to one of the two interventions. Implementation of each consists of two concurrent strategies: videotaping of mother and baby followed by discussion with a nurse specialist every 3 months and weekly guided use of “Myself and My Baby”, a workshop of mother and baby activities. The content of the post-discussion and the workbook activities differ based on a priori protocols, with the synchrony intervention focused on maternal sensitive response and infant cues, and the child care intervention focused on health. Outcome variables measured include: bi-directional maternal and infant attachment, parent-child interaction, parenting competency, and child development.
Project Title: The Lived Experience of Mothering after Prison Grantee: Boston College Abstract: The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain an understanding of the lived experience of mothering after prison. Although current research has identified the impact of separation on mothers and their children during maternal incarceration, a paucity of knowledge exists regarding the experience of previously incarcerated mothers during reintegration into their mothering role. Nearly two-thirds of women in prison have at least one child under the age of 18, with a reported 71.7 per cent of them having lived with their children before entering prison (Greenfield & Snell, 1999). According to a report from the National Institute of Corrections nearly 85 percent of mothers in prison reported that they planned to live with their children after their release. (Collins & Collins, 1996). An interpretative phenomenological approach will be used to explore the lived experience of mothering during the period of reintegration. The findings from this study contribute to a greater under standing of the experience of mothering after prison. This study will inform public health nurses of the needs of this population and encourage collaboration with correctional institutions and the community-at-large in order to promote successful reentry to the family and community. Dana Blank, Superintendent of Indiana Women’s Prison has been promoted to a new position, Director of Female Programming. Dana serves as Vice President of the Association on Programs for Female Offenders. Dana has been Superintendent of IWP for 15 years and has developed a wonderful facility with excellent programs for women. We wish her well in her new position.
|