Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/30780
TULSA WORLD national I REPORTS Program director Mimi Tarrasch receives a group hug from Women in Recovery clients. Get Out of Jail Free—From Drugs C Oklahoma puts nonviolent woman addicts on the road to recovery, not in prison ANDICE WEAVER HAS SPENT about five years in Oklahoma prisons because of her addic- tion to substances—PCP, cocaine and heroin. She went through drug court and sought treatment while in prison, but it wasn’t effective: She always returned to her old habits a few months after release. She’s not alone among women in Oklahoma prisons: Of the 1,393 fe- male offenders the Department of Corrections incarcerated during fis- cal year 2010, 64 percent were as- sessed with a moderate to high need for substance-abuse treatment. Weaver’s most recent arrest was for soliciting prostitution and pos- session of a controlled substance. This time, though, she was sent to Women in Recovery, an intensive, outpatient substance-abuse treat- ment program for Tulsa County women facing prison. Realizing the impact locking women up can have on families, the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation, which focuses on child poverty, started Women in Recovery in June 2009. The women impris- oned in Oklahoma are mothers to an 14 | SPRING 2011 estimated 7,000 children, more than half under age 18. Studies show that children who have parents in prison are more likely to end up locked up at some point, too. Women in Recovery tries to break the cycle of drug and alcohol abuse by treating nonviolent women in lieu of sentencing them to prison. Clients receive substance-abuse treatment, health and dental care, and job sup- port, and they learn parenting and life skills. “If somebody is really going to ded- icate herself to changing just about everything about her life, we need to change her environment, too,” says Mimi Tarrasch, director of Women in Recovery. Since it started, 26 women have graduated from the program, which typically lasts a year. It might seem like a small number, since 315 women from Tulsa County were sent to prison in fiscal 2010, but the founda- tion hopes to reach 100 women this year. It’s no coincidence that Oklahoma put forth this model program: The state has held more women behind bars per capita than any other state for 14 of the past 15 years. For every 100,000 women residents, Oklahoma incarcerates 132—nearly double the national average. In comparison, neighboring states Texas and Kansas incarcerate 92 and 41 women, respec- tively, per 100,000 residents. Oklahoma jails women for crimes many states do not, says Oklahoma County public defender Bob Ravitz. About 67 percent of Oklahoma’s more than 2,700 incarcerated women are in prison for nonviolent crimes, prima- rily drug offenses. Republican House Speaker Kris Steele has made it his mission to re- form the state’s prison system. He au- thored legislation that was signed into law last year by then-Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, requiring the state’s Department of Corrections to create a diversion program similar to Women in Recovery in the state cap- ital, Oklahoma City. It also created a pilot reentry program. Is this, then, an arena where both Republicans and Democrats can work together? “We can be tough on crime and smart on crime at the same time,” Steele says. —KRISTI EATON www.feminist.org