California Puts Into Motion Alternative Custody for Incarcerated Moms
Mother of a three-month-old daughter, serving a 54 month sentence for burglary, visits with her daughter. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Arizona program helps inmates' transition out of prison
by Emily Gersema - Sept. 18, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Gwendolyn Blevins knew that when she was freed from her three-year stint in prison that the drugs would be there, but her daughter might not.
When Blevins left Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in early June, she went back to the dilapidated neighborhood near 24th Street and Broadway Road where she had been surrounded by drugs and addicts she counted as friends and family.
The decision to return to the toxic environment that contributed to her addiction could backfire, but the neighborhood was all that Blevins had outside of prison.
Her father and grandmother, both role models to her, were dead.
Her daughter, 11, was growing up in the high-poverty neighborhood without her. The choice was obvious: Go back to be a better mother and get a job.
Temptation has threatened to envelop Blevins.
She said her old drug friends have called her frequently. She has tried to ignore the incessant ringing of their calls. Cravings for PCP and other drugs have gnawed at her.
After living three years without a mother, her daughter seems to hate her.
Blevins, 37, is chipping away at the wall that her daughter built from resentment.
"She doesn't listen to me. She doesn't respect me," Blevins said, gasping as if she were coming up for air, an exhaustive fight to reach the surface.
With drugs, she could float away, numb to the realities of a post-prison life. She is hanging onto the hand of Detra Auzenne, 42, for help.
Auzenne is a success story at Arizona Women's Education and Employment, a downtown Phoenix-based organization that, through mentorship and counseling, supported her efforts to find work, a home and prevent her substance abuse.
Now, it's her turn to be a mentor for Blevins.
"Because of where I'm at today and the support I've gotten from AWEE - it pretty much has made me want to help somebody else," Auzenne said.
With AWEE, Auzenne has a job at a technology business and is repairing her relationship with her children - a life that was previously unfamiliar to her, considering her past.
A cocaine addict and a victim of abuse, Auzenne in her teens spun into a cycle of self-sabotage and self-medication.
She went to prison several times, including three drug-related convictions in the past 10 years, Maricopa County Superior Court records showed. Auzenne's three oldest children, 13 to 24 years old, have been growing up without her help, under her mother's watch.
For months after her release in July 2009, they reminded her of this. Auzenne was not a mother, and certainly was not their mother. Where had she been?
Remembering their anger, Auzenne grabbed Blevins' hand.
"It hurts going through it," Auzenne said.
Mentorship program
Last fall, AWEE received a two-year, $300,000 federal grant to begin working with women before they left prison.
It had a mentorship program before, but this new one is different, said Lisa Armijo Zorita, an AWEE community developer who oversees the program.
Instead of waiting to see the women after their release, "we match people with mentors while they are incarcerated," Armijo said.
Armijo said the pairings are made somewhat intuitively. When she met Blevins, Armijo had a feeling that Auzenne would be the best mentor. The pair exchanged messages before Blevins left prison, and later, they realized they knew each other from their south Phoenix neighborhood.
"You will make it," Auzenne has told her. "You aren't half as bad as I was."
AWEE and three partners involved in the mentorship program - Valle del Sol, the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Catholic Charities - have been meeting every few weeks with women in Perryville prison in Goodyear to prepare them for life after their release.
On a Wednesday afternoon late last month, Armijo introduced herself to a group of 24 women prisoners at Perryville. Each of them was within a few months of her release.
As Armijo talked to them about the AWEE mentorship and counseling programs, the women began to share their anxieties about post-prison life. What about housing? What about credit?
Armijo discussed the steps they will take with AWEE before they leave prison. They can participate in the mentorship program. They'll be paired with a woman who, like them, has been in prison but started to turn her life around.
AWEE also offers guidance on financial issues.
Many of the women have never had a bank account. AWEE can provide counseling, offer tips on jobs or help them get their high-school diploma, Armijo said.
"What if we're afraid to leave?" asked Pamela Gillmore, 43, of Tucson.
Gillmore has been in prison for over two years after she was convicted of selling drugs, Arizona Department of Corrections records show. Gillmore said she had promised to get drugs for a man she later learned was an undercover officer.
Before prison, her marriage had collapsed. She became homeless, an alcoholic and hooked on crack cocaine.
She fears that could happen again with her release in May but has hope that the mentorship program will help her stay sober. She wants to see her daughter and help raise her two grandchildren.
"It's going to be scary. It's going to be different," Gillmore said. "I pray that I'm strong enough to do it."
Threat of return
The risk of recidivism looms.
Researchers found 24.5 percent of 60,754 Arizona inmates released from July 2001 to June 2007 were back in prison within three years on a new felony conviction, according to a study for the Arizona Department of Corrections. Further research on those same former inmates revealed that 42.6 percent of them returned within eight years with a new felony conviction.
Armijo's surveys of the women AWEE has assisted show many have suffered emotional and physical violence, rape, sexual abuse and homelessness. Several had eating disorders, were diagnosed with mental illness and suffered a serious injury or a disease. Many never completed high school, and several have children.
Melissa Lowy was 16 when she was taken to jail on Father's Day 1988. She had no idea when she burglarized her mother's Phoenix home with her boyfriend that she was about to give more than 13 years of her life to a state prison.
"He said we needed to get out of town," Lowy recalled. "We go down to Tucson and he ended up pulling a gun. . . . We ended up in a high-speed chase."
He fired at police, who fired back. "It felt like a dream, a nightmare at the time," she said.
Lowy expects to be released next Feb. 13, the day before her 30th birthday. In her years at Perryville, Lowy has been mending her relationship with her mother and plans to move in with her after her release.
"It's getting harder and harder to see her leave after the visits," Lowy said. "I believed that my mom was going to get me out of this - just like when a kid gets in trouble at school and their parents come by and are like, 'OK. We can get you out of this.' "
She said prison has forced her to become more independent. She has been taking college courses through a program offered by Rio Salado College but is anxious for the imminent job hunt after her release. "We leave here and we already have one strike against us," she said.
"I'm hoping that the AWEE program is going to give me a step-by-step what to expect," Lowy said. "It's something I've been thinking about - only on the level of I want to get out of here. It's overwhelming."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/09/18/20110918arizona-prison-program-women-transition.html#ixzz1YI12FEAt
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Action Committee for Women in Prison
NOVEMBER 2009 REPORT
Share the Joy of Christmas
For the past seven years, The Action Committee for Women in Prison and All Saints Church Episcopal Church have joined together to provide small gift bags for the 2,900 women imprisoned at the California Institution for Women, and the 300 women inmates working in the Fire Camps. These gift bags are the only Christmas gift that women in prison receive. We will also be providing toys for the Christmas Tree at the prison so that the children who come to visit their mothers in prison will receive a gift.
Allowable items are small lotions, soaps, shampoo, conditioners, deodorants, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, lip balm, hair ties and scrunchies, stationery and greeting cards, small packets of coffee, tea, cocoa and candy. Monetary donations will also be accepted. For more information, contact Gloria Killian at (626) 710-7543.
Action Committee for Women in Prison web site: www:acwip.net December 2001, we began a campaign to find pen pals for women serving long terms at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. In 2003, we expanded our project to two more prisons located in central California (Chowchilla) and since then we have added women in two prisons in Texas. As of May 2011, a total of 512 incarcerated women have found a pen pal though this program. Our “outside” pen pals range in age from 21 to their mid 80’s. They live all over the U.S. with 4 from England, 4 from Canada, 1 from Wales; 1 from Sweden; 1 from Croatia, 1 from Amsterdam, 2 in Australia and 2 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates). We hope you will consider joining them! There are currently 80 women in prison on our list who are waiting for a pen pal, plus many other “inside” women who we would like to invite to join this program. Please contact us so YOU can choose YOUR pen pal from our list. (Note: We only accept women as outside pen pals. If you wish, you may use our PO Box for YOUR return address, but that does slow down receipt of letters from your inside pen pal. ) WHAT OUR "OUTSIDE" PEN PALS SAY ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE: "Writing to a woman in prison is a very meaningful act. I believe that both she and I are blessed by our communication, gradually creating a bond which is very precious to both of us. In the midst of her limited life and in the middle of my often frenetic one, our exchange of letters is a small island of caring exploration. Little by little we offer each other pieces of ourselves and our daily lives like tiny windows on another world." "Being a pen pal with a woman in prison has been life changing for both of us. I have begun to research the American prison system. Through my pen pal, I am learning that one person can make a difference.” "We continue to have a lovely relationship. It is almost like Christmas to find her letters in my mail box. She just sent me the paperwork to fill out so that I may go and visit her in person." "This is a phenomenal pursuit of basic love of one's neighbor." “Enriching, provocative, spiritually enlightening, a multitude of positives for us both (I hope!)” “God truly guided me in finding my pen pal. She was not my first choice, but wow! We have commonality already. God will bless our pen pal relationship.” “My pen pal’s simply written letters never cease to inspire me. She has given new meaning to the words: courage, tenacity, and remarkably, faith.” “I am truly enjoying the experience with my pen pal....my heart goes out to the poor inmates, whatever they are in for, a horrible place to be. It's amazing that there are such positive things taking place in an environment with so much negativity. A tribute to the power of the human mind and spirit.” FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Jeanne@pieper.com OR Pen Pal Project P.O. Box 9867 Marina del Rey, CA 90295. ****
Toys for the Children
Please donate unwrapped toys (cash donations and $10 Target gift cards also accepted)
for children of incarcerated mothers!
We are accepting unwrapped toys for the children of incarcerated mothers at the California Institute for Women. After visiting with their mothers for the Christmas holiday, the children will be allowed to select the toy that they want from the toy closet. The children are told the toy is a gift from Mom. ?Often times this may be the only gift the child will receive.
Contact Gloria Killian (626) 710-7543
Pen Pal Project
P.O. Box 9867
Marina del Rey, CA 90295
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From Elizabeth
CIW
16756 Chino Corona Rd
Corona, CA 92880-9508
It is my hope that when this card reaches your hands it will brighten up your day....I know you don't expect this, but I fell the need to write you.
It means so much to know people like you care about people like us. It is very encouraging and hopeful. You and your organization are angels. My pen pal Mary is amazing. I think you again for her. Have a blessed day.
Elizabeth
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MAY 2011 REPORT
The Gloria Killian Greeting Card Project
Women who are serving long sentences often lose family ties and meaningful friendships over the decades that they are incarcerated. The ACWIP PEN PAL PROJECT was actually created because a woman inside committed suicide on Mother’s Day due to her acute loneliness and loss of connection to the outside world. The participant’s in this project take the name and address of an incarcerated woman who is serving, 10 years or more, and commit to sending her a birthday card and a Christmas card every year. This project is now in place at the California Institution for Women, and is being implemented at Valley State Prison for Women in October.
For further information contact Jane at janeburtis@aol.com
College Book Sponsorship Program
2450 N. Lake Avenue
PMB 222
Altadena, CA 91001
emontague@msn.com
College Program at Valley State Prison for Women
Female inmates at Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) in California have the opportunity to take distance learning college courses through Coastline Community College toward their AA degree and through Ohio University toward their Bachelor’s degree. Currently over 200 women participate in this program on a voluntary basis after work.
The college program is administered by Mr. Bobby Thatcher, a teacher employed by the Education Department at VSPW. He manages enrollment, receives and distributes course materials ordered from the college bookstore, proctors tests and sends course work to the college instructors for grading.
Although some women are fortunate to have scholarships, the majority of students must buy the books required for their courses. This cost poses a hardship for many women who do not have family or friends who can afford to support them. College Book Sponsorship Program Page 3
Once a student buys the required books and materials for a course, she is entitled to pull the materials for her next course from the VSPW Education Department’s resource library of textbooks that have been turned in previous semesters by other inmate students. Materials are shared and recycled. However, it becomes necessary for a student to buy new textbooks as she enrolls in courses that are new to the program, as required materials for a course change, or as the resource library of books falls behind the demand. Although students do not have to buy their class materials every semester or for every course, they may be required to make these purchases several times a year.
Inmate Participation in the College Book Sponsorship Program
Inmate college students hear about the program by word of mouth at VSPW and initiate contact through correspondence addressed to a Post Office Box. Once their initial letter is received, they receive a response telling them how the program works. All their correspondence continues to be received through the Post Office Box.
When a student needs to order books and materials for the courses in which she has enrolled for the Fall, Spring or Summer sessions, she sends her book order form to the Post Office Box address. Program volunteers order the course materials on-line through the Coastline Community College book store and they are shipped directly to Mr. Thatcher at VSPW.
- For students who have individual sponsors, program volunteers send a copy of the book order to the sponsor, who then contributes an equivalent tax deductible amount to ACWIP.
- For students who have not been connected to individual sponsors, their required course materials are ordered out of the general fund of contributions that have been targeted for the program through ACWIP.
Students who request mentors are connected to sponsors who would like more direct contact through correspondence with inmate college students. Mentors have the opportunity to support students in a more personal, one-on-one manner by providing encouragement, advice, information and friendship.
Conclusion
Currently the recidivism rate for ex-felons is close to 70% because prison does not prepare inmates for their return to society. Women who voluntarily participate in the college program at VSPW are committed to furthering their education and preparing themselves for successful re-integration back into their families, the work force and society in general. The College Book Sponsorship provides these students with financial support to work toward that goal. Even more important, our support demonstrates that we believe in each student’s ability to succeed. We are investing in their future and in the future of our communities.
Contact Information
Emily Montague (626)296-0125, Cell (626)993-5114
emontague@msn.com
769 Northwestern Drive
Claremont, CA 91711
